published in Haaretz.
Contempt for the Palestinians,
cult of physical strength, super-elastic rules of engagement, "lead time" shock
stories of Israeli soldiers "So we killed civilians in Gaza" and the Defense Ministry opened an investigation
from our correspondent Alberto Stabile
JERUSALEM - Here are the stories of war, the last, fought for three weeks in the Gaza Strip. Stories that you would never hear. Not only because there is nothing heroic, but there is a lot of gruesome and morally repulsive, in a sniper who shoots on a mother and her two children who have the wrong road, so they want because the rules of engagement, or a soldier who fires up an old woman who lost walking, or on other young people in uniform abuse their power to damage, deface, injure a Palestinian civilian population which, after all, is considered one with the enemy fighter.
This and more is learned not from the Palestinian propaganda, but from the stories of stakeholders, dozens of students of Yitzhak Rabin, agreed on 13 February to discuss their experiences as part of Operation Cast Lead. Stories hard, heavy as boulders, able to create much embarrassment at the top of the armed forces. To the point that the military prosecutor, as if to balance the inevitable sensation with a reassuring gesture, decided to make public its decision to open an investigation. Haaretz
was to reveal the contents of that meeting. But the merit of having triggered the alarm at all that these accounts imply, is the director of the program pre-military academy, Danny Zamir, who heard the statements made by the young, but already experienced students, hath been addressed directly to the Chief of Staff, Gaby Ashkenazy.
"There was a house containing a family - remember the master of a small infantry unit -. We ordered the family to stay in one room. Then we went and got a new platoon. A few days later came the ' order to release the family. We put a sniper on the roof. The commander released the family, telling them to go to the right, but forgot to tell the sharpshooter who those people were released and everything was ok, and should not shoot ". Instead of right, the mother with two children go to the left. The sniper sees them move closer to the line, as he had been said, no one would have to pass. So "fired immediately, killing them."
"I do not think - continues testimony - that he felt too bad. The general atmosphere, from what I understand talking to my men, was, as it were, that the lives of the Palestinians are far, far less important than the lives of our soldiers. "
rules of engagement very elastic, "unbridled contempt," the cult of physical strength, the effect that "all Palestinians are terrorists," this explosive mix that has led to excesses that humanitarian organizations have denounced as war crimes. Israel has rejected that accusation, arguing that the Palestinian civilian casualties were caused by the fact that they were Hamas militants shield the people crowding the towns in the heart of which, however, the Israeli army has not hesitated to use a devastating power.
Here, however, does not speak or phosphorus bombs or other lethal devices unknown. It speaks, though it may seem out logo is a war, ethics. It is no coincidence that the Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, has rushed to reaffirm that the Israeli army "is the most moral army force that exists in the world." He added that, at most, to clarify the 'individual episodes. "
not think so, however, the protagonists of the stories. Apart from some cases fire against civilians without warning, a commander describes some incidents of vandalism. "Writing" death to Arabs "on the walls (of the houses occupied), take photos of family and spit on them just because you can do, I think this is the most important thing to understand what the Israeli armed forces have precipitated on the floor of morality. "
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