Breaking The Silence Claims Over Gaza Rebuffed By IDF Reservists

In part of an ongoing schism within the ranks of the Israeli Defense Forces over alleged abuses against Palestinian civilians during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza earlier this year, IDF reservists are coming out publicly to rebuff abuse claims and put the blame on terrorists' use of civilians as human shields, Haaretz reports.

In a report issued Wednesday by Breaking the Silence, 26 unidentified Israeli soldiers who participated in the Gaza operation call the incursion "reckless" and describe a variety of abuses and tragic mix-ups. As Mikhael Manekin writes on the Huffington Post:

All of [the soldiers who spoke with Breaking the Silence] feel there were things that happened in Cast Lead that were highly problematic morally. And according to the Israeli military's official line, all of these soldiers -- who gave their testimonies in separate interviews, mostly anonymously, sometimes at risk of prosecution if their identity is exposed -- are liars.

The spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces presents a radically different version of the Gaza operation than do these combatants who participated in it. The spokesperson claims that Israel did not use the "neighbor procedure" in Cast Lead -- the practice of forcing Palestinian civilians to open doors and search buildings so as not to endanger Israeli troops, which the Israeli Supreme Court banned in 2004. But a soldier from the Egoz unit said that the military did use human shields in exactly this way in Gaza, with the operational support of the unit commander.

However, the soldiers now coming forward are putting an emphasis on the fact that they are not anonymous, and they describe tactics used by Hamas--such as hiding rocket launchers in hospitals or using civilians as human shields--for any civilian casualties that may have occurred, according to the Haaretz report

The organization collecting the new testimonies is called SoldiersSpeakOut and, as Haaretz reports, it issued a direct statement Wednesday against Breaking the Silence:

"Breaking the Silence are misleading in their name and their aim," remarks U.K.-born StandWithUs Israel Director Michael Dickson. "There is no silence to break. Israeli society is open, democratic and self critical. This one-sided and shoddy report fails to stress the context of the war as a battle against Hamas terrorists hiding behind civilians."

"All testimonies collected by Breaking the Silence are by combat soldiers whose names and full details are known and documented by the organization," said Ran Goldstein, a spokesperson for Breaking the Silence. "We do not reveal their details as per their request."

A United Nations investigation into human rights abuses and war crimes committed during the Gaza war is reported to be in its final stage, according to the Jerusalem Post. However, the Israeli government has remained recalcitrant in its cooperation with investigators and, according to the lead investigator Richard Goldstone in the JPost report, it is still too early to determine if war crimes were committed. The investigators are to release their full report by August.

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Comments

[MemoryAlpha]

Update:
Crimes against the civilians of Gaza are ongoing even today.

Reference:

Gaza - Ma’an - Israeli forces made their deepest incursion into the Gaza Strip in months near Beit Hanoun, penetrating 500 meters past the buffer zone to burn 150 dunums of land.

The agricultural field of wheat and barley crops belonging to the Shabat family was destroyed after an Israeli militarized vehicle left the Erez District Coordination Office (DCO) and drove into the Strip, stopping only to set the land on fire. Dry weather meant the crops burned quickly, consuming the much needed grains.

The incident is a string in what farmers call persistent attempts by Israeli soldiers to prevent the harvesting of crops outside the Israeli-patrolled buffer zone near the Gaza border fence. Locals reported almost daily patrols of military jeeps on the outskirts of the town.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=212670

[MBW001]

MemoryAlpha, I challenge you to say some positive things about Israel unless you believe that there are none. Up until know, you're claiming that the whole crate of eggs is bad on account of one or two rotten eggs.

[MemoryAlpha]

Challenge:
Declined. There are plenty of other people willing to fill that niche.

Recommendation:
Don't bother with transparent attempts to distract if you have no proper rebuttal.

[BubbaC33]

This is not relevant to the discussion at hand. The topic has to do with the actions of the IDF during Cast Lead.

[MemoryAlpha]

Comparison:
Is anyone else reminded of "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth"?

[BubbaC33]

I doubt if the Arab apologists on this site will be as accepting of this report by IDF soldiers as they have been of the unknown soldiers who have complained about IDF actions in Gaza.

[Freenation]

so you want us to believe jPost, which is nypost cousin aka tabloid...

[BubbaC33]

You would have people believe anonymous cources versus soldiers willing to step up and share their side of the issue publicly. I think you anti-Israel bias is clouding your perception.

[Wisdo]

Arabs "apologists"

I dont think you will find anyone 'Apologising' on behalf of a people trapped, beaten, and murdered by one of the worlds most powerful armies.

Should the gazan children who are burning from the inside out apologise for not neatly stepping out of the way of the White phospherous bombs?

Should the 50,000 familes now without homes apologise for existing?

The apologies need to come from ordinary Israeli citizens for 60 years of terror and murder on a massive scale.

[BubbaC33]

Your posting is not based on facts or on the circumstance of the Palestinian people. And your posting ignores that for almost 20 years the people on the West Bank were ruled by Jordan, the Arab nation that failed to create a homeland for Palestinians.

[phute]

Well when you consider how much emphasis is put on dehumanising the Palestinian people by Israel is it hardly surprising that there will be an orchestrated campaign to rubbish anyone who finds themselves appalled by the IDF's tactics and has the courage to come forward and say so.

After all when you are stealing the Palestinians' land you have to render them subhuman so that you can bask in your own self endowed light of righteousness.

All a bit fascist if you ask me.

[BubbaC33]

Your posting is long on rhetoric and devoid of facts.

[CigarGod]

A wedge between the IDF is a good thing and an indication that
Zionism is dying and a New Israel is being born....one that rejects aparthied and racial superiority.

[BubbaC33]

Apartheid has nothing to do with Israel, neither does racists policies.

[MemoryAlpha]

Contrary Observations:
“How I experienced a deja vu when I saw a security check point which Palestinians had to negotiate most of their lives that I was reminded so painfully of the same checkpoints in apartheid South Africa....”

Bishop Desmond Tutu, 2007
http://www.fosna.org/content/keynote-address-archbishop-desmond-tutu-0

[phute]

Then do enlighten us as to how we should interpret the latest ruling that is so comfortably accomodated by apartheid and racist aplogists - you know - the one where road signs be in Hebrew only.

[sammyscout]

The soldiers that came forward are braver than their counterparts for exposing the the truth. Israel has a long history of abuses against the Palestinians and given the unconditional support it enjoys fron us, there are no end in sight of their human rights abuses

During the Bush Administration, Israel killed more than 3,000 Palestinian civilians who took no part in hostilities, including more than 1,000 children. During its December-January war on the Gaza Strip alone, Israel killed nearly 1,200 Palestinian non-combatants.

Without the United States using its tremendous leverage over Israel to achieve these goals, it is highly doubtful that Israel will change its poor behavior. As the country bankrolling Israel’s military occupation and human rights abuses against Palestinians, the United States is complicit in those violations. Now is the time for accountability.

http://middleeast.change.org/actions/view/tell_congress--no_arms_for_israel

[BubbaC33]

The people writing on this site about the collateral damage during Operation Cast Lead seem to have collectively forgotten a very important fact. Those civlians were put in harm's way not by Israel or the IDF, but by Hamas. Hams knew if it continued to fire missles into Israel there would be an armed response. Hamas knew if it fired those missles from civilian sites the IDF would destroy them. Hamas knew if it fired on the Israeli soldiers while hiding among its own civilians it would be placing them in danger. Bottom line, if Hamas had acted responsibly the killed and injured civilians would not have been placed, by their own government, in the middle of a firefight.

[MemoryAlpha]

Observation:
Wasn't Israel the responsible party for destroying Palestinian villages and driving refugees into Gaza in 1948? Aren't they responsible for there being such a high concentration of civilians in the Gaza Strip in the first place?

[DustinTime]

So, at significant personal risk, Israeli soldiers just made it all up, huh?

Wow.

Well, if the Israeli Army spokesman says so, must be true. Just like here in the ol' USA! Brave American hero Pat Tillman, killed in battle by the enemy, not by U.S. Forces at close range--remember? Always trust the military spokesman.

Darn you, crazy-liar Israeli soldiers all with the same story--you're so deceptive! Ugh!

[BubbaC33]

Whatever was done by the US military has nothing to do with the IDF.

[MemoryAlpha]

Hypocrisy:
...and yet, Jordan's military /does/ have something to do with the discussion?

[omobob]

"the US military has nothing to do with the IDF." in what naive world do you live in?

[myopinion2]

The following is a reasonable take on this issue published by a Haaretz colomnist:



During the conflict in Gaza earlier this year, Israel did not use even close to the amount of firepower the U.S. military unleashed on Iraq's civilian population. The IDF, as can be concluded from the reports themselves, did not systematically kill innocent people. It did use intense fire in crowded areas and issued fairly loose rules of engagement in order to meet the unwritten goal of the operation - a minimum of IDF casualties.

Among the lower ranks of some units, this translated to a certain unraveling in the wake of eight years of Qassam rockets (a period in which, despite our celebrated policy of restraint, several thousand Palestinians were killed) and a sentiment among some soldiers that the time had come to settle the score with the Gazans.

So where can Israel draw the line between self-flagellation and introspection? A month ago, Colonel Hertzi Halevy of the IDF Paratroopers Brigade held a conference on battle values, in which all battalion and brigade commanders took part. It was an extensive and thorough discussion, which heard from legal experts, journalists, a philosophy professor and even (good heavens!) a bona fide leftwing activist.

The Paratroopers officers felt they had done nothing for which they should feel ashamed. Instead of curling up in a defensive ball, they listened to the criticism with interest, although they rejected much of it in their own detailed responses

[MemoryAlpha]

Note:
This column confirms that Israel prioritized the lives of its Jewish soldiers over those of Muslim and Christian civilians.

Result:
Violation of the Geneva Conventions, which mandate that armies and occupying forces take every effort to protect civilians in the line of fire.

[BubbaC33]

You have just made it abundantly clear you have never served in the military. When you go into a firefight your first responsibility is the lives of the soldiers you command if you are an officer. First and foremost is the safety of your own soldiers. If the enemy is firing on you you respond. If the enemy puts civilians in the way, as Hamas did, you do your best to avoid hurting any, but your first responsibility is to your own troops.

[amalfedup]

Of course they do! So did the Abu Graib torturers!

[BubbaC33]

It is reprehensible for you to compare the IDF to the people who tortured inmates in Iraq. There is nothing in your comparison with any level of truth or accuracy.

[MemoryAlpha]

Observation:
The bad apple always insists the barrel must be pure, in spite of its presence.

[phute]

Oh how you wish that were so.

Quit the school master lark. You'd be laughed out of class.