Israeli soldiers testify to war crimes

In testimony reminiscent of the Winter Soldier hearings that featured U.S. Iraq War veterans, Israeli Defense Forces soldiers who took part in “Operation Cast Lead” described their experiences and observations in February at the Oranim Academic College in Kiryat Tivon, where they had all attended a pre-military preparatory program as teenagers. The transcripts of the testimonies were released in mid-March.

On Dec. 27, the IDF had launched a devastating U.S.-funded air, ground and naval attack against the Palestinian population of Gaza. Six months of detailed planning preceded the attack. In 26 days, more than 1,400 Palestinians—mostly civilians, including 437 children under the age of 16—were killed, thousands more were wounded and tens of thousands were left homeless.

At the hearings, “Zvi” described the execution of a Palestinian elder: “You see a person on a road, walking along a path. He doesn’t have to be with a weapon, you don’t have to identify him with anything and you can just shoot him. With us it was an old woman, on whom I didn’t see any weapon.” (Haaretz, March 19)

“Ram” recounted how a Palestinian mother and her two children were forced out of their home and told to go to the right. When they got confused and went to the left, they were all shot dead.

Other Israeli soldiers described the intentional destruction of homes, furniture and personal property and how the atrocities resulted from the tone set by their military command structure.

The testimonies are further evidence that the atrocities committed against the Palestinian people in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead must be labeled war crimes and that the criminals who planned and commanded this operation must be prosecuted as war criminals.

These war criminals include Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and military command personnel like Gabi Ashkenazi, Yoav Galant, Amos Yadlin, Hartzi Halevi, Yoav Mordechai and Yigal Slovik.

Middle-grade and high-ranking IDF officers are regularly rewarded with all-

expenses-paid scholarships to U.S. universities for graduate study. Students and faculty should be on the lookout for the above mentioned and other IDF war criminals. If identified they should be socially isolated and the school administration should be challenged about their presence on campus.

The steadfast and heroic Palestinian resistance to Zionist occupation now spans six decades. The resistance has resulted in one crisis after another in a Zionist movement that always had numerous contending and contentious factions (social democratic, fascist and religious, to name a few). Today the Zionist movement is more fractured than ever before. Weeks after a national election it still cannot form a coalition government to administer the so-called State of Israel.

Its armed wing, the IDF, is also feeling the stress and strain from a resistance to occupation it cannot defeat. This is resulting in growing numbers of youth refusing conscription and reservists refusing call-ups and deployments. In addition, there is a growing divide in the IDF between outright racist religious fundamentalists and those with a more secular outlook.

Michael Kramer served in the IDF from 1972-1975. He is a member of Veterans For Peace, Chapter 021.