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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.
Shoot to Kill
Witness:
Staff sergeant, Armored troops
Place:
Gaza strip
Date:
not specific
Description:
The
main area I was involved in during my service was Gaza. Generally,
what would happen there… You have two options… Or sometimes we were…
An operational battalion. There were times when the army was
initiating many operations. The main purpose of those operations was
either to demolish terrorists’ houses or to demolish places where
they manufacture mortars, and other such stuff, or… You would come
in and ruin everything you see. Also, the open-fire orders would
constantly change. Meaning: there were times when – ‘Every person
you see on the street, kill him.’ And we would do it. We wouldn’t
think. We would just do it. I am talking about certain periods, not
all the time. The first time we were deployed in Gaza there was a
time when, say, at 1 am, we would have to go on an operation – to
demolish some Palestinian police building. And the open-fire orders
were: “Every person that is on the street – shoot to kill. Don’t
mind whether he has or has no gun on him.” There were such cases.
And at other times, [we were supposed to shoot] only if the person
had a gun, or… It would change from place to place. There were
places like the fence, times when they [Palestinians] would
infiltrate… There were times when every person spotted in the
general area of the fence, even if it was relatively distant [from
the fence]…. ‘See him in the vicinity of the fence: shoot to kill’;
not thinking twice about it. And I tell you we would do it. I
wouldn’t begin in such a case to try to scare him off, or anything
like it. In the end it got a lot calmer, for there were agreements
and all. But at the beginning, at the early period of my basic
training, each day, someone would have killed someone, or shoot an
innocent person…
Did your commanders instruct you in briefing before operation that
the open-fire orders were “Shoot in order to…”?
Yes.
Commanders meaning: battalion commander and up.
On a routine operation, when fire is being shot, will there be an
investigation?
It
depends. Depends on the commander… first of all, there were these
commanders who wouldn’t report nothing, anything; they ‘rounded the
corners’ when it came to such things. There were commanders who did
give reports… put it on a piece of paper. Between you and me: this
piece of paper – it might accidentally happen that the vise platoon
commander or the battalion commander have a look at it, but let me
say it clearly: there would not be an investigation resembling the
investigation there would be if now, as a civilian, I would pull out
my weapon and start shooting in the middle of Jerusalem, shoot a
bullet – this would cause an investigation, and questions in the
newspapers: why, why, why. All sorts of questions. It would never
get to this level of investigation… In our company, which was
involved in many well-known incidents that got the media’s attention
all over the world – these were the few cases in which there was a
serious investigation. And why? I think it is because of the press.
And then there were… For example, I’ve been questioned, the
tank-commander was questioned, the division-commander was
questioned, the company commander. And then they went up and sorted
things out, I guess; made it look the way they wanted it to. I am
sure about that. |
