“It was ludicrous to read it and then hear the response of the army spokesperson that the matter was investigated and ... that the Israeli army is a moral army. It raises doubts about the army spokesperson's responses in general when you know for a fact that these things actually did take place ...”
-- Israeli soldier's testimony
Breaking the Silence (BtS) is an organisation of Israeli activists that gathers testimony from soldiers about human rights abuses they have witnessed or been involved in. On Wednesday 15 July 2009, BtS released testimonies by Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldiers about their actions in Operation Cast Lead.
BtS explains, “In the past few months, the IDF spokesperson has gone to great lengths to prove that if there were any moral problems with the war at all, they were merely on the level of the 'delinquent soldier', rather than a widespread, systemic issue. The stories of this publication prove that we are not dealing with the failures of individual soldiers, and attest instead to failures in the application of values primarily on a systemic level. ... The testimonies of the soldiers in this collection expose that the massive and unprecedented blow to the infrastructure and civilians of the Gaza strip were a direct result of IDF policy ...”
The testimonies are disturbing. They provide evidence of Palestinians used by the IDF as human shields, changed rules of engagement that reduce the risk to soldiers at the expense of civilians, systematic mass destruction of property including mosques, orchards and livestock, displacement of Palestinian civilians from their homes, bombardment of populated areas, vandalism and the use of white phosphorus. The role of the Rabbinate is also highlighted, with its use of religious rhetoric to demonise Palestinians and justify and encourage war crimes. These testimonies shatter three myths about the IDF: that it is moral, brave and professional.
The BtS testimonies should be read in conjunction with Amnesty International's report,
Israel/Gaza Operation 'Cast Lead': 22 Days of Death and Destruction.This report also contains testimonies by Israeli soldiers, but also by Palestinians and detailed accounts of Palestinian civilian casualties, including the massacres of families and targeting of medical workers. The report provides compelling evidence that the IDF committed war crimes. It also contains evidence of war crimes by Palestinian militants who target civilians in Israel, particularly Sderot. But attempts by Israeli apologists that imply moral equivalence between the actions of the Israeli military and Hamas are untenable: the crimes against humanity committed by the IDF in Gaza far outstrip those committed by Hamas and other Palestinian militants.
Here are brief edited selections from some of the 54 testimonies by 30 soldiers given to BtS. The full BtS document, titled
Operation Cast Lead, can be downloaded
here.
