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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.
The Truth Behind “Operation Rainbow”
The witness:
An officer of an elite unit.
The Location: Rafah . Operation ‘Rainbow’
Date: May 2004
Description:
The
most striking thing I remember from operation ‘Rainbow’, before
going into details, was the feeling of lack of restraint. I don’t
have a milder description for it: an indiscriminate use of force.
Not only of your unit, also of other units?
Of
the State of Israel, for that purpose. You may remember the story of
the APC of the 11 killed and of another two killed? …at Zeytun? And
as a result the operation ‘Rainbow’ was carried out. That was the
story. What wasn’t told the public was that the soldiers, who came
from the same place (as the killed ones in the APC) were very blood
thirsty.
Were you told ‘to give it to them for what they did’, or was that
only implied?
In my
opinion, it was embedded in the orders and in the way things were
being carried out. But, without any doubts, I had that feeling, and
not only I, of really using….I think that that was also felt by the
public that generally doesn’t get much of that stuff…
What happened there?
Ok
let’s start from when we reached….the (Battle Plan) briefing. The
briefing was attended by the commander of the southern brigade, and
the Division Commander.
Battle Plan Group 2, the brigade commander introduced the mission
and the idea behind in two words: (The) ‘Golani’ (brigade) entered
Tel Sultan (the name of a suburb of Gaza ). And he continues, we
want to get the ‘Golani’ brigade out of there and put it into Rafah.
In order not to lose the effect of our intrusion into Tel Sultan, we
were to take the seam line between Tel Sultan and Rafah. That area
is built up and also has greenhouses.
To
do what?
Look,
this was very vague. It was mentioned at the start of the briefing
that (a) we were to prevent passage and escape to the north of
people from Rafah to Tel Sultan; and (b) as explained at the end of
the briefing, to kill as many armed people as possible.
That’s the way the brigade commander expressed himself? Kill as many
armed people as you could?
Yes.
He said the two things. He said it in these words.
He
gave a blow to the podium and Briefly: the mission is to kill the
maximum number of people. There were also those saying –and I heard
it from a second and third source- that he picked up a phone to
*** (the head of the Southern Command, a major general) telling
him ‘what in name…, what’s my mission here altogether?’ Meaning that
even he himself didn’t
Did you hear that from someone who..?
I
heard it from someone who heard it from someone else.
In
brief: you enter Tel Sultan. (The) ‘Golani’ (brigade) moves to Rafah.
(You guys) taking over some houses?
We were composed of two
teams. Each team takes over a house. But before that, the whole idea
of the operation was a bit ridiculous (as what I heard) at the
meeting with the Brigade Commander I transmitted to the soldiers.
One of my soldiers commented, I just saw on the Internet, on the
phone, people saying that ‘Golani’ entered. (The soldier to me)
‘What stories are you telling me? ‘And standing in front of my
soldiers, what am I to tell them? That the Brigade Commander is an
imbecile? I don’t know what to say. Have no idea whatever. And
everything with a feeling of terrible fear. Our first time in the
Gaza strip. The first time I ever entered anywhere without a platoon
commander or someone like him.
Was this your first mission as team leader?
As a
team leader, left for himself, in the area. In our unit we generally
like to enhance our missions by a participation of officers. But
then there was a feeling of chaos. We were to enter the area during
the first night but there were no drivers as ‘Golani’ was moving and
they were the only ones who knew ……In short I don’t know what went
on there. We finally entered the next day and took ‘Straw widows’
(Palestinian houses occupied for as long as needed as
observation/command posts with their inhabitants locked into one or
two rooms).
What’s the procedure taking over ‘Straw widows’? How did you ‘take’
‘Straw widows’?
First- it’s with a D-9 (bulldozer) and APC. You don’t enter without
(a D-9). The D-9 arrives, surrounds the building 360 degrees to
check if there are no explosive charges, after that you punch out a
hole in the wall.
Digging a ditch around the building?
Digging a small AT
(anti-tank) ditch, if I remember correctly, 80cm (deep) or something
like it. After that you don’t enter through the door as there have
been cases where doors have been booby trapped, or something like
it.
Without announcing (warning the people)?
Nothing. Without any announcement.
First the D-9 digs and then?
The
Palestinians inside hear the terrible noise of the D-9, and then the
punching of the wall.
Does it (the D-9) punch the hole in the wall with its dozer
(shovel)?
Makes
a hole in the wall. We call that ‘knock on the door’. I do remember
that we had asked if the ‘Widows’ should be secret, as they were
marked on a (mission) panel. The answer was: ‘Don’t worry about it.
That’s the way it's being done to all the ‘Widows’. For each ‘Widow’
we do the same procedure to 5 more houses …
All around?
All
around. Calculate and you’ll see that this ends up in quite a few
houses, as we ourselves occupy about 6-7 houses.
How does this practice (of taking a ‘Widow’) work in your zone,
aside of entering the building?
In
this respect, something that very much bothered me was that every
one did as he liked. Decisions were being made at the level of …..
Zone (or site) commander?
Platoon leader, at best Company Commander. Beyond him, no one knew
which houses I destroyed, which I didn’t destroy, and why I
destroyed them. No one ever asked any question. The same applied to
firing.
According to the zone (site) commander, which were the criteria you
used to order a D-9 operator to destroy a building?
Whatever (I) wanted.
The building was orange, and you didn’t like its color. Destroy the
building?
Yes.
Really like that?
Yes.
No one would ever ask me how we decided to destroy a building. We
came equipped with Gaza’s aerial photographs, sat with the Company
Commander and shone our (the jeeps) lights on some sort of an
anti-tank cube. That’s the way it went. And he (the Company
Commander) said ‘you didn’t like this?’ ‘Why not?’ ‘Don’t leave it’.
‘This one I’ll take down for you’. ‘These greenhouses…?’ ‘OK’ ‘Take
them down’. All within two minutes.
A
computer game?
Yes,
in two minutes.
You, as squad commander, took down half a neighborhood ?
In my
case a little older, but generally it’s a 21 year old one boy, at
best….Now you’ll understand that before the operation we weren’t
used to use such APC's. We were told, it doesn’t matter if the
operation is delayed, you have to exercise using APC's. To see how
to bring in a stretcher, how here, how there… Why can’t you spend
five minutes deciding which houses to take down. That’s exactly five
minutes. But you don’t have….this isn’t….
Was a Brigade Commander present?
The
Brigade Commander was around at all times.
Was he aware of what went on? Of all the destruction?
Yes. I assume that the
Brigade Commander knew. There was an unmanned surveillance aircraft
in the air all the time. There was also tremendous pressure from the
command post, which comprises actually the Brigade Commander and
whoever is with him, to act and not to wait. Not to be derailed in
decision making by all sort of nonsense… I told you how decisions
were arrived at concerning super-sensitive issues. Aside of killing
people, which is also decision we don’t take… Without balances,
without breaks, without anything (that would have caused a loss of
time), I also have an interesting story to tell.
All that part of ‘Rainbow’?
All
of it part of ‘Rainbow’. We destroyed there… I didn’t destroy as
much, but still destroyed quite a few buildings.
Do
you remember approximately how many you destroyed there?
Buildings? I assume a few, four or five buildings…
Destroyed?
Destroyed completely.
And in how many buildings did you dig a ditch around?
Again, from what we were told earlier, I know there were 4 or 5
buildings.
Automatically? The D-9 operator does it automatically?
Yes,
before (we) enter.
And after the operator does it, what happens next?
Usual
procedure, parking (the vehicles), entering, calling inhabitants to
come down.
A
family comes down by itself?
No.
We enter the building. No one is supposed to be outside even for a
second. That also results in destruction as, I remember that once
during our exit he (one of the soldiers) told something to the APC
driver, he kept him about 50m (over 150 ft) away, and was showered
with screams…
What does that mean he ‘kept the APC'?
He
said something to the APC, don’t remember what and why, to stop 50m
from the entrance.
So
that the soldiers could enter the building (safely) 50m away from
the ‘APC’ ?
That’s what I recall. A soldier was killed when he left the building
with the old woman. That’s when we were told not to go one meter
outside the building.
That also happened during operation ‘Rainbow?
It
happened during operation ‘Rainbow’.
A
‘Givati’ (brigade) soldier was shot by a sharpshooter standing
outside a building?
Exactly, in brief (we) were very afraid of booby traps. The guys up
there, I remember he was screamed at for that (for being careless in
entering a building or for staying outside). Then the APC enters the
house till the optimum, that is till the ramp is also inside the
house. No one is allowed outside. No one!
This means the family stays in the house and then the unit enters?
It
enters, searches for others in the house, and then settles down with
sharpshooters.
And the family remains in the house?
Yes.
And once inside what do you do in appropriating the building for
‘Straw Widow’? What’s the mission, what’s the orders?
I
told you that there are differences of opinion on the ‘mission’.
Meaning that the mission wasn’t clear. For example, if I don’t see
any armed people, OK, there are no armed people passing through. I
fulfilled my mission. That’s why I am there. But if my mission was
to kill armed people, I didn’t fulfill my mission because I didn’t
kill anyone. And pressure was all the time, four times a day, ‘why
don’t you shoot?’ ‘what happened?’
Why don’t you shoot?
Why
don’t you shoot. We don’t shoot because we don’t see any armed
people to shoot at. This means the mission was clear. But ‘Straw
Widow’ serves to place sharpshooters. It also requires to open
additional access routes and that requires destroying more
buildings, or especially greenhouses. During this whole episode the
family is locked up in a room with a guard. Again, I assume that we
do it more….we let them come down and cook.
How long were you in a building continuously?
48
hours.
Forty-eight hours inside the building? and what were your firing
orders?
To
kill anyone armed, or anyone doing anything suspicious, like bending
down or something, that could be for laying a booby trap…
Wait a second…what does that mean ‘suspicion of laying a booby trap?
On whose decision?
According to your (my) decision. Observers—those on roof tops.
Preferably with binoculars. If without, doesn’t matter. Fire to kill
(them).
Who designates the ‘observers’ ? or is this again one of these murky
issues?
Someone who looks as if he’s observing (our) tanks, stands and looks
at any of our tanks, that could be from a window, from a roof top or
from something like it. Fire to kill.
That’s the order you got before entering?
Yes.
Who gives the order? The Brigade Commander?
I
don’t remember if in Battle Plan 2 group we received firing orders.
In any case this order was given on his behalf. In other words, a
widely open field, with lots left to the Platoon Leader’s
discretion.
During this time was there a curfew imposed on the village?
No.
Were they (the villagers) allowed to move around? That means they
could move around freely on the street?
Yes.
Were there different instructions for people moving around during
the day or those --during the night?
No.
As far as I can remember, after a tank fired at demonstrators, some
of whom got killed…we became very careful with this issue…We were
told what to do. At demonstrations—to look for the inciters, and I
don’t know…
And inciters were shot in the knees?
I
think so, but I am not so sure. I don’t remember. In other words a
very wide latitude, with lots of holes…And again, the CP (Command
Post), contrary to what I’d expect from it, instead of restraining
someone who sees it from 1.80m (the soldier’s height), at best with
the experience of a 21, 22 , 23,24 or 25 -year old boy. So, to the
contrary, instead of restraining the CP wants ‘heads’.
Was this their expression?
No.
It was mine.
How does it (the CP) signal that ? ’How many did you take down’?
As
told you, every- so- often they get to you on the radio.
Why haven’t you been shooting?
We
weren’t shooting there. We actually shot only once, and I‘ll tell
you about it. Other than that we haven’t been shooting. That is two
days…..
I
take it there was a lot of shooting all around?
Tanks
were shooting, MGs (machine guns) were shooting, all sorts of
stories…
On
what?
On
‘protective walls’ (protecting from direct hits by gunfire or
artillery shells), not on people. Sometimes this happened when I
requested (permission to fire), as people were approaching the
building (we were in) and we wanted to keep them away. From a
military view this was quite difficult for me and don’t know how
smart it was, as people knew quickly that we were in the building…
but that’s a different issue.
What actually happened to you there?
We
had two experiences, worthwhile telling about. Let’s start from the
one less favorable, for me. We identified something, someone,
looking through binoculars from a rooftop.
During the day or at night?
During the day. We transmitted that to the CP which, of course,
authorized us to fire. Actually I didn’t have to get that OK. I
deliberated, deliberated again, and ordered to fire and the guy was
killed.
How did you know he was killed? Did you get a report?
No.
Our snipers… I think they fired at least with two rifles if not
three, the target was visible for quite a long time, not something…
but static. Say 150 or 200 (m)
For snipers that’s nothing.
In
short, we saw the guy…And everything is also documented. Documented
in our unit. We’ve got our observations on tape and there isn’t any
doubt that he…it can be seen clearly. There was some protective wall
and one bullet hit low, hitting the wall, but the other two, there
were three shots fired, surely hit the guy, who apparently fell
dead. That was one case.
In
this case you applied to your CP that gave you authorization?
Yes.
Again, saying ‘binoculars’ and that’s OK. So what do you want from
us?
You identified the binoculars without any doubt? I assume it
happened during the day.
Yes.
Did he look in your direction?
No.
There were tanks, and like them, down below. That’s the way it
appeared to us. Look, Gaza was considered a playground for
sharpshooters. For example, before we entered, we saw some guys from
(the) ‘Golani’ (brigade) (saying) they killed 10, killed without
reason, we killed there, and talks like that. Guys have been talking
freely about having killed, without any reason, just people….
The
second episode happened at night when we saw…. all these greenhouses
across from ….actually in front of our nose, exposed all day long.
At night we saw someone, a bit older, couldn’t tell exactly, played
with something on the ground.
In
a greenhouse, in an area that was once a greenhouse?
Yes.
Among mounds of broken things and sand. Teddy Stadium (Jerusalem’s
Soccer field) could have been built there….We laughed about having
prepared for them the ground for…..
Soccer field?
Yes,
or for a shopping mall, whatever they want. This guy plays with
something on the ground. We touched base with the CP and that
authorized us to shoot. At the end I decided not to shoot. Later,
the next morning we saw that they (Palestinian workers at the
greenhouse) came back to pick up whatever was left of the tomato
greenhouse: pipes and whatever else they found there.
How did you identify that that’s what they were actually doing?
We
saw it. It was nothing-just 100m from us. There were kids there
picking up pipes and anything else that could be used, and also
tomatoes.
Did something happen? Were you told something on your decision no to
shoot?
I was
not reprimanded. We left there after a very short debriefing at the
Brigade CP. In other words, there as a short debriefing of about 15
minutes, plus another 2 minutes of pep talk and then we left there
as if, no…as if they couldn’t have debriefed me over the telephone..
What did he (the Brigade Commander) say after you told him you
decided not to fire, or didn’t you talk about it?
No. I
think that even during real time I told them I wouldn’t …..
And what was their response?
OK. I
also spoke with one of the platoon leaders who was with the Brigade
Commander at the CP. The Brigade Commander sat opposite him. OK,
it's your decision. No shooting? Don’t shoot.
What did the Operations Officer say at the end of the debriefing?
Two
things: (a) we showed them that also the IOF can be brutal when
necessary, and (b) we didn’t let these left-wingers screw up our
operation. Don’t’ remember exactly if he said ’left-leaning media’
or ‘left-wingers’ .
Was he Operation Officer for the command or for the brigade?
For
the Brigade.
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