Following claims made by graduates of the Rabin Pre-military Academy at a conference last month that IDF soldiers deliberately shot and killed Gaza civilians during Operation Cast Lead, the Military Police completed its official investigation into the accounts on Monday and concluded that they were categorically false and based on rumors.
On Wednesday, the Jerusalem Post, citing an IDF source, had reported that the allegations were proven to be untrue in official army investigations.
The probe also concluded that the stories of the soldiers who participated in the conference were purposely exaggerated and made extreme, in order to make a point to the participants at the conference.
The IDF Advocate-General Brig.-Gen. Avihai Mandelblit decided to close the case in the wake of the findings.
In particular, the results of the investigation referred to a testimony from a soldier named Aviv, who claimed to have been given orders to fire at an elderly Palestinian woman. According to the Military Police probe, the soldier witnessed no such thing, and was only repeating a rumor he had heard. In an unrelated investigation, it was found that in a similar incident, a woman suspected of being a suicide bomber approached some IDF troops, who opened fired at her after repeatedly trying to stop her from advancing.
This same soldier admitted that he had not witnessed additional incidents he had described during the conference.
A claim made by a different soldier, Ram, who had supposedly been ordered to open fire at a woman and two children, was also proved by the investigation to be an incident that he had not witnessed. After checking the claim, it was found that a force had opened fire in a different direction, toward two suspicious men who were unrelated to the civilians in question.[...]
This is completely unsurprising. Almost every negative allegation againt the Tzahal since, well since 1948 has eventually been proven false.
ReplyDeleteHowever, this changes nothing. Arabs will still teach their children about how the Israeli soldiers shot innocent women and children, just like they teach them about the Jenin Massacre or how their brace forefathers were terrorized into fleeing their homes in 1948.
War is always a tragedy and a horror. The thousands of pictures of the devastation, bloodshed and human suffering on the ground in Gaza do not lie.
ReplyDeleteHundreds of innocent men women and children died in Gaza at the hands of Israeli soldiers a few months ago and this is a tragedy we should all mourn.
It does not matter how "necessary" or "right" Israel is/was/will be. Human suffering is a tragedy and as Jews we suffer and feel great pain in response to any human suffering anywhere in the world. (Rachamim ben Rachamim, we are merciful people who are the children of merciful people).
As we prepare to celebrate one of our happiest feasts of the year, Pesah, I will remind you that while we recount the story of the Exodus and G-d's mighty triumph over evil, we also spill out drops of wine, to lessen our joy and recount with sorrow, the suffering of the Egyptian people, the very same who committed the most heinous abuses upon the Jewish people.
Judaism does not rejoice while others suffer. Although it was necessary for G-d Himself to cause the suffering of the Egyptian people in order to liberate us from our bondage, we mourn over the suffering and pain of our brutal and cruel captors.
It is hard to hold your country up as the moral beacon of the world, (as Israel does) while acting as any other nationalistic interest, in invading, attacking and inflicting great pain and suffering on a civilian population during war.
Israel is not the "Jewish" state, it is not the "Messianic" "end of the world", "peace is upon us" State, it purports to be, it is also not the morally superior, "light unto the world", G-d imbued state.
Israel is a country like every other country in the world.
It is time to realize this and stop claiming to be the moral "gold" standard of the world while acting no differently than every other country.
Maybe once Israel understands that it is a nationalistic empire like every other country in the world and not the G-d granted, Messianic creation of moral right, beacon of light for the world to emulate, then the UN can move onto issues other than criticizing Israel.
Of course, in response to my constructive criticism of Israel's projected world image and moral "high ground" foreign policy, I will probably be called an "anti Semite" or for those who know that I am Jewish a "self hating Jew".
Judaism has been replaced with Zionism and my wish to practice Judaism, the faith of my ancestors, rather than Zionism, has now, sadly, deemed me a "self hating Jew".
Of course! Zionist investigation proves the IDF to be zadikim gemurim all the time. But why the independent media was not permitted ?
ReplyDeletePS
After every terrible crime zionits put comission to "invistigate" it. Remember yemenite children!
[please do not use "anonymous" as identity]