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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.
Rock = Bullet
Witness:
staff Sergeant from ‘Maglan’ (elite unit)
Place of incident:
Husan bypass road
Date:
Jan-Feb 2004
Description:
Stakeouts, what kind of stakeouts?
Mainly watching roads.
In what area?
We
were in Neve-Tzoof in the beginning – close to Neve-Yair – then in
Ofra – road no. 60, at the British police junction.
What were your missions there? What was the purpose of your being
there?
Mainly to watch out for kids throwing Molotovs.
Which means…
Every few days there was an incident where kids came to throw [Molotovs].
The open-fire orders were a bit changed. In the beginning, if I’m
not mistaken, we were allowed to shoot before the kid threw the
bottle in order to prevent it – or however else you want to call it.
What
do you mean?
To
prevent him from throwing the Molotov… You know the drill… There is
no such thing, really, as shooting at legs in the army. It means:
shoot the legs, and if you kill the person nothing happens – this is
the message, I believe. Shoot the legs, and if he bends a bit –
nothing terrible has happened.
All
this is valid until he actually throws the bottle?
After the bottle is thrown we were not allowed to shoot. This is how
it was in the beginning; later it changed: I’m not completely
certain about that, but I think there were times we were told we
were allowed to shoot the kid even after he throws the Molotov.
So
you got to Husan. What was your mission there?
In
the beginning of 2004, at the Husan bypass road, they were throwing
stones – usually not Molotovs, I don’t think they ever threw a
Molotov there; I’m not sure. Anyway, the open-fire orders there were
that if a stone is being picked up with two hands, we were to shoot
in order to kill. I think.
And
what if it was a regular stone?
Then
not. The general idea was shooting… preventive shooting, perhaps. I
mean, shooting close to the person, or something like that, I’m not
sure. The truth is I don’t really remember now.
Were these orders valid all the time you were there? How long have
you stayed there?
We
didn’t stay there. We were at the unit headquarters and occasionally
a crew would go out there for a stakeout.
And
what is the story there?
It
was decided that this stone throwing should be prevented. One time
they took some kid’s eye out, or something like that. They justified
it, saying these stones were dangerous. So it was decided that if
the stone is big enough to be picked with two hands, then it is a
sign it is dangerous, and one could… I think there was one case they
actually shot there – some sniper…
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