Haaretz exposure: IDF testimonies paint grim picture of Gaza war

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Initial testimonies given by Israel Defense Forces soldiers and officers who fought in Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip earlier this year paints a grim picture of civilian deaths, deliberate destruction of Palestinian property and loose orders to open fire.

Dozens of combat soldiers, graduates of the Oranim pre-military institute, gathered at their alma mater last month relate their experiences during Operation Cast Lead.

Their on-the-ground testimonies are different from the army's official statements, in which the IDF insisted its forces paid heed to high moral conduct in every sector.

In one testimony, a soldier describes an incident in which an IDF sniper killed a Palestinian woman and her two children.

"There was one house with a family in it... we put them into some room. Afterward, we left the house and another company went in, and a few days after we went in there was an order to release the family. We took our positions upstairs."

"There was a sniper position on the roof and the company commander released the family and told them to take a right," said the soldier. "One mother and her two children didn't understand, and they took a left. Someone forgot to notify the sniper on the roof that the family had been released, and that it was okay, it was fine, to hold fire, and he... you can say he acted as necessary, as he was ordered to."

More soldier testimonies will be published in Haaretz over the coming days

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072040.html

[Howardx]

1. kick

so everyone can read it

[Scurrilous]

2. Soldiers say IDF immoral in Gaza

Two NCOs, during post-op conference in Israel, relate stories of civilians being killed during Operation Cast Lead

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3688937,00.html

<snip>

"The IDF did not behave morally during Operation Cast Lead, soldiers who had participated in the operation said during a post-op conference at the military academy at Oranim. The conference protocol was published Thursday.

One NCO told of the experiences that bothered him during the operation. "Prior to going into a crowded area… we had a meeting about the rules of engagement and opening fire within a city, because as you know we fired a lot of rounds and killed a lot of people in order for us not to be injured or shot at."

"When we entered a house, we were supposed to bust down the door and start shooting inside and just go up story by story… I call that murder. Each story, if we identify a person, we shoot them. I asked myself – how is this reasonable?"

The NCO also related a story about an old woman who was crossing a main route who was shot by the soldiers. "I don't know whether she was suspicious, not suspicious, I don't know her story… I do know that my officer sent people to the roof in order to take her out… It was cold-blooded murder."

Another NCO told of an incident in which a family was killed. "We had taken over the house… and the family was released and told to go right. A mother and two children got confused and went left… The sniper on the roof wasn't told that this was okay and that he shouldn't shoot… you can say he just did what he was told… he was told not to let anyone approach the left flank and he shot at them."

"I don't know whether he first shot at their feet or not (per IDF engagement instructions), but he killed them," the NCO said.

When asked during the conference whether he had spoken to the sniper afterwards, he said no. "I think he felt horrible about it, that he had done what he was told. I know that most people I've talked to feel that the atmosphere in Gaza was that the lives of Palestinians were far less important than the live of our soldiers."

"We expected to hold a discussion about the war, in which we would hear about the personal experiences and lessons of the soldiers, but we did not expect the testimonies that we heard," Academy Head Danny Mazir told Ynet. "We were in total shock."

[Scurrilous]

3. 'We felt like we had complete license'

<snip>

"Testimonies of soldiers and officers who took part in Operation Cast Lead at the beginning of 2009 paint a grim picture of military ethics which contradicts official IDF reports that were released to the media during and after the operation.

The testimonies included reports of shooting at people known to be non-combatants, evacuating families to zones which the military had defined as no-entry zones and therefore would open fire at any person entering, acts of vandalism and abuse of humanitarian aid.

The testimonies were given during a gathering at the Rabin Pre-Military Academy about a month ago and wee alter published in an academy pamphlet. An IAF pilot and infantry reservists participated in the gathering. Most participants said commands from higher echelons were understood as almost unlimited license to act as the soldiers in the field saw fit."

<snip>

"Infantrymen described an unusually high intervention by IDF- and non-military rabbis in the fighting, including distribution of booklets and pamphlets which described the war in religious terminology.

"All the articles had one clear message," one soldier said. "We are the people of Israel, we arrived in the country almost by miracle, now we need to fight to uproot the gentiles who interfere with re-conquering the Holy Land… many soldiers' feelings were that this was a war of religion."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1237392666490&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[Scurrilous]

4. Can Israel dismiss its own troops' stories from Gaza?

<snip>

"The statements of the Israel Defense Forces soldiers from the Yitzhak Rabin preparatory course provide the first, uncensored look at what occurred in some of the combat units in Operation Cast Lead.

It seems that what soldiers have to say is actually the way things happened in the field, most of the time. And as usual, reality is completely different from the gentler version provided by the military commanders to the public and media during the operation and after.

The soldiers are not lying, for the simple reason that they have no reason to. If you read the transcript that will appear in Haaretz Friday, you will not find any judgment or boasting. This is what the soldiers, from their point of view, saw in Gaza. There is a continuity of testimony from different sectors that reflects a disturbing and depressing picture.

The IDF will do everyone, and most of all itself, a big favor if it takes these soldiers and allegations seriously and investigates itself in depth. When statements came only from Palestinian witnesses or "the hostile press," it was possible to dismiss them as propaganda that served the enemy. But what can be done when the soldiers themselves tell the story?

It's possible that somewhere in the stories there were a few mistakes or exaggerations, because a squad or platoon leader does not always see the entire picture. But this is evidence, first hand, of what most Israelis would prefer to repress. This is how the army carried out its war against armed terrorists, with a civilian population of a million and a half people stuck in the middle."

more

[EFerrari]

5. I read this last night but couldn't and still can't comment.

It goes so far beyond mere brutality. The Israeli government is dooming their own nation because you can't treat others in such a manner and never expect it to blow back. And that's deeply saddening.

[azurnoir]

6. From January 4

The guiding principle of Israel's ground invasion is to move in with full force and try to minimize Israeli casualties, Israeli military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in the daily Yediot Ahronoth. "We'll pay the international price later for the collateral damage and the anticipated civilian casualties," Fishman said."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[oberliner]

7. Israel to probe reported abuse by soldiers in Gaza

JERUSALEM – Israel's military on Thursday ordered a criminal inquiry into its own soldiers' reports that some troops killed Palestinian civilians, including children, during the Gaza war by hastily opening fire, confident that relaxed rules of engagement would protect them.

Their accounts, published in a military institute's newsletter, echo Palestinian allegations and feed into human rights groups' contention that Israel violated the laws of war. Soldiers also reported the wanton destruction of civilian property.

The troops spoke at a get-together with students enrolled in a military preparatory course. The transcript of the session appeared this week in a newsletter the institute publishes, Israeli newspapers reported.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090319/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

[Scurrilous]

8. Probe into Gaza op allegations comes too late

<snip>

"One important development has already come from Haaretz's publication Thursday of soldiers' accounts of their Operation Cast Lead experiences. Military Advocate General Avihai Mandelblitt ordered two military police investigations into comments by Givati squad leaders at their alma mater pre-military academy about incidents in which they said Palestinian civilians were killed. Until now, the army has sufficed with operation probes and completely avoided any criminal proceedings.

Meanwhile, and as efficiently, the IDF took another measure: a hasty discredit campaign against the testimony and motives of academy chief Danny Zamir. By Thursday afternoon, the media had been told off the record that: 1. Zamir is a well-known territories-service refusenik (Partly true - he did refuse to serve in 1990, which did not interfere with his advancement in the reserves or position as head of the pre-military academy committee). 2. The texts indicate Zamir "guides" his pupils to release incriminating testimony (Problematic. The minutes of the discussion indicated that the soldiers reported their experiences willingly, although they are not proud of them). 3. Zamir hid the minutes from the IDF, but hastened to release them to the press.

This claim is, pardon me, nonsense, and the army backed off it in the evening hours. E-mail exchanges between Zamir and the chief of staff's office indicate that Zamir first notified the chief of staff on February 23. On March 5, he sent the minutes to an Ashkenazi staff member who had requested them. Unless the chief of staff's office has trouble opening "Word" files (and knowing Colonel Erez Weiner, this is unlikely), the army has known about the testimonies for two weeks.

The timeline raises another troubling question: Why wasn't the information transmitted immediately to the military advocate general? Funny that only media reports engendered actual action.

And now comes the most interesting claim: By the afternoon, the army could report that the investigation into the testimony regarding the shooting of a mother and two children had reached preliminary conclusions. Givati brigade commander Ilan Malkha summoned the squad leader who recounted the story, who admitted he had relied solely on rumors in the company. The soldier, needless to say, was not sent forth to offer his corrected version to the press.

One of the most important jobs of public relations experts is damage control in the event of an image crisis. It is still impressive to see the energy invested in that Thurday, but it is disappointing - if not surprising - to see the enthusiasm with which major news outlets adopted IDF claims, either because the information was reported by the competition or because the testimony doesn't fit the way "our IDF" is supposed to act.

The whole thing was accompanied by an intensive witch hunt for the sources, and an intimidation campaign against Oranim military prep graduates (the lefty Zamir has educated many decorated company commanders in the past decade).

But the story became the talk of the day in combat units. Officers who spoke with Haaretz consider the testimonies they read very credible. Others noted it is no coincidence that certain units (Givati and Golani) seem more prone to such suspicions than others (paratroops)."

more

[Alamuti Lotus]

9. LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!

I am sure they have carried out a thorough investigation and will shortly clear all soldiers of any wrongdoing. It was the Palestinians' fault for being there in the first place, anyway.

[Scurrilous]

10. Testimonies on misconduct in Gaza keep rolling in

<snip>

"Further testimonies emerged this weekend of army units adopting lax rules of engagement during Operation Cast Lead. The reports followed Thursday's publication in Haaretz of soldiers' accounts of ethical violations in the Gaza offensive.

On Saturday, Channel 10 showed a documentary that included a security briefing by a company commander on the eve of the Gaza invasion.

"We're going to war," he told his soldiers. "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," the commander continued. "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."

A number of officers told Haaretz this weekend that the testimonies did not surprise them, as "anyone with eyes in his head knows that these things happened during the fighting in Gaza."

The soldiers who testified about misconduct "placed a very unpleasant mirror before us," said one officer."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072811.html

[Scurrilous]

11. IDF ends Gaza war crimes probe, says claims are 'rumors'

<snip>

"Military Advocate General Brig. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit on Monday instructed the Military Police Investigation unit to close the investigation into soldiers' accounts of alleged misconduct and serious violations of the army's rules of engagement during Operation Cast Lead.

In a press release issued Monday the army said that the preliminary Military Police investigation into the testimonies revealed that they "were based on rumors and not first-hand experience."

However, the Military Advocate General's announcement does not address testimonies published by the Associated Press on Friday that corroborate soldiers' accounts with testimonies given by Palestinians.

The probe was launched earlier this month after IDF soldiers were quoted as telling a military cadet academy that combat troops in Gaza fired at unarmed Palestinian civilians and vandalized property during Operation Cast Lead. The army has barred those soldiers from speaking to the press."

more

[geek tragedy]

12. The IDF determined that the IDF is blameless?

Quelle shocke!

[Jefferson23]

13. Sorry, but you can bar those soldiers all you want now, the information

is out there Israel.

[azurnoir]

14. So IDF testimonies are just rumors

and Palestinian testimonies are....... I do not think I have to say it

what a bunch of crap

[Scurrilous]

15. Gaza probe / Either troops are liars, or the IDF is pure as snow

<snip>

"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" that took place at the Rabin pre-military training academy. The investigation into Moshe (Chico) Tamir's all-terrain vehicle accident made its way from desk-drawer to desk-drawer over the course of almost 18 months, yet the military advocate general needed just 11 days (including two Saturdays) to probe the accounts of combat soldiers in order to completely dispel the allegations.

There is something soothing in the exhaustive investigation by the military advocate general. The IDF emerges from it (and from the Gaza Strip) as pure as snow. Yet at the same time there is a disconcerting message emanating from the closure of the investigation, one which, at least according to Brig. Gen. Mendelblit, a group of combat soldiers and officers serving in some of the finest units in the IDF has proven to be nothing but a bunch of liars and exaggerating storytellers, men who have not uttered one truthful word.

The military advocate general picks apart the testimonials brick by brick. Not only does he present alternative versions to the two most damning claims - the alleged shooting of a Palestinian mother and her children as well as the killing of an elderly Palestinian woman - but he also expends great effort in concealing a series of other allegations of improper behavior, from spitting on home photographs of Palestinian families to uprooting orchards to the use of white phosphorus bombs. Apparently, soldiers informed military police investigators of two more incidents in which civilians were mistakenly shot to death. Mendelblit retroactively provides a rationale for the soldiers' predicament in these cases as well.

There is no reason to cast doubt on the sincerity of the military advocate general, or in the thoroughness of the military police investigators. Nonetheless, it is unclear how they can be so certain that the "combat soldiers' testimonials" were just a series of rumors and concoctions "while the soldiers were truthful during the investigations conducted by the military police and the Givati brigades commander."

Given the international firestorm ignited by the intial media stories of the accounts and the dilemma which the soldiers found themselves in vis-a-vis their commanders, it is as if the soldiers chose a reasonable exit strategy: they can claim that their accounts were based on rumors so as not to open themselves up to charges that they ratted out their comrades. This is pure conjecture, of course. The soldiers were not permitted to speak with journalists. In other units, commanders have warned their soldiers to speak with anyone outside of the army about what they witnessed in the Gaza Strip.

There is another factor that must be taken into consideration. The investigation is based solely on one side of the equation - the Israeli side. An Associated Press reporter who was in Gaza last week interviewed Palestinians about the incidents in question. Their recollections to some extent corroborate the descriptions of the alleged shootings as initially recalled by the soldiers.

The AP story was published last Thursday night, yet the IDF is ignoring its contents. Now it is clear that the IDF withdrawal from Gaza does not allow the army to conduct an on-site investigation. Yet the AP reporter who wrote the story is fluent in both Hebrew and English. How is it that the military police unit did not think to ask her of what she heard and saw in Gaza?"

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1075001.html

[IndianaGreen]

16. At least the US Army prosecutes. and often convicts, soldiers guilty of crimes

U.S. Soldier Pleads Guilty to Murdering 4 Iraqi Prisoners

By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, March 30, 2009; 11:47 AM

BERLIN, March 30 -- A U.S. Army sergeant pleaded guilty to murder Monday in the deaths of four Iraqi prisoners in 2007, telling a military court that the slayings were "in the best interest of my soldiers."

Sgt. First Class Joseph P. Mayo, 27, was sentenced to 35 years in prison and became the fourth soldier convicted in the killing of four Iraqi men in Baghdad in the spring of 2007. The prisoners were each shot in back of the head while handcuffed and blindfolded, then dumped into a canal, according to testimony at the U.S. Army's Rose Barracks Courthouse in Vilseck, Germany.

The Iraqis had been arrested on suspicion of attacking U.S. military patrols in Baghdad after they were found in possession of rifles and ammunition. Frustrated by a lack of evidence to keep them in detention, however, members of Mayo's infantry unit took the prisoners to a remote area and executed them, according to testimony and evidence presented in the case.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/30/AR2009033001352.html?nav=hcmodule