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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.
Normal Procedure
Witness:
Staff sergeant, Nahal.
Place:
Hebron
Date:
end of 2003
Description:
Tell me the series of events there.
If I
remember correctly, the incident began when two terrorists went out
of one of the Kasba’s gates, and shot towards the Tomb of the
Fathers; they shot inside. Of course, we were called immediately –
all the forces in the section were summoned. We closed the Kasba
down, and began searching the place. In the beginning we really did
not find anything. It took about seven hours of searching. In the
end we were a few crews there: one observing a building outside the
Kasba, and another four or three crews searching. Now, at some point
the crew I was in and another crew heard shots that were fired very
close to us. We immediately took cover. We heard the combat through
the radio. We heard someone was hurt, and that they [another crew]
were fired at. We went out and got directions from the outlook.
Who was the force inside the house?
It
was a Nahal force. They were inside the house and were fired at on
the stairs. We went out and the outlook was telling us how to get to
them. We made our way on the rooftops.
The force that identified them was from the engineering unit of
Golani?
Yes.
And they shot the terrorists?
They
shot the terrorists and hit them at some point. Sniper’s shots. At
the distance they were, it must have been at least a sniper. The two
crews that came from the roofs got directions from the outlook, and
advanced towards the terrorists. I am talking about a few minutes of
direction giving. The first crew got to the balcony over the place
where the terrorists were. It was three or four meters distant. The
commander shot a few bullets at the terrorist to verify the killing.
Then the Nahal force that got fire in the stairs went up, when it
was safe for it to come up.
Was it the battalion commander who gave the authorization on the
radio? What did the battalion commander tell him on the radio?
“You
go up, take no grenades with you, so you don’t hit the force that is
already inside. Meaning, you go up, and you don’t have authorization
to throw grenades. It does too much damage and may endanger the
other fore.”
Was it reported that the terrorists were dead?
I
don’t remember exactly at what point, but it was reported. By the
time the first force got there, I am pretty certain they were dead.
But it wasn’t checked. They just verified it, by shooting them.
Did you move the bodies?
No,
no, no.
Did the Nahal elite unit come up?
The
first person there was the force commander. He really got to the
bodies. He shot two bullets on both, and actually made sure they
were dead, and don’t have any bomb-belts or anything. He took their
weapons – unloaded them.
Did the commanders there talked about it? Gave it any notice? Was
there any conversation about what he did?
About what? The kill verification?
His. Yes.
No.
It’s the normal procedure.
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