“I’m bored, so I shoot” – the Israeli army in Gaza
JVL Introduction
Discipline in the Israeli army is at an all-time low; soldiers without written rules of engagement are authorised – indeed encouraged – to fire at civilians at will.
Testimonies of six Israeli soldiers who spoke to +972 Magazine and Local Call following their release from active duty in Gaza in recent months corroborate the testimonies of Palestinian eyewitnesses and doctors throughout the war.
The army is literally out of control and war crimes are being committed on a daily basis by “the most moral army in the world”.
- “If there is [even] a feeling of threat, there is no need to explain — you just shoot.”
- “It is forbidden to walk around, and everyone who is outside is suspicious.”
- “People were shooting just to relieve the boredom.”
- “A building comes down, and the feeling is, ‘Wow, what fun”’
- “No one will shed a tear if we flatten a house when there was no need, or if we shoot someone who we didn’t have to.”
- “So you occasionally see dogs walking around with rotting body parts. There is a horrific smell of death.”
RK
This article was originally published by +972 Magazine, in partnership with Local Call on Mon 8 Jul 2024. Read the original here.
‘I’m bored, so I shoot’: The Israeli army’s approval of free-for-all violence in Gaza
- Israeli soldiers describe the near-total absence of firing regulations in the Gaza war, with troops shooting as they please, setting homes ablaze, and leaving corpses on the streets — all with their commanders’ permission.
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The comment that ‘today’s child is tomorrow’s terrorist’ reminds me of what Pierre Laval reportedly said when asked why he was cooperating with the Nazis in sending Jewish children to their deaths in Germany, when children could not possibly be guilty of anything: ‘c’est de la prophylaxie’.
This quote from the “Long Read” in today’s “Guardian” (written by the author son, now in his 50s, who’d been born into and raised by a family of Nazis) seems apposite:-
“Why do people turn so easily from being “ordinary men”, as the historian Christopher Browning describes them, into ruthless murderers, convinced that they are doing the right thing, and that they are serving a just cause?
The historical record shows that when the state sanctions murder against minorities, people are more likely to perpetrate violence.”
Disgusting behaviour towards minorities short of murder probably sets states and their citizens on the downward slope to worse evils. A frightening thought for us in the UK, where the “hostile environment” and “Prevent” schemes are still ongoing.
While honouring the many Israelis who courageously oppose in their actions and lives the evils dominant in their country, on their own they’re not a big enough or powerful enough group to reform Israel from the hellish Apartheid, lawless and undemocratic state it’s now become. It’ll require mass intervention by international organisations and foreign states working with the UN to do that. How likely is that to happen?