[Marxism] IDF revenge killings

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

NY Times, June 4, 2005
Israeli Soldiers Report Reprisal Killings of Palestinians
By CHRISTINE HAUSER

JERUSALEM, June 3 - An Israeli newspaper reported on Friday that Israeli
forces said they carried out "eye for an eye" attacks on Palestinian police
officers in 2002 in revenge for the killing of six Israeli soldiers at a
West Bank checkpoint.

The subject of the military's activities in the occupied territories often
touches a nerve in a country that says it has worked to maintain an
accountable army and code of ethics while fighting the Palestinian uprising.

The report in the newspaper, Maariv, is based on interviews with soldiers,
who were not named, discussing violence that is more than three years old.
The report indicated that some of the targets of the killing were unarmed.

It is impossible to confirm the anonymous remarks, but the Israeli Army
responded to the reports saying the events were part of a series of
operations against terrorism in line with army orders.

The interviews in Maariv refer to an attack by Palestinian gunmen on a West
Bank outpost on Feb. 19, 2002. Six Israeli soldiers were killed, and their
attackers escaped. The Israeli Army said at the time that it believed that
two squads of Palestinian gunmen had attacked the soldiers at an Israeli
checkpoint at Ein Ariq, west of the Palestinian-controlled city of
Ramallah. One squad opened fire on two soldiers on duty at the checkpoint,
wounding two men, the army said. At least one gunman burst into the outpost
where six other off-duty soldiers were relaxing and killed them, it said.

The retaliation began that same night and continued through the night,
according to the soldiers.

In one of the Maariv interviews, a soldier identified as "D" said his
commander described their mission: "Six of our soldiers were killed,
engineering soldiers, at a checkpoint, and we are going out on a revenge
operation. We are going to kill Palestinian policemen at a checkpoint, as
blood revenge for the six of our soldiers who were killed."

"An eye for an eye," the soldier was quoted as saying in Maariv.

He said that he and other soldiers waited in ambush for Palestinian
policemen suspected of having operated the checkpoint where the Israelis
were killed.

Units were sent to other West Bank checkpoints as well.

Referring to the killing of one Palestinian, the soldier said. "About five
of us sprayed him at the same time. I emptied a magazine in him." A member
of a reconnaissance unit said they were instructed to go to three
checkpoints near Nablus and shoot Palestinian police officers regardless of
whether they were armed. "We didn't raise the issue of how to identify
Palestinian policemen," the soldier was quoted as saying. Maariv quoted
another soldier as saying: "My conscience is most quiet. As far as I am
concerned the Palestinian police committed terror operations, and if the
political and commanding echelons decided that the operation was the
correct thing to do, then I want to do it."

"I did not go with a knife between my teeth and to suck blood," he said,
explaining that he did what he did "only because I had to get back at the
Palestinian policemen for what they did."

Maariv's headline said 15 Palestinian policemen were killed that night.

In response to the Maariv report, the Israeli Army on Friday issued a
statement saying that on Feb. 19, 2002, Israeli forces operated against
Palestinian Authority targets in the West Bank.

"Among those targets were checkpoints manned by Palestinian policemen who
facilitated the passage and actively assisted the terrorists who passed
through this checkpoint to carry out murderous attacks against Israeli
civilians and soldiers," it said. "After the killing of the six soldiers,
the army was instructed by the political echelon to change the mode of
operation and adjust it to the harsh reality on the ground," the army
statement said.

The army said in a later statement that no investigation ensued regarding
the events described in the Maariv article because it was part of a series
of operations against terrorism in line with Israeli Army orders and
procedures. "It took place during the year in which Israel was hit hardest
by terrorism," said the army.

Some of the interviewees were referred to the newspaper by Breaking the
Silence, a group started last year by former soldiers, said Avichay Sharon,
a founding member.

Excerpts of their interviews were also published by Breaking the Silence on
its Web site, which expresses criticism of Israeli Army tactics in Gaza and
the West Bank. The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, and the
Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, declared a truce in hostilities in
February.


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