|
Over
the last year ‘Breaking the Silence’ has collected testimonies given
by hundreds of IOF (Israeli Defense Forces) soldiers who served in
the territories during the last conflict. These testimonies reveal
the impossible reality those soldiers have to face, and the terrible
moral price this reality demands. Selected collections from those
testimonies have been published in testimonial collections produced
by ‘Breaking the Silence’.
The
present collection is not just one more testimonial-collection,
revealing the brutal routine of the territories’ reality, or the
constant moral degradation and erosion of soldiers’ values. The
collection focuses on IOF orders, rules of engagement and
operational procedures. It presents a grave picture of evidently
illegal orders given frequently, and in different times and places:
firing at civilians who pose no risk, revenge operations,
intentionally shooting at rescue-forces, and more. This collection
reveals the depth of the military administration’s moral corruption,
and the dimness of moral sense, which has spread to the highest
ranks. The testimonies in this collection concerns various units
that were operative in the territories in different times and at
different places, and is thus an evidence for the magnitude of the
moral decay, and for the depths to which flawed norms have diffused.
It
is also apparent that the IOF’s self-inspection system has failed to
fulfill its duty. This also applies to the civilian and
parliamentary inspection mechanisms, which, during the last
confrontations, have consistently refrained from criticizing the
army’s mode of conduct in general, and its rules of engagement in
particular. This brings out sharply an urgent need to create a
platform on which the information we have gathered here can be
presented, in order to examine what this information teaches, as
well as the IOF’s mode of conduct during the last confrontations. A
civilized and decent society cannot survive without a continuous
inspection and criticism of the most powerful organization operating
within it. ‘Breaking the Silence’ is therefore calling for the
establishment of an independent public inspection committee, which
will enable a responsible disclosure and examination of the facts.
Listening and taking responsibility is the very least that is
required of society and its representatives in a civilized and
decent society founded on basic moral values.
Apprehending Suspects, the Quick Version
Witness: Staff sergeant,
Paratroops.
Place of incident:
Nablus
Description:
During Ramadan of 2003, or 2002. We were on an arrest operation.
There were normal open-fire orders – of arresting a suspect and so
on: meaning “stop, stop or I’ll shoot, shot in the air, bla bla bla*.
On operation we never use all this. The actual procedure is a quick
suspect-arrest procedure, which is: “Wakef” (“Stop”), boom. If the
person does not stop the second you tell him to, puts up his hands
and all that – you shoot to kill.
No shooting towards legs, in the air?
Stop, boom. On many occasions the “Stop” is just for the record…
Boom, stop.
Something like that. To make things short, we went into this arrest
operation. It was during Ramadan. There was some confusion – one of
the squads was placed in the wrong position. We learnt about that
later, in investigating the operation. One of the squads identified
a man in an alley there, a man carrying an object. They shouted “Wakef”.
The man started running away; they started shooting at him, chasing
him. The man ran into an alley, where the squad that placed itself
wrongly was, and thus there was a collateral situation, in which one
squad was chasing a person and shot at him, and doing that they were
shooting in the direction of the other squad. Now, this latter
squad, who was not on a chase, thought they were being shot at. They
saw this person running and shot him. They shot him.
Where were you at the time?
I
was in a different position.
And do you know about all this from investigation, and by being told
by members of your crew and the talk afterwards?
Yes.
And I was only a few meters away. I didn’t actually see that with my
own eyes – I was watching a corner of a house. But this incident
took place when I was there.
So they shot him by mistake, thinking he was shooting at them…
They
also saw this object he was carrying, and feared it was a bomb. Shot
him, and verified his kill – threw a grenade at him, and then shot
him once more in the head. The guy had a drum in his hand. What
became clearer later was that there is this custom during Ramadan –
at 04:00 am people come out to awaken everybody for the breakfast
before the fast of that day. We didn’t know that. If we had known
about it, had someone told us… It is not just that we, simple
soldiers, didn’t know. No one in the brigade knew about it. No one
in the IOF bothered to tell us that on such and such hours people
are walking around with objects in their hands, carrying drums. And
perhaps the open-fire orders should be relaxed; maybe we should take
more care. No one bothered telling us, and for that the guy died.
Because of our ignorance.
*
Open fire procedure: Call a person to stop. If he doesn’t, threaten
to shoot him. If he still doesn’t, shoot in the air. If he still
doesn’t, shoot towards legs.
|
