March 31, 2009

ISRAEL'S MILITARY is trying to stifle an international outcry after accounts of several Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers about atrocities they saw during Israel's recent Gaza offensive were published in Ha'aretz newspaper.

The firsthand accounts of the IDF's conduct in Gaza created a stir in Israel and beyond because they confirmed a pattern of blatant disregard for civilian life and abuses that many Palestinians and human rights organizations had reported, but were dismissed by IDF spokespeople as "anti-Israel propaganda."

But on March 30, 11 days after the IDF promised to look into the incidents revealed in the Ha'aretz article, a high-ranking official ordered that the investigation be closed, asserting that the claims about misconduct were based on nothing more than "rumors."

As Amos Harel, the Ha'aretz reporter who broke the story about the soldiers' testimonies, commented sarcastically: "One would be hard-pressed not to express astonishment at the speed and efficiency demonstrated by the Military Advocate General, Brigadier-General Avichai Mendelblit, and the military police investigation unit in probing the 'combat soldiers' testimonials affair.'"

Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip (Rusty Stewart)

THE SOLDIERS' testimonies demonstrate the IDF's wanton destruction of property in Gaza and casual contempt for Palestinian civilians. As one soldier described an incident:

A company commander with 100 soldiers under his command saw a woman walking down a road some distance away, but close enough that you could've gunned down whoever you identified. She was an elderly woman--whether she raised any suspicion, I don't know. But what the officer did in the end was to put men on the roof and with the snipers bring her down. I felt it was simply murder in cold blood.

Danny Zamir, director of a pre-military preparatory program, brought together some of the program graduates to discuss their Gaza experiences and compiled a transcript of their February 13 discussion, which was later leaked to the press.

"I don't get it--why did he have her shot?" interjected Zamir, as the soldier told his story. The soldier replied:

That what's great in Gaza, you could say--you see someone walking down a track, not necessarily armed, and you can simply shoot them. In our case, it was an elderly woman. I didn't see her with any weapon. The order was to bring the person down, that woman, "as soon as you sight her." There are always warnings, and there's always the saying--"it could be a suicide bomber." What I felt was a lot of bloodthirstiness. Because we weren't in many engagements, our battalion was only involved in a very limited number of incidents with terrorists.

According to a squad leader in another brigade:

There was a house with a family inside...We put them in a room. Later, we left the house, and another platoon entered it, and a few days after that, there was an order to release the family. They had set up positions upstairs. There was a sniper position on the roof. The platoon commander let the family go and told them to go to the right. One mother and her two children didn't understand and went to the left, but they forgot to tell the sharpshooter on the roof they had let them go and it was okay, and he should hold his fire, and he did what he was supposed to, like he was following his orders. The sharpshooter saw a woman and children approaching him, closer than the lines he was told no one should pass. He shot them straight away. In any case, what happened is that in the end, he killed them. I don't think he felt too bad about it, because after all, as far as he was concerned, he did his job according to the orders he was given. And the atmosphere in general, from what I understood from most of my men who I talked to...I don't know how to describe it...The lives of Palestinians, let's say, are something very, very less important than the lives of our soldiers. So as far as they are concerned, they can justify it that way.

AS THE Ha'aretz reports of the soldiers' testimonies spread, other media outlets came forward with similar accounts from inside the war on Gaza. A documentary on Israel's Channel 10 related the words of a company commander speaking to his troops just before the Gaza invasion.

"We're going to war," he said. "We're not doing routine security work or anything like that. I want aggressiveness--if there's someone suspicious on the upper floor of a house, we'll shell it. If we have suspicions about a house, we'll take it down. There will be no hesitation. If it's us or them, it'll be them. If someone approaches us unarmed, shoot in the air. If he keeps going, that man is dead. Nobody will deliberate--let the mistakes be over their lives, not ours."

Ha'aretz reporter Amira Hass reported on a handwritten document in Hebrew found in one of the many Palestinian residences that IDF troops commandeered during their offensive. In one section, the document states, "Rules of Engagement: Open fire also upon rescue."

Hass points out that the order to fire on medical rescue teams is consistent with other reports:

One of the main themes in news reports during the Gaza operation, and which appears in many testimonies, is that IDF soldiers shot at Palestinian and Red Cross rescuers, making it impossible to evacuate the wounded and dead. As a result, an unknown number of Palestinians bled to death as others cowered in their homes for days without medical treatment, waiting to be rescued. The bodies of the dead lay outside the homes or on roadsides for days, sometimes as long as two weeks. Ha'aretz has reported a number of such cases, some of them as they happened. The document found in the house provides written proof that IDF commanders ordered their troops to shoot at rescuers.

Before the IDF issued its rapid acquittal of itself, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who also is head of Israel's Labor Party, promised a thorough investigation, but simultaneously issued a full-throated defense of the IDF's conduct.

"We have the most moral army in the world," Barak told Israel Radio. "I spent dozens of years in uniform. I know what happened in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq, and I say to you that from the chief of staff down to the last soldier, the most moral army in the world stands ready to take orders from the government of Israel. I have no doubt that every incident will be individually examined."

Ha'aretz columnist Gideon Levy ridiculed Barak's response and the idea that the IDF would mount anything resembling a thorough investigation.