British man in Israeli army posed in front of burning Gaza school, new film reveals

A British man posed in front of a burning school in Gaza while serving with the Israeli army, an investigation by Declassified UK has revealed. 

A film published by Declassified on Tuesday on YouTube entitled "We Exposed a British-Israeli Who Fought in Gaza" features a photograph of a British citizen it names as Jonathan Burman standing as a soldier in the Israeli military in front of the school in Gaza. 

The film documents Declassified's investigation as the news organisation uncovered the details behind the photo, which it said Burman had originally posted on his private Instagram account. 

Airwars, a transparency watchdog, traced the school to the Bani Suheila town east of Khan Younis in Gaza.

The school was called Madrasa al-Farabi. On 12 December 2023, just over two months into the Gaza genocide, it was reported that Israeli soldiers attacked it. 

In response to Declassified's request for comment, the Israeli military sent a statement from December 2023 saying it had eliminated a terrorist cell in a school.

But Airwars found this was a different school two kilometres away from the one in the photo - not the one Burman posed in front of. 

Burman, according to Declassified, attended Manchester Grammar School before going on a gap year in Israel. He later joined the Israeli army.

The Israeli military confirmed to Declassified that Burman served in the 55th Brigade, an elite reserve unit of paratroopers.

According to Declassified, Burman posted a photo on his Instagram account which appeared to show him in Gaza's Khan Younis with heavy destruction visible behind him, as well as photos of himself serving in Lebanon and sitting in military overalls with other soldiers. 

Warrants 'further investigation'

The film says Burman likely served in the brigade's 66th Battalion. It features an interview with Yuval Green, a man who had served in that battalion as a medic.

"Some of the people are really driven by crazy insane religious ideas," Green said. "This [fighting in Gaza] was just an opportunity for them to kill as many Gazans as they can and kick them out and get their lands."

The film also cites research by the Hind Rajab Foundation which identified a company which it believed Burman had "likely" served with. That company was involved in "close combat fighting and blowing up many residential buildings" in Khan Younis, and "laid waste to vast swathes" of the area, according to the foundation's findings.

Chris Sidoti, a member of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, also appears in the Declassified film.

He said Declassified's metholodgy "is exactly the methodology we use in" our investigations. Sido said "you are not saying that this person is guilty of war crimes", but that "the evidence is sufficient" to warrant "further investigation".

Sidoti said that the London Metropolitan Police's war crimes unit should investigate Burman.

Burman himself did not respond to requests for comment, according to Declassified.

Around 2,000 British-Israeli dual nationals are believed to have served in the Israeli military during Israel's war on Gaza, which a UN commission of inquiry found was a genocide last year.

Israeli forces have killed more than 74,000 Palestinians since the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 which killed 1,200 people, with a further 170,000 wounded. Thousands more in Gaza remain missing and are presumed dead beneath the rubble.

In April, London's Metropolitan Police announced it would not investigate 10 British nationals accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity while fighting with the Israeli military in Gaza.

This came after the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC) filed a 240-page dossier to the Met's War Crimes Team in April last year.

The Met said there was no realistic prospect of conviction and that an effective investigation could not be conducted.