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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.
Death Squad
The witnesses: Two
First Sergeants from ‘Maglan’ (name of unit)
The Location:
Refugee Camp, Tul-Karem
Date:
Chanukah, 2003
Description:
There
was a mission…It was our unit’s wildest mission ever. We, that is
our squad, was given the honor…. I’ll describe it, it went like
this, inside Tul Karem’s refugee camp, every time the IDF entered
the camp, shots were being fired at it. Our unmanned surveillance
aircraft and our intelligence reported that that in every corner of
this square camp there were beggars, like in Harlem, New York, surrounding a
campfire, and as it was winter and quite cold, these people were
trying to warm themselves. There were about 10-15 people at these
campfires. As soon as the IDF entered the Camp, these characters
climbed roof tops and started shooting. They also alerted ‘wanted
persons’ (e.g. people wanted by the Shabbak [Gen. Security Service]
for interrogation) to get away which made it quite difficult to
perform arrests at that time. Actually it was quite impossible to
catch anybody under these circumstances and hence it was decided to
have the whole squad sneak into the camp on foot.
On
foot?
Yes
on foot. The four lit campfires we spotted were quite near each
other, and near the only two or three vehicle access routes into the
camp. We were told to also post sharpshooters…Our firing orders were
that each squatter around the campfires should be shot just like
during a liquidation operation.
Without pretense? Without arms?
Yes,
even unarmed people were to be shot.
Everyone around the campfire?
Yes,
everyone present at the campfire during our entry at 2AM or 3AM was
to be shot to death. Regardless whether…
Regardless of whether or not he was armed?
Even
if he was unarmed. That wasn’t considered of any consequence.
Intelligence reported that there were about 10-15 people hanging
around, regardless of age, regardless of anything, everyone that….
Boom?
Boom.
The idea was… we were discussing that at least two of our guys would
be firing at the target (e.g. at the squatters) and then we would
throw a grenade or something like it, and get out. This was quite a
different mission from the ambushes we had done in the past, more in
the order of a mission by the Gen. Staff’s Reconnaissance Unit (Sayeret
Matkal-the IOF’s most elite unit). Two days earlier ‘SHALDAG’
(another special unit) did it in a different part of the refugee
camp but was discovered during the approach and failed. In the
shooting that followed no one was injured.
They simply walked away?
Yes,
they simply walked away but, of course, lost the element of
surprise. We tried it once before, approaching the refugee camp, but
were not given clearance to enter. That time we had an unmanned
surveillance aircraft, with radio contact, but there were too many
people on the rooftops and therefore it was decided not to let us
enter the Camp. We were deliberating…particularly due to shooting
orders… anyone… armed or unarmed….
Did you discuss it only among yourselves?
We
discussed it within our squad. In the defense of our squad I should
mention that the whole mission appeared to us to be totally crazy
endangering the squad (unjustifiably). We were not a squad of
blindly obeying morons saying that ‘if we were the best squad we
would have ‘gotten’ that operation…’ On the contrary we were
resisting being sent to die (for no good reason at all) and quite
willing to let someone else do the (crazy) job. The ‘job’ was not
resisted by some other guys on moral grounds but simply because of
fear, while we were mainly concerned about the moral aspect, so as
to think less about the fear from the mission itself.
Because no one really knew who is over there (at the campfire)?
Correct. These are people who assist ‘wanted people’ to run away. Of
course there is no comparison. It also happened during….Today I am
not sure that a projectile wouldn’t have been fired then at the
squatters. During that period there were many less ‘targeted
executions’, as there are nowadays. At that time a projectile would
have been fired every second, and quite likely that a projectile
would have been fired at the squatters. But then….Clearly this
mission was not described as an ‘execution’. If it were one, a
projectile would have been fired (at the squatters). Rather, it is
described a ‘Confrontational, or violent patrol’. (e.g. a patrol
aiming to draw fire, or, in this case, to shoot) Let’s say
everything went as planned, how would they explain it tomorrow to
the press? ‘The IOF encountered a group of armed people, (as
probably there were some armed people there), and someone got
wounded’, and that’s the whole story. Did you understand? And that’s
the end. No mention that we came to execute.
What were you told in the briefing?
It
was not described as an execution mission. Absolutely not.
How then was it described?
Like
I said. Firing orders for this particular mission: Entrance (into
the camp) at 2:30AM. Anyone present in the alley at that time was to
be shot. There are no innocent people there. That’s the mission. No
one described it as an execution mission.
Finally, we entered the Camp, encountered one of our guys injured
and withdrew. The whole thing was like a competition with SHALDAG
(another unit): they didn’t succeed but we were supposed to…!
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