I just want to quote the following lines from this article and this one with no comments; these testimonies are not an Arab propaganda but revelations from Israeli soldiers themselves who participated in the war in Gaza:
Israel’s military was rocked on Thursday by Gaza war veterans’ accounts of soldiers’ killings of civilians and allegations that deep contempt for Palestinians pervaded its ranks.
The revelations, compiled by the head of an Israel military academy who declared that he was “shocked” at the findings, come as international rights groups are calling for independent inquiries into the conduct of both sides in the three-week Israeli offensive against Palestinian Islamists.
“That’s the beauty of Gaza. You see a man walking, he doesn’t have to have a weapon, and you can shoot him,” one soldier told Danny Zamir, the head of the Rabin pre-military academy, who asked him why a company commander ordered an elderly woman to be shot.
One of the soldiers, an infantry squad leader, recalled an incident in which he said an army sharpshooter killed a Palestinian mother and her two children who turned the wrong way after troops ordered them out of their house.
“The platoon commander let the family go and told them to go to their right. One mother and her two children didn’t understand and went to the left … The sharpshooter saw (them) approaching him, closer than the lines he was told no one should pass. He shot them.”
“I don’t know whether he first shot at their feet or not, but he killed them,” the soldier said.
The squad leader said most of the men under his command felt “the lives of Palestinians … is something very, very less important than the lives of our soldiers, so as far as they are concerned, they can justify it that way”.
The same unnamed NCO said that his commanding officer ordered soldiers on to a rooftop to shoot an old woman crossing a main street during the fighting, which a Palestinian rights groups said left 1,434 people dead, 960 of them civilians.
“I don’t know whether she was suspicious, not suspicious, I don’t know her story,” the NCO said. “I do know that my officer sent people to the roof in order to take her out… It was cold-blooded murder.”
Describing vandalism carried out by soldiers, the squad leader said: “To write ‘death to the Arabs’ on the walls, to take family pictures and spit on them, just because you can — I think this is the main thing, to understand how much the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) has fallen in the realm of ethics.”
Another disturbing element reported by the soldiers was the role of military rabbis in distributing booklets that framed the fighting as a religious war. “All these articles had a clear message: we are the Jewish people, we have come to the land by miraculous means, and now we have to fight to remove the Gentiles who are getting in our way and preventing us from occupying the Holy Land… a great many soldiers had a feeling throughout this operation of a religious war,” said one soldier.
11 comments
Comments feed for this article
March 21, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Topics about Religion » Israeli soldiers admit to deliberate killing of Gaza civilians!
[...] Fade Library added an interesting post on Israeli soldiers admit to deliberate killing of Gaza civilians!Here’s a small excerpt…you can — I think this is the main thing, to understand how much the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) has fallen in the realm of ethics. [...]
March 21, 2009 at 12:13 pm
jonolan
Aside from the vandalism and the actions of the Rabbinical Corps, it sounds like anecdotal references to normal urban warfare taken out of context and spun – as is so normal – in an anti-Isaeli / anti-Semite way.
““That’s the beauty of Gaza. You see a man walking, he doesn’t have to have a weapon, and you can shoot him,”
Damn straight that’s beautiful from a soldier’s point of view, when the enemy doesn’t wear uniforms and from from within the civilian population. Waiting to determine how – not if – hostile the person is is a good way of dying.
““The platoon commander let the family go and told them to go to their right. One mother and her two children didn’t understand and went to the left … The sharpshooter saw (them) approaching him, closer than the lines he was told no one should pass. He shot them.”
Again, better for the soldiers to follow the exact rules of engagement than to make judgment calls that could lead to deaths among their forces. It’s not like the enemy hasn’t used women and children before as suicide bombers and as bait.
“The squad leader said most of the men under his command felt “the lives of Palestinians … is something very, very less important than the lives of our soldiers, so as far as they are concerned, they can justify it that way”
That is normal behavior on the battlefield. A soldier has to place higher value on his own people’s lives than on the enemy’s in order to stay marginally sane and do his job.
“I don’t know whether she was suspicious, not suspicious, I don’t know her story,” the NCO said. “I do know that my officer sent people to the roof in order to take her out… It was cold-blooded murder.”
Suicide Bomber? Scout-Recon? Messenger? She was in the kill-zone and the soldiers did what was required by the dictates of war. Sad though.
People keep forgetting that urban warfare is always nasty. It’s made worse when your forced to fight terrorists who hide directly within the civilian population and refuse to consistently wear uniforms or distinctive badges.
Did Israeli forces go beyond what was proper? Probably in several separate cases. Did Hamas go beyond what was proper? Yes, with action they took.
…Of course Hamas are the duly and democratically elected terrorists of the Gazans, so how innocent were any of the alleged civilians in the 1st place?
March 21, 2009 at 6:20 pm
susanne430
Jonolan, have you ever gone to the store and not found food to feed your hungry children? Have you ever had a sick child yet been unable to buy medicine for him? I doubt it. Instead of wondering how “innocent” those “alleged civilians” are for electing “terrorists,” perhaps we should consider what drives people to such extremes. You think they fly their crude rockets into Israel just for the fun of seeing Zionists scramble knowing Israel has American military weapons which can take them out with a push of a button?
Why is anything ever written against Israel considered anti-Semitic? For goodness’ sake, these are ***Israeli soldiers*** who “rocked” the Israeli military this week!
NO, I’m not a fan of Hamas! I find their creed intolerant and too Islamically extreme. However instead of condemning a desperate population for voting a certain way, why can we not try to understand their living conditions and the reasons why they put Hamas into power? Apparently Hamas was doing more for them than their previous leaders. Isn’t that typically why people remove one administration from power and replace it? They want something different and, hopefully, better?
While I understand some of the comments you made looking at it through a soldier’s eyes … someone valuing and looking out for his own life and his countrymen’s, I wish you would consider these things from a Gazan’s perspective for a minute. If your grandfather’s land had been taken over by an invading group and you were shuttled off to some reservation where the occupying force was able to deprive your family of food and medicine, would you sit back and enjoy life on the reservation or would you seek to take back what you lost? What was STOLEN from you?! At the very least, I’m sure you’d fight to feed your family!
Just look at the picture of these little children and ask yourself if you could say those same things if those were American children – your kids – lying there with bullet wounds in their chests. Your wife and kids didn’t understand so they walked the wrong way and got shot by an occupying force! Try to think how these Arabs feel for just one minute instead of thinking of them as enemies and anti-Semites and all that stuff we are conditioned to think here in America. Most of our media and politicians are controlled by pro-Zionist lobbies and corporations. So it’s no wonder we hear little of what the rest of the world already knows about Israel. They are NOT innocent. To many, THEY are the terrorists.
As a disclaimer let me point out that I grew up favoring Israel, even spiritually. That whole “God’s chosen people” who we had to “bless.” Only within the past year or so have I learned the other side a bit more and been shocked to find how biased I’d been all my life.
Thank you for your time and consideration of what I’ve said here.
March 21, 2009 at 8:11 pm
jonolan
Have you considered that the living conditions in Gaza would be an order of magnitude better if Hamas was removed and there was no longer a need for Gaza to be isolated?
Hamas are nothing but terrorists who seek the death of all Jews. That the facts right out of their own mouths. There’s no room for negotiating with them, only exterminating them – preferably with as fool civilian casualties as possible, but that might be a fantasy on my part considering how and from where Hamas chooses to fight.
You ask what I would do in their place. I’d fight, but against Israel’s soldiers and it’s politicians, not against its civilian population – unless they took up arms.
Hell, last year when either Hamas or Fatah (I don’t remember which one) launched rockets into an Israeli military base, I applauded the action.
I’d like to see a free Palestine, but if the cost is condoning Hamas’ terrorism, then I’d rather see a final end to Palestine instead. Let the stand up, fight and die like men and I’ll side with them, otherwise I have nothing but contempt and despite for them.
March 21, 2009 at 8:30 pm
jonolan
BTW: That should have been “…with as FEW civilian casualties as possible.” I’m afraid my new spell-check plugin is still being tuned.
March 24, 2009 at 10:31 am
samer85
Jonolan, what can I tell you more than the Israelis themselves said? What you are saying represents pure racism toward our civilians just because they are Arab Muslims. How would you feel if you saw someone treating YOUR civilians like minor casualties who are OK to be murdered just to get the “bad guys”. STOP treating us in a way you refuse your own people to be treated with! For goodness sake, the WHOLE world is condemning Israel and saying it committed crimes against humanity in its latest invasion of Gaza and in other wars. Check what the UN said just few hours ago:
http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSLN537222
“United Nations investigators said on Monday Israel violated a range of human rights during its invasion of Gaza, including targeting civilians and using a child as a human shield.
The Sri Lankan human rights lawyer visited the region in early February. She cited a long series of incidents to back her charges.
In one, she said, Israeli soldiers shot a father after ordering him out of his house and then opened fire into the room where the rest of the family was sheltering, wounding the mother and three brothers and killing a fourth.
In another, on January 15, at Tal al Hawa south-west of Gaza City, Israeli soldiers forced an 11-year-old boy to walk in front of them for several hours as they moved through the town, even after they had been shot at.”
When are you going to wake up? By the way you are defending Israel you are isolating yourself from the rest of the world. When are you going to stop your double standards? When are you going to have the courage to condemn Israel’s terrorism and racism?
The Israelis throughout the last 60 years did MANY MANY massacres against Arabs and foolish are those who think that we will forget. We WILL NEVER forget. If you want peace, tell the Israelis to give us our rights back and treat our people in the same way you treat your people. It’s simple as that. Otherwise, there shall never be peace.
March 24, 2009 at 10:51 am
jonolan
I don’t put much credence in the UN anymore, samer85; it’s turned into little more than a pro-Islamist, anti-Israel and Anti-American front-organization for a very evil group of peoples.
If the Palestinians want to be treated like a people deserving of freedom, let them act as such. Decades of their terrorism has done nothing for them, but has brought down much misery upon them.
Try fighting the Israeli military, and doing so from someplace other than your women’s homes and your children’s schools. Then maybe I and others will have enough respect for you to care about your claims of racism.
March 24, 2009 at 11:12 am
samer85
Unfortunately anyone who does not agree with you is immediately labeled as being leftist, communist, Islamist or anti-American. Why do you think everything that is happening in the world is some kind of a conspiracy against America or Israel?
I will just quote another news I just saw few minutes ago to show you how the Israelis think about my people:
“The Israeli Haaretz newspaper revealed that T-shirts and other clothing bearing images and slogans urging for killing pregnant Palestinian women, and bombing mosques are designed nowadays at the request of IDF troops as a 2009 fashion in Israel.
According to Haaretz, the captioned images of dead babies, mothers weeping on their children’s graves, a gun aimed at a child and bombed-out mosques are few examples of many images Israeli soldiers design or choose these days to get them printed on T-shirts.
The newspaper said that this fashion spread largely in the Israeli military units especially the sniper unit whose soldiers order T-shirts bearing, for example, the image of a pregnant Palestinian woman caught in the crosshairs of a rifle with a caption reading, “One shot two kills.”
It pointed out that in many cases, the content printed on T-shirts is submitted for approval to one of the Israeli military units’ commanders.”
March 24, 2009 at 2:00 pm
jonolan
Yes, samer85; some Israelis feel that way about your people – and some of your people feel similarly about the Israeli’s who they want to “drive into the sea.” There is certainly room for bigotry and hate on both sides of wall.
BTW: I don’t think that everything happening in the world is some kind of a conspiracy against America or Israel, just nearly everything the UN says or tries to do that intersects with America or Israel.
March 24, 2009 at 7:55 pm
samer85
I never saw or heard of any Arab encouraging the murder of a pregnant Israeli woman or feeling glad to see an Israeli woman weeping over her dead baby. I admit some Arabs say foolish comments like the one you mentioned and I completely oppose saying these kind of comments; however they do not mean killing anyone. You know that Israel was established by immigrants who came from the sea and those immigrants DROVE hundreds of thousands of Palestinians OUT of their homes, so they say,”We will drive those into the sea to go back to where they came from.” Again, I am not defending what some say but that’s what they mean!
March 24, 2009 at 8:45 pm
jonolan
That claim of yours pales somewhat in the wake of decades of terrorism, almost all of which was aimed a purely civilian targets, samer85.
Just admit that Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular have at least their fair share of bigoted, hateful, murderous animals – just like every group of people. As long as Arabs refuse to actively condemn – or even admit to – their own evildoers in favor of playing the “victim card” the problem will continue.
Their are no clean hands in this conflict, not above the level of the individual at least.