Haaretz :EXAMINE THE GOLANI BRIGADE – HAARETZ EDITORIAL

EXAMINE THE GOLANI BRIGADE – HAARETZ EDITORIAL

A Haaretz synopsis last week revealed an extremely troubling series of events related to a single Golani Brigade command team acting like a renegade militia. At the same time, the news coverage reveals a thriving culture of lying and covering up in the Israeli army.

An attempt by Haaretz reporter Yaniv Kubovich to investigate an accident on Route 6 about two years ago in which three soldiers from the command team under the command of 1st Lt. Guy Eliahu was killed three months ago, uncovering a network of lies, coordinating testimony, falsifying documents and covering up.

Now it turns out that this was the tip of the iceberg. Meanwhile, Team Eliahu soldiers were involved in a so-called “revenge attack” against Palestinians in the city of Nablus in the West Bank. It was part of a desire to overcome the heavy mood that prevailed among soldiers after the traffic accident and not to succumb to despair.

Two days after the tragedy, it was decided that the team would return to regular activity. It was sent to carry out night arrests in the Nablus area, but to boost their morale, the team’s soldiers destroyed motor vehicles in the Nablus refugee camp to take revenge on Palestinians – because the driver of a truck carried the accident on the route 6 was an Arab from East Jerusalem involved.

The army got by with an internal investigation that led to the decision not to refer the matter to the military advocate general’s office or to punish Eliahu, who was promoted even later. But this disturbing series of events didn’t stop there.

Team Eliahu went on with how it felt. More than a year ago, this undisciplined commander and his team, who felt no obligation to comply with operational rules, undertook an unplanned and unauthorized foray into Syrian territory to a structure where Syrians were present that did not pose a threat to Israel. The soldiers told the residents of the building to go outside. There was an immediate exchange of fire, which led to the death of the Syrians, increasing tensions in the region and the deployment of an armored force. This led to an unnecessary risk to life as well as kidnapping and regional fire. Again, instead of opening an investigation and imposing a punishment, the incident was hushed up and the team resumed its routine duties.

Efforts to cover up the actions of the Eliahu team once again show that the culture of the Israeli army in investigating deficiencies is largely negligent, the real aim of which is to cover up rather than remedy the deficiencies. The army chief of staff, Aviv Kochavi, must put an end to this sick culture. It is his duty to initiate a thorough investigation into the events themselves and the behavior of the entire chain of command in the reconnaissance battalion – to which the commando belongs – which has turned a blind eye in these troubling cases.

The above article is Haaretz’s editorial as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.