Israel shaken by troops' tales of brutality against Palestinians
A psychologist blames assaults on civilians in the 1990s on soldiers' bad
training, boredom and poor supervision
Conal Urquhart in Jerusalem
Sunday October 21, 2007
The Observer
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.'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0%2C%2C2196019%2C00.html
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