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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.
Firing at Those Who Clear the Dead
Witness:
Lieutenant, paratroops elite unit
Place of incident:
Nablus
Date:
2002
Description:
There has bee a situation where a few people got killed – like,
bodies that were in our range.
On
the street?
On
our street, right under our noses… and every now and then someone
would come to pull the bodies outside. He apparently managed to pull
one body out. The unit commander – who joined the force I was then
with – he said that if it happened once more [a body pulled out]
then we are to shoot the guy; even though he is not armed. It was
evident he wasn’t armed. His job was to extract the bodies; that is
all he does. And this was a direct command from ***.
And
did the guy get back?
The
guy… no. We changed shifts in command. First the unit commander, and
then me, and then the shift changes. Suddenly I hear some… I don’t
remember if it was a crowd-noise or shooting… shooting or something
similar… I get there and I discover, I realize that… I asked what
they shot at.
At the body extractor.
Yes,
I don’t think they hit him, and I tell them (the unit commander is
not there at that moment) and I tell them explicitly.
You
cancel the [unit’s commander’s] order
Yes,
I…
You
tell your soldiers not to carry such an order out?
Yes,
I explicitly tell them “Don’t shoot. If he is unarmed, don’t shoot.”
And
he [unit commander] doesn’t know that you actually…
No,
he doesn’t.
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