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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.
“Every
kid you see with a stone, you may shoot him”
Witness:
Staff sergeant, Orev
– elite unit – Nahal
Place:
Ezion section (Bethlehem area)
Date:
Summer of 2003
Description:
The
last straw was the brigade commander who stood in front of us
briefing us, telling us we’re in a Hudna [Arabic: cease-fire], and
that it was a sensitive situation. He talks about all that and a
minute later he says, still in briefing: “Every kid you see with a
stone, you may shoot him.” Like, kill him. A stone! It was either
the brigade or the battalion commander, I don’t remember. This was
the briefing. “Now, the situation here is fragile, and a stone is a
murder weapon, you know what it is. I saw a woman who was hit by a
stone.” I think it was the battalion commander… He saw that the
brigade commander was there. It was the Ezion brigade commander,
***.
So the brigade commander *** gave an
order that you may shoot a kid throwing a stone?
Yes,
because it is a murder weapon, because they throw stones on the
road. It was during the Hudna…
Did no one say anything?
No.
I, I told you – I was almost out [of the army], for me, my thinking…
And what annoyed me the most was that the guys in my crew got to the
state where all they were interested in was that they had to put on
their shoes for this conversation with the brigade commander – army
boots. And they argued about it for hours, and one of them went and
quarreled about it with the company commander. They were shouting at
each other for a half hour after the briefing. And me – obviously I
wanted to raise a question, but I was so frustrated with all these
impervious people, and I knew that all these questions of mine would
raise and opposition against me – those few people who would say
“Oh, not again, not these questions again and again. We want to play
soccer”, or “Oh, shut up – you and your dumb questions.” That
attitude was always around me. I have always had an opposing group,
so I knew I am not going to get an answer; as usual. As far as I was
concerned, it was ‘over the limit’, it was really exaggerated.
People said, the warriors said, let’s shoot someone to finish off
this stinking Hudna, so that we may quit doing all these stakeouts,
and do some arrests. And here comes someone, who is also apparently
fed up, from the highest command, and he wants something to happen.
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