R
Raymond
Guest
Israeli report: "Shocking" tales of violence by soldiers
A klog iz mir! - Woe is me!
Thursday October 25, 2007 07:29
by Conal Urquhart in Jerusalem - Guardian newspaper
Shalom:
A study by an Israeli psychologist into the violent behaviour of the
country's soldiers is provoking bitter controversy and has awakened
urgent questions about the way the army conducts itself in the Gaza
Strip and West Bank.
Israeli soldier with gun
http://www.imemc.org/article/51076
Nufar Yishai-Karin, a clinical psychologist at the Hebrew University
in Jerusalem, interviewed 21 Israeli soldiers and heard confessions of
frequent brutal assaults against Palestinians, aggravated by poor
training and discipline. In her recently published report, co-authored
by Professor Yoel Elizur, Yishai-Karin details a series of violent
incidents, including the beating of a four-year-old boy by an officer.
The report, although dealing with the experience of soldiers in the
1990s, has triggered an impassioned debate in Israel, where it was
published in an abbreviated form in the newspaper Haaretz last month.
According to Yishai Karin: 'At one point or another of their service,
the majority of the interviewees enjoyed violence. They enjoyed the
violence because it broke the routine and they liked the destruction
and the chaos. They also enjoyed the feeling of power in the violence
and the sense of danger.'
In the words of one soldier: 'The truth? When there is chaos, I like
it. That's when I enjoy it. It's like a drug. If I don't go into
Rafah, and if there isn't some kind of riot once in some weeks, I go
nuts.'
Another explained: 'The most important thing is that it removes the
burden of the law from you. You feel that you are the law. You are the
law. You are the one who decides... As though from the moment you
leave the place that is called Eretz Yisrael [the Land of Israel] and
go through the Erez checkpoint into the Gaza Strip, you are the law.
You are God.'
The soldiers described dozens of incidents of extreme violence. One
recalled an incident when a Palestinian was shot for no reason and
left on the street. 'We were in a weapons carrier when this guy,
around 25, passed by in the street and, just like that, for no reason
- he didn't throw a stone, did nothing - bang, a bullet in the
stomach, he shot him in the stomach and the guy is dying on the
pavement and we keep going, apathetic. No one gave him a second look,'
he said.
The soldiers developed a mentality in which they would use physical
violence to deter Palestinians from abusing them. One described
beating women. 'With women I have no problem. With women, one threw a
clog at me and I kicked her here [pointing to the crotch], I broke
everything there. She can't have children. Next time she won't throw
clogs at me. When one of them [a woman] spat at me, I gave her the
rifle butt in the face. She doesn't have what to spit with any more.'
Yishai-Karin found that the soldiers were exposed to violence against
Palestinians from as early as their first weeks of basic training. On
one occasion, the soldiers were escorting some arrested Palestinians.
The arrested men were made to sit on the floor of the bus. They had
been taken from their beds and were barely clothed, even though the
temperature was below zero. The new recruits trampled on the
Palestinians and then proceeded to beat them for the whole of the
journey. They opened the bus windows and poured water on the arrested
men.
The disclosure of the report in the Israeli media has occasioned a
remarkable response. In letters responding to the recollections,
writers have focused on both the present and past experience of
Israeli soldiers to ask troubling questions that have probed the
legitimacy of the actions of the Israeli Defence Forces.
The study and the reactions to it have marked a sharp change in the
way Israelis regard their period of military service - particularly in
the occupied territories - which has been reflected in the increasing
levels of conscientious objection and draft-dodging.
The debate has contrasted sharply with an Israeli army where new
recruits are taught that they are joining 'the most ethical army in
the world' - a refrain that is echoed throughout Israeli society. In
its doctrine, published on its website, the Israeli army emphasises
human dignity. 'The Israeli army and its soldiers are obligated to
protect human dignity. Every human being is of value regardless of his
or her origin, religion, nationality, gender, status or position.'
However, the Israeli army, like other armies, has found it difficult
to maintain these values beyond the classroom. The first intifada,
which began in 1987, before the wave of suicide bombings, was markedly
different to the violence of the second intifada, and its main events
were popular demonstrations with stone-throwing.
Yishai-Karin, in an interview with Haaretz, described how her research
came out of her own experience as a soldier at an army base in Rafah
in the Gaza Strip. She interviewed 18 ordinary soldiers and three
officers whom she had served with in Gaza. The soldiers described how
the violence was encouraged by some commanders. One soldier recalled:
'After two months in Rafah, a [new] commanding officer arrived... So
we do a first patrol with him. It's 6am, Rafah is under curfew, there
isn't so much as a dog in the streets. Only a little boy of four
playing in the sand. He is building a castle in his yard. He [the
officer] suddenly starts running and we all run with him. He was from
the combat engineers.
'He grabbed the boy. I am a degenerate if I am not telling you the
truth. He broke his hand here at the wrist, broke his leg here. And
started to stomp on his stomach, three times, and left. We are all
there, jaws dropping, looking at him in shock...
'The next day I go out with him on another patrol, and the soldiers
are already starting to do the same thing."
Yishai-Karin concluded that the main reason for the soldiers' violence
was a lack of training. She found that the soldiers did not know what
was expected of them and therefore were free to develop their own way
of behaviour. The longer a unit was left in the field, the more
violent it became. The Israeli soldiers, she concluded, had a level of
violence which is universal across all nations and cultures. If they
are allowed to operate in difficult circumstances, such as in Gaza and
the West Bank, without training and proper supervision, the violence
is bound to come out.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said that, if a soldier deviates
from the army's norms, they could be investigated by the military
police or face criminal investigation.
She said: 'It should be noted that since the events described in Nufar
Yishai-Karin's research the number of ethical violations by Israeli
soldiers involving the Palestinian population has consistently
dropped. This trend has continued in the last few years.'
- The Guardian, Oct 21, 2007 - www.guardian.co.uk
A klog iz mir! - Woe is me!
Thursday October 25, 2007 07:29
by Conal Urquhart in Jerusalem - Guardian newspaper
Shalom:
A study by an Israeli psychologist into the violent behaviour of the
country's soldiers is provoking bitter controversy and has awakened
urgent questions about the way the army conducts itself in the Gaza
Strip and West Bank.
Israeli soldier with gun
http://www.imemc.org/article/51076
Nufar Yishai-Karin, a clinical psychologist at the Hebrew University
in Jerusalem, interviewed 21 Israeli soldiers and heard confessions of
frequent brutal assaults against Palestinians, aggravated by poor
training and discipline. In her recently published report, co-authored
by Professor Yoel Elizur, Yishai-Karin details a series of violent
incidents, including the beating of a four-year-old boy by an officer.
The report, although dealing with the experience of soldiers in the
1990s, has triggered an impassioned debate in Israel, where it was
published in an abbreviated form in the newspaper Haaretz last month.
According to Yishai Karin: 'At one point or another of their service,
the majority of the interviewees enjoyed violence. They enjoyed the
violence because it broke the routine and they liked the destruction
and the chaos. They also enjoyed the feeling of power in the violence
and the sense of danger.'
In the words of one soldier: 'The truth? When there is chaos, I like
it. That's when I enjoy it. It's like a drug. If I don't go into
Rafah, and if there isn't some kind of riot once in some weeks, I go
nuts.'
Another explained: 'The most important thing is that it removes the
burden of the law from you. You feel that you are the law. You are the
law. You are the one who decides... As though from the moment you
leave the place that is called Eretz Yisrael [the Land of Israel] and
go through the Erez checkpoint into the Gaza Strip, you are the law.
You are God.'
The soldiers described dozens of incidents of extreme violence. One
recalled an incident when a Palestinian was shot for no reason and
left on the street. 'We were in a weapons carrier when this guy,
around 25, passed by in the street and, just like that, for no reason
- he didn't throw a stone, did nothing - bang, a bullet in the
stomach, he shot him in the stomach and the guy is dying on the
pavement and we keep going, apathetic. No one gave him a second look,'
he said.
The soldiers developed a mentality in which they would use physical
violence to deter Palestinians from abusing them. One described
beating women. 'With women I have no problem. With women, one threw a
clog at me and I kicked her here [pointing to the crotch], I broke
everything there. She can't have children. Next time she won't throw
clogs at me. When one of them [a woman] spat at me, I gave her the
rifle butt in the face. She doesn't have what to spit with any more.'
Yishai-Karin found that the soldiers were exposed to violence against
Palestinians from as early as their first weeks of basic training. On
one occasion, the soldiers were escorting some arrested Palestinians.
The arrested men were made to sit on the floor of the bus. They had
been taken from their beds and were barely clothed, even though the
temperature was below zero. The new recruits trampled on the
Palestinians and then proceeded to beat them for the whole of the
journey. They opened the bus windows and poured water on the arrested
men.
The disclosure of the report in the Israeli media has occasioned a
remarkable response. In letters responding to the recollections,
writers have focused on both the present and past experience of
Israeli soldiers to ask troubling questions that have probed the
legitimacy of the actions of the Israeli Defence Forces.
The study and the reactions to it have marked a sharp change in the
way Israelis regard their period of military service - particularly in
the occupied territories - which has been reflected in the increasing
levels of conscientious objection and draft-dodging.
The debate has contrasted sharply with an Israeli army where new
recruits are taught that they are joining 'the most ethical army in
the world' - a refrain that is echoed throughout Israeli society. In
its doctrine, published on its website, the Israeli army emphasises
human dignity. 'The Israeli army and its soldiers are obligated to
protect human dignity. Every human being is of value regardless of his
or her origin, religion, nationality, gender, status or position.'
However, the Israeli army, like other armies, has found it difficult
to maintain these values beyond the classroom. The first intifada,
which began in 1987, before the wave of suicide bombings, was markedly
different to the violence of the second intifada, and its main events
were popular demonstrations with stone-throwing.
Yishai-Karin, in an interview with Haaretz, described how her research
came out of her own experience as a soldier at an army base in Rafah
in the Gaza Strip. She interviewed 18 ordinary soldiers and three
officers whom she had served with in Gaza. The soldiers described how
the violence was encouraged by some commanders. One soldier recalled:
'After two months in Rafah, a [new] commanding officer arrived... So
we do a first patrol with him. It's 6am, Rafah is under curfew, there
isn't so much as a dog in the streets. Only a little boy of four
playing in the sand. He is building a castle in his yard. He [the
officer] suddenly starts running and we all run with him. He was from
the combat engineers.
'He grabbed the boy. I am a degenerate if I am not telling you the
truth. He broke his hand here at the wrist, broke his leg here. And
started to stomp on his stomach, three times, and left. We are all
there, jaws dropping, looking at him in shock...
'The next day I go out with him on another patrol, and the soldiers
are already starting to do the same thing."
Yishai-Karin concluded that the main reason for the soldiers' violence
was a lack of training. She found that the soldiers did not know what
was expected of them and therefore were free to develop their own way
of behaviour. The longer a unit was left in the field, the more
violent it became. The Israeli soldiers, she concluded, had a level of
violence which is universal across all nations and cultures. If they
are allowed to operate in difficult circumstances, such as in Gaza and
the West Bank, without training and proper supervision, the violence
is bound to come out.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said that, if a soldier deviates
from the army's norms, they could be investigated by the military
police or face criminal investigation.
She said: 'It should be noted that since the events described in Nufar
Yishai-Karin's research the number of ethical violations by Israeli
soldiers involving the Palestinian population has consistently
dropped. This trend has continued in the last few years.'
- The Guardian, Oct 21, 2007 - www.guardian.co.uk