Israeli Army and Cyclists. The Myth of Purity of Arms

Tuesday, 17 April 2012

Israeli Army and Cyclists. The Myth of Purity of Arms

by Richard Morris
Tuesday, April 17th, 2012
Purity of Arms
One.

Two days ago we can saw a twenty year old Danish cyclist visiting Palestine with other activists being smashed in the face by a senior officer, Lt Colonel Shalom Eisner, deputy commander of the Jordan Valley Territorial Brigade with an M16 rifle. Unfortunately for Israel the incident was filmed and posted on YouTube.

Even Netanyahu had to condemn the action;

Such conduct is not characteristic of the soldiers and commanders of the Israel Ministry and has no place in the army or the State of Israel”

In Video: “Israeli” Soldiers Beat Activists, MK Hails The Brutality

Unlike the Marmara murders Netanyahu has had to face the truth this time. Mark Regev, IDF Spokesman who is a master dissembler was also forced to be on the defensive (unlike Marmara where he told blatant lies).

Let’s be clear, this sort of behaviour is in stark contrast to our norms and our values and is simply unacceptable”.

Meanwhile he had already planted a counter attack, a press report stated

Friends of the suspended officer claimed that the Danish activist had fractured bones in the soldier’s hand before the incident. The soldiers had acted with restraint and tried to disperse the cyclists blocking the road and only retaliated when they were attacked”

These words are almost identical to Regev’s defence of the Marmara incident when nine activists were murdered in cold blood. Not one Israeli soldier was killed. We further learn that there was no evidence or information to suggest that around 470 of the 1,200 names on the blocking list had any connection to pro-Palestinain groups or a history of activism. Once again Israel will escape international condemnation. Once again the weasel contributors to the Jewish Chronicle will sweat it out and once again the only people to suffer will be Palestinians.

Two The excerpt below can be read in full on this blog as Soldiers Testimonies.

They have been downloaded by me from Breaking The Silence,(with their permission) a group of Israeli soldiers, men and women who have bravely put themselves on the line and under fire, drawing upon themselves the ire of the usual suspects and haters. I have tried again and again to get so called liberal commentators, radical theatre groups here and in the USA to take an interest and have created a documentary type presentation. All to no avail.

IDF Testimony

Soldier 10. My main difficulty in Hebron was the settlers, the Jewish community there. The feeling was that we were protecting the Arabs from the Jews. And neither side liked us, but it felt as though the Jews really did whatever they pleased, and no one would care. We were stuck in the middle. I’ll give you an example of something that happened right next to me: I was standing guard duty, and one of the outposts summoned a medic on radio. Someone replaced me at the guard post and I ran down, and I see a 6 year-old Palestinian girl, her whole head was an open wound.

Questioner. At Post 44?

Soldier 10. Yes. The extremely cute child who would regularly visit our position decided that he didn’t like Palestinians walking right under his home, so he took a brick and threw it at her head. Kids do whatever they please there. No one does anything about it. No one cares. Afterwards, his parents only praised him. The parents there encourage their children to behave this way. I had many such cases. 11-12 year-old Jewish children beat up Palestinians and their parents come to help them along, set their dogs on them, a thousand and one stories Also, seeing those kids in Hebron and being proud that they are afraid. It’s like kids, it’s really like. I remember, also, who were they afraid of? Of the Jewish kids. They didn’t do anything, but they throw rocks at them, and rocks when they pass by, the Jewish kids. The parents don’t say anything. The parents stand, you can see a young kid standing, throwing some small stones and yelling something at them, it was already part of the routine. You come to Tel Rumeida and you see it everyday. It’s already OK. And the parents, they walk around there, I don’t know if it’s the parents, but adults walk around there and don’t comment to the kids.

Questioner. It doesn’t seem strange to you that a kid throws a stone at another kid? Because he was a Jew and the other a Palestinian, it’s as if it were OK.

Did you also see the opposite?

Soldier 10. I remember that I would say out loud it was kind of OK, but I would think to myself, come on, what is he, fucked up? That guy didn’t do anything to him. I would think: this, this is what causes all of the mess, these small fights, these things that the Jews start. It was a kid who I know his parents educate – it’s things that you hear and see on TV – his parents educate him to hate them, and they legitimize throwing rocks and I think that they Jews aren’t right…but I had to make a switch in my brain in order to keep hating Arabs and justifying the Jews cursing him. So it’s like clear there will be a mess afterwards. And you also, you don’t understand which side you are on. I remember that in Hebron it’s the strangest, that you don’t know which side you are on. I am a female
Jewish Israeli soldier,and I’m supposed to be against the Arabs because they are my enemy, but I’m here, next to a house in the post, and I think that they are not OK, that the Jews aren’t right. So wait, so no, I have to turn a switch in my brain to keep hating Arabs and justifying Jews. But no, wait, they still are not OK, they are starting it, because of them we are
here, and because of them this is all happening, because they bother them and they are afraid. Like, it’s terrible, all of this…

Questioner. So why flip the switch?

Soldier 10. Because it’s loyalty to your side.

Questioner. What age are the kids you are talking about?

Soldier 10. Young, like five-six. The ones who run around outside.
Questioner. Were there incidents of violence by adults?
Soldier 10. I remember there was, we were traveling on a bus, it was during the disengagement, I don’t remember what the story was, but someone who they said was crazy, and her husband or boyfriend was killed by terrorist, I don’t know what, so she was screaming at the soldiers, at one of the soldiers who wouldn’t give her a place to sit on the bus. I remember that he controlled himself, controlled himself, and she also hit him, I think. He controlled himself, controlled himself, and then at a certain point he yelled at her,

“Shut up, it’s because of you I’m here at all.” They hated being there.

Questioner. The soldiers?
Soldier 10. Yes. I also think they were mad at the settlers, the residents of Hebron. They were mad.

Questioner. They don’t bring you pizzas to the post and all kinds of stuff like that?

Soldier 10. They bring, but every so often I would hear, “because of these shits we are here at all, they should get out of here, they should leave.” On the one hand there is that, again, you are mad at your nation that they are here, at the Jews that they are here. On the other hand, you also hate the Arabs, because they kill your friends and make trouble for you.

Questioner. So you hate everyone?

Soldier 10. Yes. And then I think that you don’t think, you say what pops into your head at that moment: now I hate this, so I’ll curse him, and after that I hate this, so I’ll curse him,

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian