'Seeds of denial' in 'the world's most principled army': Israeli soldiers who no longer want to fight in Gaza
Challenging Orders A New Wave of Military Resistance
Fergal Keen
Aheda, Special Correspondent
December, 06/2024.
Pros
1. Highlighting Moral Dilemmas
- Brings attention to the ethical debates faced by individuals within the military.
- Humanizes soldiers, showing their struggles with conscience versus duty.
2. Encourages Dialogue
- Sparks broader discussions on the political and humanitarian impact of the Gaza conflict.
- Promotes awareness of dissenting voices within established institutions.
3. Advocates for Peace
- Provides a platform for advocating non-violent solutions to conflicts.
- Supports narratives that aim to reduce militaristic approaches.
4. Challenges Stereotypes
- Breaks down monolithic perceptions of militaries, showing diversity in thought.
Cons
1. Potential Backlash
- May provoke criticism or hostility from those who view dissent as betrayal.
- Risks being politicized or used in propaganda.
2. Security Concerns
- Could be perceived as undermining national security or military morale.
- May expose dissenters to personal or professional repercussions.
3. Polarized Reactions
- Might deepen divisions within society, with strong opposition from opposing factions.
- Could be dismissed as a fringe perspective, reducing its impact.
4. Complexity of War
- Oversimplifying the motivations of those refusing to fight risks losing the nuance of their decisions.
- Focus on dissent might overshadow other critical aspects of the conflict.
Everyone in this platoon knows someone who has been killed. Yuval Green, 26, knows three of them. He was a reservist in the Israeli army when he first learned of the Hamas attack on October 7.
“Israel is a small country,” he says. “Everyone knows each other.” The Hamas attack killed 1,200 people and abducted 251. 97 hostages have not been recovered, half of whom are believed to be alive.
Yuval remembers seeing the destruction in the urban areas near the Gaza border. “There were bodies in the streets, car tires punctured by bullets.”
At the time, he had no doubt that the country had been attacked and that he had to join the defense, to bring back the hostages. But then the war in Gaza broke out and he saw the other side of the picture. He remembers the night he saw crows eating human remains on the side of a road.
“Imagine the apocalypse,” he says, “with buildings everywhere, destroyed by fire, missiles, everything. That’s the picture of Gaza right now.”
Yuval, who volunteered to fight a year after the October 7 attack, is now refusing to fight.
He is part of a group of regular soldiers, including reservists, in the Israeli army who are refusing to fight or threatening to do so until the hostages are released. They number 165 and have signed a letter. But for that to happen, a ceasefire with Hamas is necessary.
But this is a minority among the approximately 465,000 reservists. Another reason is fatigue.
They are part of a group of regular soldiers, including reservists, in the Israeli army who are refusing to fight or threatening to do so until the hostages are released.
According to Israeli media reports, many soldiers are no longer returning to duty. According to the Times of Israel and several other broadcasters, military sources have said that the number of soldiers who are not reporting for duty due to fatigue due to long service is now between 15 and 25 percent.
Although there is no public acceptance of soldiers who refuse to perform their duties due to the voice of conscience, it is clear that many of the demands of soldiers who write public letters have public support.
A recent survey conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute indicates that 45 percent of Jews want an end to the Israeli war, while 43 percent want the Israeli army to continue the fight until Hamas is completely eliminated.
The survey also highlights the political divide in the country, as only 26 percent believe that there is unity in the country, while 44 percent say there is no such thing.
One reason for this is the belief among left-leaning Israelis that the war is being prolonged by far-right political parties whose support Prime Minister Netanyahu needs to regain power.
Even former Defense Minister Gallant, who was fired last month and is a member of Netanyahu's own party, cited the failure to recover the hostages as a reason for his differences with the prime minister.
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on charges of alleged war crimes, but Netanyahu has repeatedly said he fully intends to recover the hostages and has not backed down.
The seed of denial
The reason for Yuval’s denial became clear after the war began. The deputy speaker of the Israeli parliament had said at the time that ‘the Gaza Strip should be wiped off the face of the earth.’ A prominent rabbi had said of the Palestinians in Gaza, ‘If you don’t kill them, they will kill you.’ He had said that ‘soldiers should only do what they are ordered to do.’
Yuval, however, was troubled by this language.
‘People were talking about killing the entire population of Gaza as if it were something understandable. In this environment, the soldiers entered Gaza at a time when only a month earlier their friends had been slaughtered and they were hearing about the deaths of soldiers every day. The soldiers did a lot.’
Social media posts from Israeli soldiers have emerged from Gaza showing prisoners being abused, buildings being damaged and ordinary Palestinians being mocked.
There were also incidents of soldiers taking pictures with women’s clothing and underwear, as well as people’s belongings.
“I tried to fight in this disgusting, inhumane environment,” says Yuval. However, the situation became serious for him when he received an order that he could not obey.
“We had the nerve to burn a house and I went to my commander and asked why we were doing this? I did not get a satisfactory answer. I did not want to burn someone’s house without a clear reason. Or without knowing whether it had a military purpose or not. So I refused and returned.”
This was his last day in Gaza. The Israeli military told me in its response that its operations were “based on military needs and in compliance with international law.” According to the response, “Hamas illegally establishes military installations in civilian areas.”
The BBC spoke to three Israeli soldiers who refused to take any further part in the fighting. Two of them agreed to be named, but the third spoke on condition of anonymity.
All three stressed that they loved their country but that their experience of war and the failure to reach an agreement to release hostages had made them morally determined not to fight.
‘People would talk about abuse and murder in peace’
The soldier who spoke to us on condition of anonymity was at Tel Aviv airport when the Hamas attack took place. ‘I remember the journey home. I was listening to the radio and people were calling, saying my father has been kidnapped, help me, no one is helping. It was like a nightmare,’ he says.
He had a feeling that the Israeli army, the IDF, was there for moments like this. Not for raiding houses in the occupied West Bank or chasing stone-throwing youths. ‘For the first time I realized that I had truly joined the army to defend myself.’
As the war progressed, his views began to change. ‘I began to realize that this war was not about saving the lives of the Israeli people.’
These thoughts, he says, are based on his observations. “I tried to tell myself that this is what happens to people who are affected by war.”
However, he remembers how his comrades and even his commander would “gloat” about beating up helpless Palestinians. He heard even more horrific stories. “People would talk so calmly about abuse and even murder, as if it were a technical matter. I was shocked.”
The soldier said he had seen prisoners blindfolded, not allowed to move, and given such a small amount of food that it was shocking.
When his first tour ended, he decided not to return. The IDF quoted me to a statement issued in May that said, “Ill-treatment of any prisoner is prohibited.” The Israeli military also said that prisoners are provided with three meals a day and that prisoners’ hands are only tied when there is a security risk and that they are checked every day to ensure that they are not tied too tightly.
However, the United Nations has said that reports of alleged abuse and sexual harassment of prisoners by Israeli guards are illegal.
‘Increasing brutality’
Michael Ofer, 29, knows two people who were killed on October 7, one of whom was dragged around in a pickup truck in Gaza, becoming the most-shared image of the war.
Michael was a left-winger and supported a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, like his colleagues, he felt that going on reserve duty was the right step. “I knew that military action was necessary, but I was worried about what form it would take.”
His job was as an operations officer in a brigade war room, where he viewed footage captured by drones in Gaza and relayed it to higher authorities.
He says he also made the decision after discussions with colleagues. “The most terrifying sentence anyone ever said to me was that in the last war, children were spared and turned out to be terrorists on October 7. That may be true for some, but not for everyone.”
Michael Ofer, 29, said:
“There is a minority that holds such extremist views, but the majority is also blinded by the price that is being paid during the war.” He also disagreed with the statements of the establishment of Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories, especially Gaza, after the war, which is the declared goal of the far-right government ministers.
Statistics show that a large number of officers and soldiers in the Israeli army have nationalist religious leanings.
They support far-right Jewish nationalist parties that also express a desire for settlements in the Palestinian territories. They are also against the establishment of a Palestinian state. According to research by the Israel Center for Public Affairs, the number of such officers graduating from the military academy had increased from 2.5 percent in 1990 to 40 percent in 2014.
Ten years ago, Professor Mordechai, who worked at the Israel Democracy Institute, warned that “the Jewish majority in the army and the inhumane view of the enemy are ripe for the growth of barbarity.”
The turning point for Michael Ofer came when soldiers killed three Israeli hostages in December last year.
The three men were walking towards the Israeli soldiers, one of whom was carrying a stick with a white cloth tied to it, which is considered a symbol of peace in war situations.
According to the Israeli army, the soldiers felt threatened and opened fire, killing two Israeli hostages and wounding a third. However, the wounded Israeli civilian was shot again, killing him, even though the Israeli army commander had ordered not to shoot, which one soldier ignored.
“I thought to myself, ‘How low have we fallen that this could happen? And I also thought that this would not be the first time that this has happened, that innocent people have been killed.’” This is only the first time we are hearing about it because these were Israeli hostages. If the victims were Palestinians, we would never know about it.’
The IDF has said that soldiers who refuse to fight are dealt with individually, and Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly stressed that the IDF is ‘the most principled army in the world.’
It should be remembered that the IDF, which helped establish Israel in 1948, is the guarantee of protection for the majority of Israelis, and every Jewish citizen over the age of 18 must serve in the army for some time. In addition, there is compulsory service for Christians and Druze citizens.
Soldiers who refuse to serve also face opposition. Several prominent politicians, including cabinet members, have called for action and arrest. But so far the government has not taken any such step because, according to Yuval, “the army knows that doing so will draw attention to our actions and they want us to go quietly.”
On the other hand, Israeli citizens who refuse to serve at the outset face severe sanctions. Eight such citizens have served time in military prison.
The future of the Jewish state
Major Sam Lipsky, 31, also participated in the war in Gaza. He opposes the deniers, accusing them of being “political and opposed to the current government.”
He himself is a supporter of the center-right in Israel, but not of the far-right represented by advisers like Itmar Ben-Governor, who has been accused of racism and supporting terrorism.
Major Lipsky acknowledges that civilians in Gaza were affected, nor does he deny taking pictures of dead and maimed children and women.
His own two children were sleeping in the next room during the conversation at his home in southern Israel. “There is no other way to fight a war that does not involve such images,” he says. Then he uses a phrase he has heard from past Israeli leaders: “You can’t stop mowing your lawn for fear of blowing grass.” It is impossible.
But he blames Hamas, which he says killed “women, children and soldiers.”
The Gaza war has, in fact, blocked the debate on the future shape of the state of Israel. The debate is actually between the liberal and increasingly powerful far right, which is represented in Netanyahu’s cabinet. Given the government’s attempt to limit the powers of the judiciary in 2023, the post-war period is set to be a period of turbulent politics.
Both sides of the debate talk about a fight for the soul of Israel. The evening I met with Major Lipsky, he was preparing to leave. He believes that peace is impossible until Hamas is completely defeated.
The soldiers who refuse, on the other hand, are determined to stand by their principles. Michael Ofer may leave Israel because he is no longer sure that he can be happy in this country. “I don’t think the future I want for my children is possible in this country.”
Yuval is training to be a doctor and hopes that some kind of agreement can be reached between peacemakers and Palestinian citizens in Israel. “I think there are only two sides to this conflict, not Israelis and Palestinians, but those who support violence and those who want to find a better solution,” he says.
Many Israelis may disagree, but Yuval is not going to back down from his views.
Related Topics
#Human_Rights #Palestinian_Territories #Hamas #Palestine #Israel #War
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