Testimony number 41

Breaking the Silence organization reveals horrific abuse by troops in Hebron

Yaron London|Published: 04.30.08 , 10:07

It is worthwhile reading the recently published Hebron testimonies collected by the Breaking the Silence organization. The testimonies of more than 30 soldiers and officers who served in Hebron between 2005 and 2007 are presented in the way they were expressed, in course IDF slang, without any self pity, and for that reason the words are both credible and horrifying.

The conclusion is that the occupation corrupts, yet this is an old saying that many people agree to. The surprise has to do with the depth of the corruption that has spread through the army and the speed with which the soldiers who serve in Hebron turn into criminals.

The vast majority of the troops are aware of the moral implication of their actions, yet they are scared, tired, bitter, angry, and bored, while being crushed between thousands of humiliated and vengeful Palestinians and hundreds of mean settlers struck by messianic madness. Soon after, the soldiers turn into thugs.

The testimonies reveal cases of firing at civilians, including women and children, who have not sinned, cases of abuse to the point of disability, and the humiliation of human beings in order to exhaust the pleasure of power. We also read about deliberate destruction of Arab property, stealing from homes, blackmailing of store owners, and false reports to commanders.

The testimonies also describe settlers who educate their children to hurt Arabs, to insult the soldiers who protect them, and even to beat up and stone troops. We read about helpless police officers who fear Hebron’s Jews and know that there is no chance to bring the many criminals among them to justice. This is the story of a familiar process that befalls any occupying army, only this time it’s about us.

Out of all the testimonies, I chose to quote (in summary) the one marked as testimony number 41. The story starts with a soldier who steals tobacco from an Arab merchant who dares protest.

“The Arab suddenly appeared: ‘Thieves, thieves, I saw you!’ and he comes over to that soldier, and we pushed him back: ‘What do you want, nobody touched your stuff’. And then this guy tells him: ‘You’re calling me a thief?’…he beat him up, beat the crap out of him, started shoving him. The soldiers said: ‘Come on, enough,’ and broke up the fight. It got to the point where they beat the hell out of him. “

“Who did it?”

“The soldiers beat the hell out of that Arab. And then he took a metal wire, that soldier. He was really screwed up. He caught him, and started to wind it around his hand, around and around, I’m telling you, his hand was already becoming…”

“Around the palm?”

Yes. He really wrapped it around it, really hard, I tell you, we tried to stop him. ‘No, I’m not letting him go. He raised his hand at me, he will be punished.’ He kept on winding it, around and around…cut it right against the skin. We attempted to cut the wire off him for an hour, we couldn’t do it. It actually made a crack in his hand. A crack. His hand already became blue. And that guy, he was saying: ‘I can’t feel my hand anymore.’ And he was screaming. I said: ‘They’ll have to amputate his hand for sure.’ We got to the point where we’re trying to dig in with the knife, in order to remove the wire, but we couldn’t do it. Man, that guy was screwed up. He was really screwed up.”

“What did you do with the Arab?”

“We let him go. What could we do?

“With his hand like that?

“We told him: ‘Go to the hospital.’ There was nothing else we could do.”