A century since Dreyfus's wrongful conviction, a family member is promoted in the IDF

Uriel Dreyfus, a Judea and Samaria military court judge related to the famous French military officer Alfred Dreyfus, was recently promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in a ceremony presided over by Military Court of Appeals president Major General Orly Markman.

With this promotion, Uriel has reached the same rank his forefather had achieved in his lifetime, over a century after he was wrongfully convicted of treason and used as an antisemitic scapegoat. 

In a speech, the reservist saw a resonance between the ceremony of his promotion, which was greeted by applause, and the placement of ranks on his epaulets, and the ceremony in France 131 years ago in which Dreyfus was degraded, being jeered with antisemitic slogans with his rank insignia and braid cut.

“In a humiliating ceremony, in front of the crowds, his sword was broken. He was accused of treason he did not commit, simply because he was Jewish. He was sent to Devil’s Island, the place where hope was supposed to die. But he did not break. He continued to cry out his innocence,” the younger Dreyfus said in his speech.

“When I entered the gates of the IDF as a young soldier, I carried this memory with me. I understood that every rank I would receive, every step I would take in the army, would constitute a historical correction. Today, as I receive the rank of lieutenant colonel, I feel that the ranks that were then torn in disgrace are now being proudly sewn anew, on the olive green uniform of the Israel Defense Forces and within the system of belief in the administration of justice in the sovereign Jewish state.”

Words are mightier than bullets, and truth is the supreme commander

Dreyfus had been the subject of a judicial conspiracy and a public smear campaign, in an event that was a seminal experience for the then-journalist and future father of modern political Zionism. The lies that were spread about Dreyfus by his peers were compared by his family member to those spread about the State of Israel in the international arena. Dreyfus and his family eventually overturned the conviction, and in November, France posthumously promoted Captain Dreyfus to brigadier general.

The IDF judge said that while the name “Dreyfus had symbolized antisemitism and injustice for generations, the weight of another historical event, the October 7 Massacre, still loomed over the country and military.

“The last few years have been the hardest in our lives. We have lost friends, subordinates, and commanders. In this pain, we must remember the determination of those who came before us. We will survive and win the battles because we have no other country and no other army.

“Our role in the Courts Unit is sometimes transparent to the public eye, but it constitutes the backbone of Israeli democracy,” Dreyfus said last Tuesday.

“We, my fellow judges and I, defend the place where words are mightier than bullets, and where truth is the supreme commander. This is our professional commitment, and this is our moral mission.”