[WCUSP] Israel Shaken by Troops' Tales of Brutality and Sadism Against Palestinians

[KATHARLOW at aol.com]

Israel shaken by troops' tales of brutality  and sadism against
Palestinians

by Conal Urquhart in  Jerusalem

Observer (UK) - Sunday October 21,  2007

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,331025465-119093,00.html

A psychologist blames assaults on civilians in
the 1990s  on soldiers' bad training, boredom
and poor  supervision

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.

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 IDF soldiers involving  the
Palestinian population has consistently dropped. This
trend has  continued in the last few years.'

Guardian Unlimited (c) Guardian News  and Media Limited
2007






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