• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
 
www.breakingthesilence.org.il
OPERATION CAST LEAD
 
2
Breaking the Silence activities are made possible through the generous supportof individuals and foundations including: The Moriah Foundation, the New IsraelFund, ICCO, SIVMO, Oxfam GB, medico international, Christian Aid (UK), theBritish Embassy in Tel Aviv, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands,the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation and the EU.This booklet was produced and duplicated thanks to funding from the EU, theGovernment of the Netherlands, and the Spanish Agency for InternationalDevelopment Cooperation.The content and opinions expressed in this booklet do not represent the EU, theGovernment of the Netherlands, or Spanish Agency for International DevelopmentCooperation, and are solely the responsibility of Breaking the Silence.
 
 
www.breakingthesilence.org.il
Several months have passed since the end of Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, andmany Israelis are still not aware of what really happened there. For lack of basic facts,
we are forced to accept unconditionally the positions of the official bodies, which
assure us that in spite of any doubts, the IDF’s conduct was faultless and publicaccountability is uncalled for. This publication includes the testimonies of aroundthirty combatants who took part in the operation in early 2009. The testimonies thatappear here were gathered over the past few months from soldiers who servedin all sectors of the operation. The majority of the soldiers who spoke with us arestill serving in their regular military units and turned to us in deep distress at themoral deterioration of the IDF. Although this publication does not claim to providea broad, comprehensive review of all the soldiers and the units who carried out theoperation, these narratives are enough to bring into question the credibility of the
official IDF versions.There are many significant gaps between the testimonies we gathered. These
testimonies describe use of the ‘Neighbor Procedure’ and of white phosphorusammunition in densely inhabited neighborhoods, massive destruction of buildingsunrelated to any direct threat to Israeli forces, and permissive rules of engagementthat led to the killing of innocents. We also hear from the soldiers about the general
atmosphere that accompanied the fighting, and of harsh statements made by juniorand senior officers that attest to the ongoing moral deterioration of the society and
the army. During the operation, the military rabbinate made its own contributionto these expressions when it introduced controversial religious and politicalinterpretation under the auspices of the IDF and with its blessing.
Although certain features characterized this operation as a whole, significant
differences can be found among the various geographic areas and units. Suchvariation is also addressed in this publication.In the past few months, the IDF spokesperson has gone to great lengths to provethat if there were any moral problems with the war at all, they were merely onthe level of the ‘delinquent soldier,’ rather than a widespread, systemic issue. Thestories of this publication prove that we are not dealing with the failures of individualsoldiers, and attest instead to failures in the application of values primarily on asystemic level. The IDF’s depiction of such phenomena as ‘rotten apple’ soldiers isa tactic used to place the responsibility solely on individual soldiers on the groundand to evade taking responsibility for the system’s serious value and commandfailures. The testimonies of the soldiers in this collection expose that the massiveand unprecedented blow to the infrastructure and civilians of the Gaza strip werea direct result of IDF policy, and especially of the rules of engagement, and a
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...