Night of the Ducks
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The Night of the Ducks (Hebrew: ליל הברווזים) was the civilian fiasco by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that occurred on April 1, 1959.
Traditionally, Israel conducted regular call-up exercises for its reserve troops by public radio. Units were given code words, which, if broadcast over the radio, meant that the troops were to assemble at predetermined meeting points. Though intended for emergency use, exercises were conducted to ensure that the troops arrived at their appointed places within a reasonable amount of time. Because of the tense situation along the country's borders, drills were announced publicly well in advance, and people expecting to be called up waited at home for the announcements to be made.
By the late 1950s, however, tensions had been increasing along Israel's frontiers, not least because of the perceived threat posed by the political unification of the country's two major adversaries, Egypt and Syria, as the United Arab Republic on January 31, 1958. As a result, it was decided by the IDF's General Staff to test the readiness of its reserve troops under actual emergency conditions. A call-up exercise would be conducted, but unlike previous exercises, there would be no prior announcement and no warning given.
On April 1, a popular radio program on
Intended to simulate genuine emergency conditions, the call-up announcement threw the country into a panic. People believed that the call-up was in response to a genuine emergency, and that the country was under attack. In the following hours, Israelis spread rumors and guesses, and checked their personal ammunition supply. In the Knesset, members received the news during a vote on the state budget, and quickly abandoned the proceedings and ran to their cars to listen to the radio.[1]
Less than a quarter of an hour after the broadcast, radio programs from all over the world began announcing that Israel was mobilizing its army. Urgent messages were sent to foreign reporters in Israel, most of whom were attending a festival at
Similarly, the neighboring
At 11:00 PM, Kol Israel finally announced that the call-up had been just an exercise, but people in Israel and abroad began forming conspiracy theories. For example, Soviet media claimed that the mobilization was possibly "to divert the workers' attention and to allow the government to insert into the defense clause of the budget IL420 million, more than the previous year".
In the following days, the local press responded bitterly to the event, referring to it as the "Night of the Ducks", since one of the call-up codes repeated on the radio was "Waterfowl", which in
References
- ^ Ynetnews
- ISBN 9780062420138.