VIDEO - “The commanding officer told me ‘shoot him, shoot him,” the IDF soldier from armored Battalion 71, who was documented firing a rubber-coated bullet at a bound Palestinian in the Naalin village near the West Bank city of Ramallah, said Monday during his interrogation by the Investigating Military Police (IMP).
Defense Minister Ehud Barak saidduring the Labor faction meeting, “This is not how soldiers should behave,” adding that the incident “is an exception and is not indicative of the IDFor its norms. The IDF is an ethical and moral army and will prosecute to the full extent of the law in this case.”
Knesset Member Ibrahim Sarsur (United Arab List-Ta'al) said the "horrific" incident is proof that "the occupation corrupts, and it must be ended before it's too late."
The Military Defense Counsel filed on Monday a motion for the soldier's release with the Military Advocate General's Operations' Division, citing there is no reason to have him remanded.
The soldier, operating under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Omri, was set to be released from the army in November, and was commended numerous times for his conduct during his army service.
The soldier was surprised at his arrest by IMP investigators, giving them his preliminary version of the event which took place near the West Bank separation fence a fortnight ago. According to the soldiers, riots erupted in which a few Palestinians hurled stones at security forces.
The soldier went on telling his investigators that at some point his commander gave him a direct order to shoot one of the Palestinians, whose arms and legs were bound.
Video courtesy of B'Tselem
The soldier said that he had given the same version of the events during the operational inquiry performed by the battalion, knowing the matter would be taken up by the Judea and Samaria Division Commander, but claimed he didn’t receive any notice regarding further measures taken following the incident.
The soldier futher stated that he was not reprimanded by the commander or any of the other officers present following the incident: “The commanding officer told me he was going to assume the responsibility.”
Naalin demonstrators (Photo: AP)
The commanding officer was questioned Sunday by the IMP. According to his version, he never instructed the soldier to shoot the Palestinian, but only rattle his weapon so as to scare him. However, the commanding officer did not rule out the possibility that his subordinate may have misinterpreted his order.
The Military Defense Counsel was enraged over the decision to detain the soldier, mainly due to the fact that the commanding officer was not detained. “This is a scandal. It’s an attempt to place the responsibility on the soldier,” a military source told Ynet.
A source in the Military Advocate General's Office hinted that the commanders’ handling of the matter was odd: “This type of event should be investigated at commanding officer level, and therefore a report must be submitted to the Military Advocate General as well as to the Investigating Military Police to determine if there is room for launching a criminal investigation. The second part was not executed in this case, and the question is why?”
However, the source admitted that the order to report to the IMP is not clear-cut, and that sometimes it is left up to the commanders to decide whether or not to submit a report.
The Military Defense Counsel is awaiting a response from the Military Advocate General's Operations' Division, which is currently examining whether to release the soldier or ask the military court to remand him on Tuesday. The counsel claims the soldier would not be detained since he poses no risk.
The soldier’s investigation was launched after the Military Advocate General watched the video footage courtesy of B’Tselem, which was first published by Ynet. In the incriminating footage shot by a 14-year-old Palestinian girl living in Naalin, the soldier is seen pointing his weapon approximately 3 feet away from the bounded protestor, then firing a rubber-coated bullet at the ground.
According to Palestinian Ashraf Abu-Rahma’s testimony, he suffered a toe injury and was treated by a local military paramedic and was later on released by the soldiers.
Sharon Roffe-Ophir contributed to the report