Gideon Levy :The IDF’s real face
Khalil Anati was from the Al-Fawar refugee camp in the
southern part of the West Bank; a soldier in an armored jeep shot him in
the back with a live round and killed him as he was running home. He
was 10 years old. Mohammed Al-Qatari was a promising soccer player from
the Al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah. A soldier shot him from a
distance of several dozen meters while he was taking part in a
demonstration against the Gaza war. He was 19 years old when he died.
Hashem Abu Maria was a social worker from Beit Ummar who worked for the
Geneva-based NGO Defense for Children International. He participated in a
demonstration against the Gaza war, trying to protect children by
preventing them from throwing stones. An IDF sharpshooter situated on a
distant balcony shot and killed him. He was 45 years old, a father of
three children. Soldiers killed two more demonstrators at that
demonstration.
These
people were among many others killed by IDF fire far from the
battlefields of Gaza. According to data provided by the United Nations
Office for Coordinating Humanitarian Affairs, the IDF killed 20 adults
and three children in the West Bank during the fighting in Gaza.
Soldiers also wounded 2,218 people, 38% of them by live fire, a
particularly high number in comparison to 14% in the first half of 2014
and 4% in 2013.
None of those killed were endangering soldiers’ lives, none of them were armed or deserved to die.
The
fighting in Gaza loosened all restraint. Under its umbrella soldiers
permitted themselves to use live fire in order to disperse
demonstrations, settle scores with people throwing stones or Molotov
cocktails – including children – and punish anyone demonstrating against
the war. Perhaps these soldiers were envious of their comrades fighting
in Gaza, perhaps they were frustrated at being far from the real action
– in any event they were confident that no harm would befall them, not
while in Gaza there was almost a massacre taking place, with the
nation’s heart going out to its fighting men.
No
one stopped them, no one was arrested or prosecuted. “The Military
Police is investigating” has become code for the IDF spokesman in his
automatic responses, a code which blurs and conceals, until the files
gather dust and are forgotten. In civilian life, anyone suspected of
manslaughter or murder is immediately arrested, with an investigation
coming later. In the IDF the opposite is true. First comes an
investigation, usually leading nowhere, even when the circumstances are
straightforward. There is no question of arresting anyone, even when the
incident cries out to the heavens, as in the case of the shooting at
Al-Fawar. The soldier who killed the boy is apparently continuing with
his life as usual.
These
are routine practices associated with the occupation. There is no
comparison to the numbers in Gaza, but this routine exposes the true
face of the IDF, the way it regularly conducts itself with regard to
Palestinians, and especially its persistent disregard for their lives
and deaths. There was no war being waged on the West Bank – soldiers
were not facing battalions of Izz-ad-Din al-Qassam fighters, nor were
they up against attack tunnels, rockets, sharpshooters or explosive
devices. Yet see how they killed and maimed, using live fire against
demonstrating youths and even children; how they cut short the life of a
soccer player who a few weeks earlier had been promised a brilliant
career by Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA; or the lives of a
10-year-old refugee boy and a social worker innocent of any crime.
The
crimes committed in the West Bank will not be investigated by any
international tribunal – there is no need to prepare excuses, write
reports or enlist lawyers. But it is precisely these smaller incidents –
after all, what are 20 deaths in contrast to the hundredfold larger
numbers in Gaza? – that should worry us. There was no war here, hardly
any acts of terror, only angry demonstrations by those who were
understandably driven to distraction by the fate of their brethren in
Gaza. Note how they were treated by IDF soldiers.
This
is the behavior of the nation’s army, its soldiers now lauded by all.
One can respect and cherish the people’s love for its soldiers, but one
should remember what these soldiers do as part of their routine military
service, day in, day out, year after year.
ltime novità di Gideon Levy. (Tradotto da Bing)
haaretz.com
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