Israeli soldiers accuse Israel's army of genocide in Gaza war - 16-Jul-2009 - Generational Dynamics

Generational Dynamics Web Log for 16-Jul-2009

Israeli soldiers accuse Israel's army of genocide in Gaza war

Soldiers gave about 50 anonymous testimonies to Breaking the Silence, an Israeli soldiers’ organization.

They describe the Israeli army’s use of human shields and deliberate targeting of civilian structures. The descriptions support the claim that soldiers were given orders to shoot first and ask questions later.

As I've written in the past, Israel has been following a typical path that any country follows during a generational Crisis era. Any country will become increasingly genocidal as the Crisis era progresses, until the crisis war reaches a climax.

(For more information, see "Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Gaza are all following the same path," "Gaza war heads toward cease-fire, while violence surges in Sri Lanka," and "In Gaza and Sri Lanka, war slides into genocide.")

You can find translations of all the soldiers' testimonies here. I read through a couple of dozen of the testimonies, and I can't say I really found anything particularly shocking.

The coverage that I heard on the BBC had led me to believe that the soldiers were monsters, killing every civilian in sight. The actual testimonies showed some of that, but very little.

Here's one of the testimonies under the category "Bombardment". This is probably one of the most graphic of all the testimonies:

"Nearly no one ran into the enemy. I know of two encounters during the whole operation. The soldiers, too, were disappointed for not having had any encounters with terrorists. The defined situation was that sparing our forces was of primary importance. This means that if we detect anyone, we disconnect, summon a helicopter and take down the house. That was the clear definition and that is how it was done. As soon as we detect anyone, our forces improve their position and get into defense layout, and a helicopter takes down the house. No direct contact unless it happens at the first moment of the encounter. At least in the paratroopers' designated area, there were hardly any encounters at all.

Question: Were there definitions for identifying things?

Not as far as we were concerned. I don't know whether things were clearly defined, but as for the language, it was "suspects, lookouts, people standing on roofs and looking towards our forces, making suspect movements on the roof, bending down, looking out beyond the rim" – such were definitions of suspects that were enough to call a UAV or helicopter.

Question: You said there were orders to take down people seen on a roof.

As far as I know, I'm not certain what is considered suspect and what proper rules of engagement are. We responded to anything that seemed suspect to us. A helicopter or a firing *** was activated passed on detailed reports of what we see. A *** would arrive, connected to the command post at and then the people at the central command post could see what was going on and if it looked suspect to them, they would activate it."

Other testimonies describe looting of houses and the use of white phosphorous. Some of these things may technically be war crimes, but they're nothing compared to what happened in Sri Lanka. And by the way, they're nothing compared to the tactics that Israel will be using in the next war, whenever and wherever it may occur.

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the Mideast thread and the Sri Lanka crisis civil war thread of the Generational Dynamics forum.) (16-Jul-2009) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 16-Jul-2009 Israeli soldiers accuse Israel's army of genocide in Gaza war

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 16-Jul-2009
Israeli soldiers accuse Israel's army of genocide in Gaza war