Exceptional Cases? - Israeli Soldier Talks Truth

by: Ziv Mavari (Israeli Soldier)

It would be better if Israeli society would to open its eyes and face up to what is happening

Again we hear about a serious case of violence against Palestinians perpetuated by IDF soldiers, again we hear about an investigation of the Military Police, and again a soldier will be sent to prison, again we hear about "weeding out the evil" and "exceptional cases", and again the army mates of this week's victim will stand up for him and talk about his moral stature. And above all the military system, with its laconic answers will again claim that "it has expunged the miscreant" and from now on it is again spotlessly clean.

We want so much to believe in this…and are ready to struggle and sacrifice so much just not hear and not to confront a reality that is so painful and so frustrating. And yet, the reality of our situation becomes more and more evident, our wonderful IDF soldiers, the best of our sons, who were raised on the lofty values of this land, and who chose to volunteer for combat duty in order to best serve their country are going through the inevitable process of moral decay, and have lost all sensitivity and humanity as a result of being occupiers of a civilian population.

Today we all know that beatings of Palestinians at checkpoints are not deviant incidents, shootings (at people) for fun are not deviant episodes, acceptance of bribery is not deviant, and even theft, to our enormous regret is no longer deviant.

It would be better if Israeli society would to open its eyes and face up to what is happening. A profound and honest confrontation, as painful as it may be, is much preferable to denial and obscurity and lurking in an insular bubble behind slogans. Israeli society must understand that it is paying a huge moral price for its control over another population. The violence and lack of tolerance do not remain "there"; it comes home with us and accompanies us when we are with friends, on the roads, on the beach and wherever we go.

We who have been there and have returned pay the price every day and therefore have decided to tell you, those of you who care about the soldiers who are drafted today and will be drafted tomorrow, to those of you who care about the social and moral character of Israeli society in the future, you must not close your eyes and shut your mouths, eighteen years you have raised and educated a son and now you will not fight for his future?

Unfortunately, most of the discussion around cases of violence is concerned with disagreements as to weather a particular Palestinian deserved to be slapped or not, and nobody seems concerned about what is happening to the soldiers whose actions are so violent, what brings them to this point and what sort of citizens they will turn out to be in our society. It's easy for us to explain it all away with sundry rationalizations such as "they probably come from a violent home" and "perhaps they have endured abuse" and so on, but the truth is different, we have all seen our best friends lose their peace of mind in this totally impossible reality, even a quick scan of incidents that have been covered by the media reveal that we are talking here about good soldiers who have many friends who rally to their support.

The higher echelons of the army concern themselves with cover ups and the hiding of reality as it is from Israeli society, instead of coming to the society and admitting that these so called deviant actions are actually the norm and that this is the price we must pay as long as we are present in the occupied territories, they chose to repeatedly present the "errant soldiers" as exceptions, however when the subject crops up despite these efforts they place full responsibility on the "deviant" soldier assuming that those soldiers who have not been caught doing the same sort of thing would prefer to keep silent rather than expose themselves.

It is impossible to prepare the various units in the army for service in the occupied territories, no matter how many lessons on the spirit of the IDF and the dignity of man are taught in the officer courses of the army, and how many briefings occur within the army, the IDF can only reduce the damage but not prevent it and this only to a limited extent, just as anybody who has been there can tell you the process of moral deterioration "there" does pass over any warrior or soldier and is the result of the nature of activity "there", there is no way, nor can there be, a way to enter a home and see a small child wet his pants out of fear and not to think about your little brother, it is impossible to regard a Palestinian as a human being like yourself if or when there is a suspicious object and you grab the first Palestinian you see and send him to move it, what help can there be from a lesson on the value of human life? After all, in this act I have already made clear to myself that his life is not worth more than a 10 minuet wait for the detonation expert.

Under no circumstance is it possible to regard the thousand Palestinians who pass each day at the checkpoint as human beings like us. As the hundreds of soldiers who testified to "Breaking the Silence" in the sentence that recurs again and again like a mantra, "after one month of eight (hours at the checkpoint) eight (hours off) at the checkpoint you don't care about anything except sleeping, eating and going home on leave."

In summary, Israeli society has no choice and there is no escaping from the painful truth, we as a society pay a heavy moral price, a price that will influence our future in this land and may well be higher than the price of terrorist attacks.