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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.
Popping Kneecaps
Witness:
Soldier from Paratroop brigade commanding squad
Place of incident:
Nablus
Date:
2003
Description:
An operation in Nablus.
*** *** – The big boss. (brigade commander)
The
man goes out to the field, thinks he is in Vietnam, you know… And
[there takes place] the usual stone and brick throwing game – there
was a brick-madness there.
Give
us an example of the usual game, one incident, so we can understand
what went on there.
The usual game went all
over the army. All of those who haven’t been to the army… The usual
game is when you travel around in a jeep for… – What are we
travelling around in a jeep for? I don’t know – roaming around the
city, with no much reason. Kids throwing stones at us, and we chase
them. Each stone that hits us…. The man [the brigade commander] is
only looking for legs to shoot at. He would let a jeep go in front
[of his vehicle], so it can sustain all the stone-hits. Looking for
18 year old – even if they look a bit younger than that – and
shooting them. And I was really aiming for him with the jeep, even
through my shooting hole, and he is shooting over my head [from the
driver’s windshield]. Like bullet shells inside [the car] and all.
I
don’t understand. Shoots where? Shoots whom?
There is nothing to understand
really. Look – he is trying to get the kneecaps of kids who throw
stones. That is all there is to it. After this incident, I was, you
know, close to running away – even while the whole thing took place.
Do you know whether there were any casualties in those two weeks?
There were probably a million, you know, million incidents and all.
From everywhere we got reports of casualties – and you couldn’t tell
where it was coming from.
What
was he shooting at from the jeep?
Certainly not at people who threw more than one stone; surely not at
people who threw Molotovs.
I
want you to be more specific – do you have a specific memory of an
incident in which you were in the jeep and your life was not in
danger?
Our
lives were never in any danger. You are hit by regular-size stones,
you see, a normal territories activity. Did you not get any stones
in Hebron? In Rammalla? They have the same stones in Nablus.
Again, they throw stones at the brigade commander’s jeep. What does
the Brigade commander – *** – do?
He
pulls out his rifle, and tries to hit someone in the knee. You know,
tries to find someone over 18 with a stone. He would arrange for the
battalion commander to drive with him [in a vehicle in front of his]
– so that the battalion commander would sustain the stone-hits.
Why,
what was the purpose of the battalion commander getting the stones?
It was all about getting knees. Just
the way that sounds. Just like this. It was like this.
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