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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.
A
War, Kind Of
The witness:
An officer of an elite unit.
The Location:
A Palestinian checkpoint north of Halamish (a
West Bank
settlement)
Date:
2001- End of summer
Description:
I
remember one evening something ‘from the movies’ showed up
(Something unbelievably fantastic, as if from the movies, IEN): to
go to the check point north of Halamish, I don’t remember exactly
the name of the checkpoint, and kill a few Palestinian policemen
there.
About when was that?
Sometime in the summer of 2001.
The end of summer 2001?
Yes,
something like it.
End of summer?
End
or middle.
As
if ‘what the fuck’ as it‘s called, what was the story? I don’t
remember if there was any attack or something like it.
You were just given an order?
In a
briefing, I actually wasn’t in the squad that was to do it, there
was something about sharpshooters and other garbage. I don’t
remember why I wasn’t part of the squad at that time.
But you were there, with it, when you were given the task?
Yes,
but I don’t remember the order, and I don’t want just to blabber.
But I clearly remember that was one of the first things I said to
myself and I remember that I also said it to my platoon comander
later (not there) that the thing appeared to me totally unreal.
The idea was to get to the checkpoint, to kill all the Palestinian
policemen at the site?
To
kill the Policemen and then have a tank destroy the checkpoint.
Was it carried out?
No.
To charge them with something, I don’t know what. Finally, it wasn’t
carried out. In short, I don’t know much about it. We were sent one
night to an observation point (or ambush) (to catch) some
infiltrators. That was my first experience where, for me, two things
happened: I understood that, without judging, something (we were
supposed to do) didn’t quite make sense to me, and for the first
time I also spoke up.
What were you told when you spoke up?
The
usual replies, in this case our platoon commander wasn’t really
someone you’d expect to…
What do you mean by ‘usual replies’? Something in the style of
tasks?
Yes.
We do whatever we are told to do. We don’t select our tasks, it’s
war here and there.
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