As promised, Haaretz published extensive testimony from Israeli soldiers who fought in Gaza.
The stark reports, obtained independently by McClatchy Newspapers, paint a stark picture of the Israeli military strategy in Gaza.
"I call this murder," says one Israeli soldier identified as Aviv.
As Israeli soldiers prepared to take over parts of Gaza, Aviv said, they were instructed to shoot anyone they came across in buildings.
Aviv said other soldiers embraced the orders by saying: "We need to murder any person who's in there. Yeah, any person who's in Gaza is a terrorist."
"One of our officers, a company commander, saw someone coming on some road, a woman, an old woman," said Aviv. "She was walking along pretty far away, but close enough so you could take out someone you saw there. If she were suspicious, not suspicious - I don't know. In the end, he sent people up to the roof, to take her out with their weapons. From the description of this story, I simply felt it was murder in cold blood."
"I don't understand," the moderator asked Aviv. "Why did he shoot her?"
Aviv: "That's what is so nice, supposedly, about Gaza: You see a person on a road, walking along a path. He doesn't have to be with a weapon, you don't have to identify him with anything and you can just shoot him. With us it was an old woman, on whom I didn't see any weapon. The order was to take the person out, that woman, the moment you see her."
Faced with direct reports from its own soldiers, the Israeli military has opened a criminal investigation.
In the talk, one soldier also said that rabbis working with the military portrayed the Israeli offensive as a kind of holy war to expel non-Jews from the land.
Over the weekend, Israel's Channel 10 aired a documentary that showed a military briefing for soldiers going into Gaza.
"There will be no hesitation," the Israeli commander told the soldiers. "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."
As an interesting coda, Haaretz on Friday also published a long story on a Tel Aviv print shop that produces shirts for young Israeli soldiers.
Perhaps the most controversial image described in the story shows a veiled, pregnant Arab woman in the crosshairs of a rifle. Underneath the image it reads: "One shot, two kills."
The Israeli military condemned the shirts:
"Military regulations do not apply to civilian clothing, including shirts produced at the end of basic training and various courses. The designs are printed at the soldiers' private initiative, and on civilian shirts. The examples raised by Haaretz are not in keeping with the values of the IDF spirit, not representative of IDF life, and are in poor taste. Humor of this kind deserves every condemnation and excoriation. The IDF intends to take action for the immediate eradication of this phenomenon. To this end, it is emphasizing to commanding officers that it is appropriate, among other things, to take discretionary and disciplinary measures against those involved in acts of this sort."
"The only good Palestinian is a dead Palestinian" seems to be the motto of those commanding the IDF.
Posted by: borisjimbo | March 22, 2009 at 12:16 AM
"The only good Palestinian is a ded Palestainian" I believe the Nazis said the same thing, only it was Jews not Palestinians. Of course in war you have to make your enemy less than human, the Jews have done that to the Palestinians - of course the Palestinians do the same with their bloodthirst.
Posted by: RandyT | March 22, 2009 at 01:16 AM
The fact that this has been regarded as "Humor" is as repugnant as it is telling of mentality of the Leadership, and the choice of T-shirts is a direct reflection of the values of the rank and file.
It doesn't matter what the outward statements are, when the reality is as plain as the nose on ther faces.
And as for RandyT, Perhaps you could consider that Palesininians would rather fight to the death for freedom that die hopelessly under oppression and occupation. No people ever have.
Posted by: Kristie Mansfield | March 24, 2009 at 03:28 PM
The T-shirts are reprehensible and as Kristie said, they are symbolic of the mentality of the leadership down. These lower level IDF members would not be creating, buying, distributing, wearing T-shirts without the tacit approval of their superiors.
The existence - acceptance - of these T-shirts along with the stories coming from IDF members bolster what Amnesty Int'l, McClatchy and other NGO's have been saying about the attitude of the troops while in Gaza from the de-humanization of Palestinians so a sniper doesn't think twice about shooting a mother and her two children to defecating all over someone's home you've taken over.
Yes, the IDF has now officially condemned these T-shirts, but where were they before the foreign press ran with this story?
There's an environment of impunity that must stop. This can only be done if there is an impartial, international inquiry (wider than UN Board of Inquiry that is wrapping up)into the allegations of war crimes committed by all parties of this conflict. Those found responsible, must be held accountable and prosecuted.
Posted by: Edie | March 24, 2009 at 05:41 PM
I pray for the war to end.
Let those who are connected (U S A, E U, U N, Israel, and Palestine) work for the end of the war, for a state of Palestine, for dignity for the Palestinians and Security to both the Israelis and Palestinians.
Posted by: Akin Tijani | April 08, 2009 at 12:59 PM