Former Israeli soldiers break the silence on military violations

Testimonies posted on YouTube by campaign group describe routine harassment and humiliation of Palestinian civilians

Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem guardian.co.uk,
Monday 16 May 2011 11.26 BST

Campaign group Breaking the Silence has met with a hostile response from Israel, especially after it published testimony by soldiers who took part in the war on Gaza in 2008-09.

Transgressions by the Israeli army in the occupied Palestinian territories will be disclosed by a group of former soldiers in an internet campaign aimed at raising public awareness of military violations.

Video testimonies by around two dozen ex-soldiers - some of whom are identifying themselves for the first time - will be posted on YouTube. The campaign by Breaking the Silence, an organisation of former soldiers committed to speaking out on military practices, launches with English subtitles on Monday.

Some of the former soldiers describe the "neighbour procedure", a term for the use of Palestinian civilians, often children, as human shields to protect soldiers from suspected booby traps or attacks by militants. The procedure was ruled illegal by Israel's high court in 2005.

Others speak of routine harassment of civilians at checkpoints, arbitrary intimidation and collective punishment.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/16/former-israeli-soldiers-break-silence

Wonder if there are any Americans willing to "break the silence" about the conduct of our soldiers.

Are the ones displaying true morality and humanity. There might actually be peace if the rest of the IDF joined them in refusing to participate in the immorality of the Occupation and the inherent injustice of collective punishment.

I am sure there are others who display true morality and humanity in their own way.

They all KNOW the settlements are immoral and are putting their own lives in danger.

Would you at least agree with me, oberliner, that active-duty IDF troops should be forbidden to live on the West Bank settlements?

I think they all should be removed except as agreed upon with the Palestinian side vis-a-vis land swaps.

I just think that it is unfair to question the morality of those soldiers. The majority of Israelis serve in the IDF, and I do not feel that I have the right to pass judgment in that way.

There are some folks who would argue that it is immoral for any soldier to serve in, for example, the US Army. I also think that is unfair.

And in the US, service is voluntary.

Us War Crimes Soldiers Speak Out

http://wn.com/US_war_crimes_soldiers_speak_out

More here from 2008:

Snip* More than 100 veterans gathered in a Detroit hotel in early 1971 to talk about things they had seen and done in the Vietnam War. Called the Winter Soldier Investigation, the group spoke about a horrifying array of allegations: convoys driving over civilians; burning of villages; bodies thrown out of helicopters; torture, mutilation and infamous "free-fire zones," where anyone not wearing a U.S. uniform could be killed.

Thirty-seven years later, more than 100 veterans will gather over the next several days for "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan." The event is designed to be another purging of the horrors of war, and another effort to put American military policy on trial in the public eye. The gathering this time, at the National Labor College outside Washington, D.C., is sponsored by the group Iraq Veterans Against the War. "Soldiers will certainly be testifying about their experience and observation of actions which are absolutely in violation of international law," says IVAW spokesperson Perry O"Brien, who served as an Army medic in Afghanistan in 2003.

In interviews with Salon, several veterans from the group described incidents in Iraq that they believed constituted wrongdoing by the U.S. military, including disproportionate use of air power resulting in civilian deaths. The soldiers were unable to provide Salon with any conclusive evidence of war crimes. But as the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq approaches, the allegations they and other Winter Soldier members will publicize in Washington this week add to a long-term set of questions about the damage and destruction wrought by U.S. military operations over years of war.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/03/13/winter_soldier/

Thank you so much for sharing this!

And the US military is a volunteer one at this point.