August 28, 2012
ED: So they admit it. Now what?
Israeli veterans have spoken out, describing a degrading culture of abuse and harassment of Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza. A report containing 30 veterans’ testimonies details numerous cases of violence committed by Israeli soldiers.
The report was released to world media on Saturday by Breaking the Silence, an organization made up of Israeli army veterans formed in 2004. They compiled more than 850 accounts from current and former Israeli soldiers describing abuses they committed or witnessed.
The investigation seeks to serve as “a witness to the ongoing
decline of the military system into increasing immorality."
“The words of the soldiers included here constitute an urgent call to
Israeli society and its leaders: We must foster a serious discourse regarding
the price of military rule of the Occupied Territories,” said the report.
A number of reports pertain to the detention and abuse of minors
who pelt Israeli soldiers with stones and the imposition of Israeli control in occupied areas.
A first sergeant in an armored corps unit described his job as “population
control,” in a testimony entitled "What is that job, really?"
His unit would enter Palestinian villages on a daily basis to “make their presence felt” and to show the local residents that the area did
not belong to them.
“A patrol goes in, or two patrols, two Hummers secured by a jeep, and
raise hell inside the villages. A whole company may be sent in on foot in two
lines like a military parade in the streets, provoking riots, provoking
children,” said the first sergeant.
He said that his commander’s aim was to “grind the population down”
so that they would not even think of throwing stones at their occupiers.
‘WE’D LOST ALL SENSE OF MERCY’
Another veteran described how his troop
would trash shops and buildings because they were bored, purposely triggering
riots.
He related an incident where Israeli
soldiers waiting for civilians outside a mosque began to fire rubber rounds in
order to spark a riot. He said that if Arab children threw stones at them they
would use them as human shields.
“You know how badly beaten they get? You catch him, push the gun against
his body, he can’t make a move, he’s totally petrified. He only goes: "No,
no, army." You can tell he’s petrified.”
REPORT SLANDERS IDF
In response to the report the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said
that Breaking the Silence had revealed
its true intentions “to generate
negative publicity regarding the IDF and its soldiers, rather than facilitating
a proper investigation."
"As a matter of policy, the organization chooses not to provide the IDF and
other relevant bodies with the critical material necessary for investigation.
By compiling testimonies over long periods of time and refusing to provide
additional detail, [Breaking the Silence] proves its true intentions –
rather than facilitating proper investigation, the organization seeks to
generate negative publicity regarding the IDF and its soldiers.”
the IDF
told The Weekend Australian.
Breaking Silence member Yehuda
Shaul hit back at the IDF,
saying "over 70 of our testifiers have come out publicly with their names and
identities revealed, and I'm one of them."
“If the IDF was interested in investigating our claims, we probably would
have already been summoned to interrogations," concluded Shaul.
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