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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.
Shooting For Fun
Witness:
Staff sergeant, Paratroops
Place:
Hebron
Date:
October 2000
Description:
We
were crazily exchanging fire every night. The aid- platoon arrived
with the platoon commander, and he decided that this shooting in his
section had to be stopped. Aid company coming to show who is boss.
We put on outposts. Meaning: we manned all the outposts on the
rooftops – our whole aid force, heavy gun, grenade gun, machine
guns, in every corner. A force that was as heavy as possible. Every
bullet, even if it was a blank – no matter what. We heard something
in the section, and immediately returned a fire strike towards the
neighborhoods.
Just
like that?
Just
like that.
Did
anyone know what was going on?
Mostly we would not identify the fire sources. In the beginning we
would shoot towards pre-marked locations. (If we did identify a fire
source, we would shoot towards it.) At some point the platoon
commander decided it wasn’t enough. So every fire strike involved
everyone shooting. Each was assigned with some sector to shoot at –
mostly unpopulated areas.
Which
neighborhood were you shooting at?
Abu-Sneina.
All the guys in their posts say: “Wow, everyone is shooting. No one
can tell if I’m shooting as well.” Everyone was shooting! There was
no one who didn’t. Once, a friend calls me on the radio and asks:
“Meet me in the junction for a sec.” I was in one position, and he
was in another. I come down to meet him. “Man, you have to get me a
magazine, and pick me up. I’m out of bullets.” And he didn’t have
anything to shoot at. He was just watching some area. Just that.
We
shot water tanks; we shot windows. For no reason, you know.
Sharpshooting. Just for fun.
Was
it all in October?
This
was in the beginning; in the very beginning, the first weeks, you
know. Just shoot for fun, you know. Everyone is shooting, so no one
can tell that I’m shooting too. Everyone is shooting!
Wasn’t there any control over who fired, and when?
There was control, but there is not a commander in every post. In
most posts there wasn’t a commander. So, wherever there is no
commander, one does as one pleases. You see?
And
where there were commanders…?
They
would inspect, as it were, but it was very random. I manned the
heavy gun. The section battalion commander was with me. Sometimes
the border-police battalion commander – who was a complete lunatic.
He was insane. He would tell me: “shoot here, shoot here, shoot
here.” And I shoot in all directions, without regard to anything. I
would shoot so many bullets in one evening – but I would shoot them
on houses, not on empty areas. I haven’t got a clue as to what I
made happen with those bullets. I might have killed people even. I
still don’t know, ‘cause no one told me. No one. And it is known
that these shooting had casualties. It is well known.
Would you open fire only when shot at?
Once
or twice we would shoot before they shot at us – you know, to start
the evening, as it were. To show them we started the evening today.
But mostly it was in response to their shooting. Although sometimes
it wasn’t shooting at all, it was just some explosion. We would hear
“Pak”, and start shooting. Here, there is identification [of someone
shooting] from a building, bla bla bla. Well, the shooting began, so
we shoot.
Do you know whether you caused any damage? Hurt someone?
We
blew a car up. I was about to tell you that on that night a friend
of mine shot, so we shot at a lamppost. We had to put out that
lamppost, so he shot at this lamppost, but didn’t hit it exactly.
Suddenly we see fire behind the lamppost – like a little explosion
and then a fire. It was at a big distance – more than a kilometer
away. And then the lookout guys started laughing hard. They tell us,
“Come look at that.” They had recording equipment, and they rewinded
the tape, and showed us a car behind the lamppost, and then us
shooting at the lamppost. Suddenly – Boom! The car explodes. Like,
it was a parking car, not a moving one. And the officer in charge
got into it, he was screwed up: “Wow, I want to blow a car up.”
Every car he sees he says “Blow it up for me.”
What does that mean? Parking cars? Just like that?
In
the beginning it was parking cars, and then there was a car that we
had intelligence on. We were not sure it was the right car, but we
had intelligence on it, and we had to blow it up too.
Was it moving?
It
was escaping from us. We shot at it while chasing it.
Was there a man inside?
Surely. But the claim was that he was hiding terrorists at that very
moment. We don’t really know what was going on. We do as we are
told. But the claim was that at that very moment there are
terrorists inside escaping.
Did you shoot it with a heavy gun?
With
a heavy gun and a grenade gun. The grenade gun was insanely off the
mark, so we just used the heavy gun. The thing is we couldn’t
reproduce this car-explosion thing. It just happened by accident,
but didn’t work again.
Did you hit cars?
I
cannot say.
[Did you hit] that escaping car?
I
have no idea. He kept on escaping. He got away, ultimately. We might
have hit him, but he escaped. We don’t know, because you cannot tell
exactly whether you hit it. Unless you see something happening, you
don’t know. You can tell if the light switches off, or if the car
stops, or something similar.
Now,
there were many theories. The commanders started joking: “No. one
has to shoot two bullets, and then another in order to make the
gas-tank explode.” – All sorts of theories about how to make a car
explode. No one could reproduce that. But no one succeeded. We gave
it up.
Were these incidents investigated?
I
don’t know. I have no idea. There was massive shooting. One night,
there was this very tall building. They said they were shooting from
it every night. I couldn’t tell where they were shooting from,
because, you know, I would here the “Paks”. I would not know where
the shots came from. They told me “Take this building apart – shoot
as much at it as you can.” I shot. I shot. I shot. The building
started burning.
Were people living in this building?
I
guess at some point or another people lived in it. But after we
began shooting at it, I don’t think people lived in it anymore –
because we would shoot the building itself, inside the building. I
must have hit one of the curtains, or something with a *** [a
type of ammunition that causes ignition]. The window started
burning, and then the whole building. We called the fire squad. They
told us to cease fire, and they put out the mess. There was an
ambulance and we got reports of it enabling terrorists to escape. We
did nothing about it that evening. Later we were told the ambulance
enables terrorists escape all the time. This ambulance would
essentially bring in the people who shot at us, and later on bring
them out. So this ambulance came with one of the Arabs, and we had
permission to shoot at it. So we shot the ambulance. This was from a
great distance. I cannot say whether I hit it or not. But I fired
the ambulance with a heavy gun. You see? This was what I‘ve been
told to do.
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