Bloody Rules of Engagement
Most Israelis revere the army. They still see it as an institution of national salvation.
"The combination of rules of engagement that encourage a trigger-happy attitude among soldiers together with the climate of impunity results in a clear and very troubling message about the value the Israeli military places on Palestinian life." Israeli human-rights group B'Tselem
Most Israelis revere the army. They still see it as an institution of national salvation. They believe that it is the most humanitarian army in the world because it claims to risk its soldiers' lives to avoid killing innocent civilians. This is called the code of 'the purity of arms'.
The rules of engagement when someone enters a security zone are very clear. If someone is inside the zone without a weapon and not attempting to harm anyone, then the soldier is supposed to shoot 50 meters from him or her into something solid that will stop the bullet, such as a wall. Then the soldier is supposed to shoot twice in the air, and then, if the trespasser continues to move, it is permissible to shoot them in the leg. Once the person is wounded, soldiers are only permitted to kill if there is an imminent threat to their lives. There is also a very strict rule of engagement about shooting children: Soldiers are not supposed to do it.
In October, in broad daylight, 13-year-old Iman al-Hams was wearing her school uniform when she walked into the Israeli army's 'security zone' at the bottom of her street carrying her satchel. A few minutes later the child was pumped full of bullets. Doctors counted at least 17 wounds and said much of her head was destroyed.
The army swiftly blamed Iman for her own death by entering the security zone. At first the military said soldiers suspected the girl was carrying a bomb in her satchel. When it turned out there was no bomb, it said she was being used by Palestinian combatants to lure troops from their post.
Unfortunately, a tape recording of the radio conversation between soldiers at the scene revealed that, from the beginning, she was identified as a child and at no point was a bomb spoken about, nor was she described as a threat.
Instead, the tape showed that the soldiers swiftly identified her as a "girl of about 10" who was "scared to death." The tape also revealed that the soldiers said Iman was headed eastwards, away from the army post and back into the refugee camp, when she was shot. At that point, Captain R took the unusual decision to leave the post in pursuit of the girl. He shot her dead and then "confirmed the kill" by emptying his magazine into her body.
On the tape, the company commander then "clarified" why he killed Iman: "This is commander. Anything that's mobile, that moves in the zone, even if it's a three-year-old, needs to be killed. Over." This statement reveals the real code of 'the purity of arms'.
A subsequent investigation by the officer responsible for the Gaza strip, Major General Dan Harel, concluded that the captain had "not acted unethically" but suspended him only because of "poor relations with subordinates."
A one-sided war
The Israeli human-rights group B'Tselem revealed that at least 1,656 Palestinian non-combatants have been killed during the intifada which started in September 2000.
Of these, 529 were children, 25 percent of whom were under the age of 12. To date only one soldier has been convicted of causing the death of a Palestinian.
Towards the end of November a little incident was videotaped by Jewish women peace activists. It wasn't as shocking as the pictures in an Israeli newspaper of ultra-orthodox soldiers mocking Palestinian corpses by impaling a man's head on a pole and sticking a cigarette in his mouth, but a little closer to the Jewish psyche. The video footage was of a group of soldiers forcing a Palestinian man to play his violin while ridiculing him. The latter incident prompted the most revulsion among Israelis, "not for abusing Arabs but for disgracing the Holocaust."
Another event that has not been commented upon is the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the Israeli army to hand over its 'rules of engagement' to U.S. forces.
Thus the destruction of houses of 'suspects', the wholesale detention of thousands of Iraqis without trial, the cordoning off of 'hostile' villages with razor wire, the bombardment of civilian areas by Apache helicopter gunships and tanks on the hunt for 'terrorists' are all part of the Israeli military lexicon.
In besieged cities-when it was taking heavy casualties or the number of civilians killed was becoming too shameful to sustain-the Israeli army would call a "unilateral suspension of offensive operations." It did this 11 times after it surrounded Beirut in 1982. And the American army declared a "unilateral suspension of offensive operations" around Fallujah.
No questions have been raised about the mysterious use of identical language.
Untermenschen
A British officer was quoted as saying that part of the problem in Iraq was that American troops viewed Iraqis as untermenschen-the Nazi expression for 'sub-humans'-and were entirely unconcerned about the Iraqi civilian loss of life.
The phrase untermenschen -literally 'under-people'-was brought to prominence by Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf, published in 1925. He used the term to describe those he regarded as racially inferior: Jews, Slavs and gypsies.
Now the Americans and Israelis apply it to all poorly armed and impoverished Muslims, for the climate of impunity can only exist when you have overwhelming force.
War hero hubris
Yet every cloud has a silver lining and every war its heroes. On April 22, millions of stunned Americans mourned the death of Pat Tillman, a defensive back with the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League, who died in combat in Taliban-infested southeastern Afghanistan. Army commanders awarded Tillman a posthumous Silver Star for valor and released a nine-paragraph account of his heroism, which recorded that Tillman fought bravely and honorably until his last breath. It took them over five weeks to admit that Tillman, aged 27, was killed by members of his own platoon.
Tillman and nearly a dozen other soldiers tried everything they could to stop the attack from their own comrades. They shouted, they waved their arms, and they even let off smoke grenades identifying themselves as American forces. It was when they thought that it was safe to relax that the incident occurred. A Humvee moved into a better firing position and sprayed them with bullets.
To the 'integral man' of the electronic age, life consists of a series of pictures on a screen of virtual reality. Mistakes can always be rectified and one invariably emerges the victor. Should the conclusion not be as anticipated then one can always re-start the game as all participants within it are immortal.
Have a merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
From Warsaw Business Journal
by Zbigniew Piekarski
"The combination of rules of engagement that encourage a trigger-happy attitude among soldiers together with the climate of impunity results in a clear and very troubling message about the value the Israeli military places on Palestinian life." Israeli human-rights group B'Tselem
Most Israelis revere the army. They still see it as an institution of national salvation. They believe that it is the most humanitarian army in the world because it claims to risk its soldiers' lives to avoid killing innocent civilians. This is called the code of 'the purity of arms'.
The rules of engagement when someone enters a security zone are very clear. If someone is inside the zone without a weapon and not attempting to harm anyone, then the soldier is supposed to shoot 50 meters from him or her into something solid that will stop the bullet, such as a wall. Then the soldier is supposed to shoot twice in the air, and then, if the trespasser continues to move, it is permissible to shoot them in the leg. Once the person is wounded, soldiers are only permitted to kill if there is an imminent threat to their lives. There is also a very strict rule of engagement about shooting children: Soldiers are not supposed to do it.
In October, in broad daylight, 13-year-old Iman al-Hams was wearing her school uniform when she walked into the Israeli army's 'security zone' at the bottom of her street carrying her satchel. A few minutes later the child was pumped full of bullets. Doctors counted at least 17 wounds and said much of her head was destroyed.
The army swiftly blamed Iman for her own death by entering the security zone. At first the military said soldiers suspected the girl was carrying a bomb in her satchel. When it turned out there was no bomb, it said she was being used by Palestinian combatants to lure troops from their post.
Unfortunately, a tape recording of the radio conversation between soldiers at the scene revealed that, from the beginning, she was identified as a child and at no point was a bomb spoken about, nor was she described as a threat.
Instead, the tape showed that the soldiers swiftly identified her as a "girl of about 10" who was "scared to death." The tape also revealed that the soldiers said Iman was headed eastwards, away from the army post and back into the refugee camp, when she was shot. At that point, Captain R took the unusual decision to leave the post in pursuit of the girl. He shot her dead and then "confirmed the kill" by emptying his magazine into her body.
On the tape, the company commander then "clarified" why he killed Iman: "This is commander. Anything that's mobile, that moves in the zone, even if it's a three-year-old, needs to be killed. Over." This statement reveals the real code of 'the purity of arms'.
A subsequent investigation by the officer responsible for the Gaza strip, Major General Dan Harel, concluded that the captain had "not acted unethically" but suspended him only because of "poor relations with subordinates."
A one-sided war
The Israeli human-rights group B'Tselem revealed that at least 1,656 Palestinian non-combatants have been killed during the intifada which started in September 2000.
Of these, 529 were children, 25 percent of whom were under the age of 12. To date only one soldier has been convicted of causing the death of a Palestinian.
Towards the end of November a little incident was videotaped by Jewish women peace activists. It wasn't as shocking as the pictures in an Israeli newspaper of ultra-orthodox soldiers mocking Palestinian corpses by impaling a man's head on a pole and sticking a cigarette in his mouth, but a little closer to the Jewish psyche. The video footage was of a group of soldiers forcing a Palestinian man to play his violin while ridiculing him. The latter incident prompted the most revulsion among Israelis, "not for abusing Arabs but for disgracing the Holocaust."
Another event that has not been commented upon is the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the Israeli army to hand over its 'rules of engagement' to U.S. forces.
Thus the destruction of houses of 'suspects', the wholesale detention of thousands of Iraqis without trial, the cordoning off of 'hostile' villages with razor wire, the bombardment of civilian areas by Apache helicopter gunships and tanks on the hunt for 'terrorists' are all part of the Israeli military lexicon.
In besieged cities-when it was taking heavy casualties or the number of civilians killed was becoming too shameful to sustain-the Israeli army would call a "unilateral suspension of offensive operations." It did this 11 times after it surrounded Beirut in 1982. And the American army declared a "unilateral suspension of offensive operations" around Fallujah.
No questions have been raised about the mysterious use of identical language.
Untermenschen
A British officer was quoted as saying that part of the problem in Iraq was that American troops viewed Iraqis as untermenschen-the Nazi expression for 'sub-humans'-and were entirely unconcerned about the Iraqi civilian loss of life.
The phrase untermenschen -literally 'under-people'-was brought to prominence by Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf, published in 1925. He used the term to describe those he regarded as racially inferior: Jews, Slavs and gypsies.
Now the Americans and Israelis apply it to all poorly armed and impoverished Muslims, for the climate of impunity can only exist when you have overwhelming force.
War hero hubris
Yet every cloud has a silver lining and every war its heroes. On April 22, millions of stunned Americans mourned the death of Pat Tillman, a defensive back with the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League, who died in combat in Taliban-infested southeastern Afghanistan. Army commanders awarded Tillman a posthumous Silver Star for valor and released a nine-paragraph account of his heroism, which recorded that Tillman fought bravely and honorably until his last breath. It took them over five weeks to admit that Tillman, aged 27, was killed by members of his own platoon.
Tillman and nearly a dozen other soldiers tried everything they could to stop the attack from their own comrades. They shouted, they waved their arms, and they even let off smoke grenades identifying themselves as American forces. It was when they thought that it was safe to relax that the incident occurred. A Humvee moved into a better firing position and sprayed them with bullets.
To the 'integral man' of the electronic age, life consists of a series of pictures on a screen of virtual reality. Mistakes can always be rectified and one invariably emerges the victor. Should the conclusion not be as anticipated then one can always re-start the game as all participants within it are immortal.
Have a merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
From Warsaw Business Journal
by Zbigniew Piekarski
posted by R7 | 12/20/2004 10:19:00 PM
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