There’s a checkpoint at the Dahariya intersection. South Dahariya. Palestinians cross there to go work in Beersheba. Dozens of Palestinians have to cross there every day, some on foot. One of the officers with us wanted to maintain order, he wanted them all to stand straight in a line, even. He ran beside them and told them to straighten up. They didn’t do it too well. So right near the first person he saw at the front, a fifty-something-year-old guy, and next to him an eight-yearold boy or something like that, a small boy . . . the officer shot in the air, and the line became orderly. He shot in the air to straighten the line? To straighten the line. And another time he just beat a guy up . . . He hit him in the face with the butt of his Galil, kicked him in the balls, spat on him, cursed him . . . he just shat on him. Right next to this guy’s little boy. He just humiliated him completely. That was rare . . . it would happen . . . Was he an officer from your company? From the Armored Corps? Yes, and we also had another soldier there who made special preparations. He invested two weeks in them, so he could beat up Arabs. And just anyone who wasn’t, who didn’t do exactly what he said, whoever wasn’t immediately obedient, he’d give it to him in the knee, leg, stomach, head, and anyone who wouldn’t answer his questions directly, “Where’s your ID,” “Where are you from,” like those thugs who beat you up, anything that didn’t seem right to him, you’d get a beating. There are people who need this kind of power, they get power-crazy and turn violent. I’m not talking about Arabs who were running away and soldiers would shoot at them, or people who bypassed the checkpoint . . . but this whole thing with the beating, it was really idiotic. And when you’re a witness to it, you . . . At that moment you’re silent . . . and you . . . you can’t stop it. I’m talking about if you’re in regular service. It wouldn’t happen on reserve duty. If I were to see something like that now, I wouldn’t let it continue. We fought with border policemen, we tried to keep them out of there, we really fought with them. It was difficult. Look, we’re . . . the majority of people are good, it’s not that most people are a problem, there’s just a problematic minority. The problem is that this kind of behavior was legitimate. So beating up an Arab, cursing him, humiliating him, pointing your weapon in his face and then shooting in the air a second later—these things were legitimate. It was down to the individual, it wasn’t like, let’s have four, five soldiers beat this guy up and . . . but there were people who knew they were going to beat someone up every day. They talk about it openly, they take photos . . . they photographed a Palestinian they bound like a contortionist—shocking things.