Name: *** Rank: first sergeant Unit: Nachal Description: For a while we were working under Duchifat (recon unit) at Surda Checkpoint, Ramallah. Then someone got killed there and this checkpoint was dismantled. Besides being extremely frightening, a checkpoint where you were always threatened from all directions and had nothing to do about it, it did not even serve its purpose. People kept infiltrating from all directions, you had absolutely no control. There was this case of really wild conduct on the part of a Duchifat driver. I think he was a professional army man, a Druze. Anyway, he didn't really do anything bad, it was just like the Wild West out there, you know? We drive, 500 meters from us there are a hundred people passing us bound for Ramallah, while there's curfew on… So he got really annoyed, got out, threw a few concussion grenades, came back, some teargas… Just shows you the kind of Wild West going on out there
Name: *** Rank: first sergeant Unit: Nachal elite unite Description:When did you go on reserves duty?
From August 15th until September 8th 2004, around Huwwara, Nablus. We replaced the paratrooper recon-unit and various other recon units, being recon-unit reservists. We had a four-day training period and went into operation duty. This means that half the crews were operational, and half were to catch patrols and do checkpoint shifts.
I had never been on checkpoint duty until I got to the reserves, and was surprised to discover how much I disliked it. We would put up all kinds of road-blocks following various alerts. I regarded them as random, silly and ineffective security-wise, and terribly disruptive of life in Huwwara, the village/small town directly south of the Huwwara checkpoint, which is huge. That's the checkpoint where that abuse incident took place, with that paratrooper.
Only that paratrooper? No, I guess others abused people there as well. And south of the checkpoint, about
5 kilometers south is the Tapuach Checkpoint, which is also a major (junction) checkpoint. In between the two we'd put up all kinds of stupid road-blocks. At the first one we put up – you'd put it up for a few hours and stop people for some unclear reason – two women passed through in a cab. One was about 23-years old and the other, her mother, about 40-years old. They were both from Balata (refugee camp), Nablus. I see a 23-year old woman from Balata, and I know that… I call up my company commander and tell him: listen, something here looks wrong to me. I know that, professionally and all, 23-year old women are supposed to be married. And Balata, you know… it made me remember things (from my past in the army). He replied: "Okay, hold her up at the roadblock for four hours." I said, "What? Just check her ID, see if she's clean or not. If she isn't, I'll take her." "No, no, make her stay for four hours." What for? "That's how they'll learn not to come out of Nablus."
She must have already crossed about five checkpoints to get from Balata to where I was. With my halting Arabic I couldn't understand why they came out. Perhaps she has a permit for studies, or for staying, I don't know. I explained this to him on our radio. "No, detain her." Let alone that operationally it disrupted my managing my post and dealing with civilians and protecting myself. So I detained them and their cab driver. And every half hour I cal him up and say: Okay, no problem, they can stay detained here, but why should the cab driver remain at the road block? "Because he drove them." Do you know for a fact that he's from Balata? He drove them from Huwwara Checkpoint to Tapuach Checkpoint. Three and a half hours, because I obey orders. That's how long they were kept at the road-block. When we left, when we dismantled the road-block, that's when we let them go. That was one of the cases. (…) Note that after that one time when I detained those women from Balata for four hours, I made up my mind not to report any more and act only upon my own judgment.
Description: We were in Balata in late 2001. That's a refugee camp in Nablus, and Amira Hass (Israeli journalist) arrived and the guys spoke to her in Arabic. Told her to keep away, not to come in, and she did as she pleased. Then she began to scream at us not to speak to her in our broken Arabic, not to even use it. That she's a journalist and that we should just go to hell. She was very mad at us and got in our way. We had to block all kinds of entry-ways so no one would use them, neither journalists nor Palestinians, and she crossed over. And it's a problem because there are open fire instructions at people who cross there.
And…?
Nothing. It's a problem. No one shot her.
Were there cases where you had to put on a show for the media? Take a house and do it all nice and pretty so you'd be filmed the next day?
No. But what we did do for the army spokesperson, as we were a unit that worked very 'cleanly' under our first commander, and we did this many times - was videotape the house. If we had a two-day stay in a house, we'd film it as we entered, using a digital video camera, and when we left, to show how the house was left in the same condition. We took good care of houses whenever we could.
And you'd pass on such cassettes to the army spokesperson?
Yes.
Did you get briefed on this?
No. It was simply a norm in our unit, to leave the houses in the best shape possible.
I remember instances-- an instance where Israeli Arabs who came out from Jenin at night at a late enough hour and it was very suspicious... Israeli Arabs who came out from Jenin-- I checked-- I checked their ID cards-- in our post there was a placard about how forged ID cards look-- their ID cards were simply a little old.
Interviewer: Regular blue cards?
Regular blue cards-- the picture was cut with straight corners rather than rounded corners and that was one of the elements-- it seems that that was one of the elements of the new ID cards-- someone who got his ID in the 1970s which would be very logical for someone who is thirty.
Interviewer: He has an old ID
He has an old ID, not forged, we thought that we were talking here about...
Interviewer: That someone is trying to get around you?
Exactly, to get around, someone who looks like an Israeli is trying to pass into Israel-- it was very worrying ... they were taken but there was no proportionality-- we took them and tied them up and did a kind of Shabaq investigation we crosschecked them we talked with them we yelled at them we blindfolded them we didn't urinate on them or do anything horrible but we scared them a lot we used psychological intimidation on these two it cam--
Interviewer: What did you do?
What?
Interviewer: How do you psychologically intimidate-- how did you do that?
We tied them up, blindfolded them, stripped them completely, put them into the posts...
Interviewer: Completely? Naked naked?
No, underwear, underwear, we put them in one of the posts, anti-fire posts, fire-resistant posts-- that way it's claustrophobic-- you feel these four people yelling at him you liar you terrorist
Interviewer: Was there also physical violence there?
I, I'm sure, look, I'm sure that there were also those things, I already don't remember. Little by little it sunk in that they were Israelis, their Hebrew was good enough, their stories matched, the police came and we gave them to the officers.
Interviewer: How much time were they with you in the "investigation"?
Two hours, an hour and a half.
Interviewer: And after how much time did you call the police?
No, at the beginning we notified the brigade-- I don't think-- we didn't want to do-- that is to say
I remember that we had a commander in our brigade who called himself the doctor. He really enjoyed looking at -- for example, people would come with X-rays -- really I would also open them and look at the picture and see what name was on the picture, because the picture has a name on it, to see if it matches the ID card -- he would look, examining it as if he were deciding to do some physical examination, the whole thing just for fun. Like someone told him he had a headache and so then he felt his skull and said "no, no, you're fine" something like that. He very much amused the soldiers, I remember everyone talking about this commander on the side, about how cool he was.
Interviewer: Look, I come and say my belly hurts?
They did many stupid things to alleviate boredom and absurdity and the soldiers were witness to it-- the soldiers see that you're doing something that is a bit Sisyphean and unnecessary.
Rank: Sergeant Unit: Nahal brigade Place of incident: Atarot-Kalandia Description:
10/2000
There wasn’t really a checkpoint in Kalandia [at that time]. We would stand there at the fence of the airport, as if this was aiding the guys who were guarding the airport. There were riots and we would shoot... how do you call it -
Rubber [rubber coated metal bullets].
Rubber, stun grenades. And all the time we were playing ‘Catch’ with the kids throwing stones. We would set traps for them there.
What do you mean by traps?
Traps, let me give you a somewhat funny example. We would put a can with a stun grenade inside, take out the safety pin, and place on it sweets, desserts that we would take from the kitchen. Then the kids would come, look at them and when they picked it up, the grenade would explode in their face. That’s one. I’ll give you another example. There was a couch that they would move all day, so we would booby trap the couch with stun grenades.
Where was this couch placed?
It was placed in the middle of where we were… there was a certain place where they would throw stones. And we were sick of them, like, taking the couch. So we (grinning)… and my platoon commander were wounded during this. He tried to set a trap and a stun grenade blew up in his hand, such things, it was a period then… And let me tell you, it was a crazy time.
Rank: Staff Sergeant Unit: Artillery Description: A friend of mine from Nahshon [elite unit] was once manning a roadblock. He prevented a jeep that came there from passing. Three days later the jeep passed fifty meters from that spot, while honking his horn and provoking him [my friend]. My friend chased him, stopped the jeep, took out a part of the engine and thrown it down the mountain. The event was not reported.
Rank: Staff sergeant Unit: Artillery Place of incident: Shaked area Description: Did you use to detain people at the checkpoint?
Yes. When we were told to detain someone, or if his name came up on the computer, we would detain him.
For how long?
There was this one guy [we detained] for almost a shift – eight hours. We would contact the war-room on the radio once hourly, and they told us to keep holding him. He wasn’t cuffed. He was held by a soldier. He stood in the shadow. They gave him food and drink. That’s the Artillery corps for you…
In the end they haven’t arrived, and we got an order to release the guy.
Were there any other incidents in which you detained people?
Yes, but not for that long. An hour or two. I remember that in the beginning there was this one time when a guy got punished for being fresh. The soldier made a fuss about that (it was not on my shift). They told the guy he couldn’t pass, or something of the sort. Detained him. He said :”you are criminals, you are murderers”, stuff like that. And he was really screaming. They radioed his ID number to the war-room, and they said he was clear. So the guys decided to detain him for somewhat more than an hour.
Rank: Staff sergeant Unit: Shimshon elite unit Place of incident: Beitar checkpoint Description: Things that just happened: Sometimes we would detain buses, so just… You know, you get on the bus, that sort of routine – one gets on at the front, and one at the back, and all these dumb things… There was that tear-gas-grenade launcher, and we would get on the bus and you know lock the launcher; it sounds like charging a weapon. At six in the morning, when all the workers are still half asleep, you wake them up like that. All kinds of fear creating, and deterrence techniques. All these things I’m talking about now were not [done under] direct orders from any commander or factor. It was simply the section-commanders who passed it on to the soldiers. Because when they where soldiers their section commanders taught them, and it stayed at the level of section commander and soldiers. Although in my opinion there wasn’t one officer in the company who didn’t know about this stuff. Every officer commanding those section-commanders, every officer, was once a soldier. So no one can say they didn’t know, everyone knew everything.
Rank: Staff sergeant Unit: Shimshon elite unit Place of incident: Beitar checkpoint Description: Really extreme incidents when I was in training. There was a checkpoint called the Beitar checkpoint, and there was a commander in our platoon. One day they apparently just detained a minibus full of Arab workers, and this commander, accompanied by his soldiers, took them all, put them all into a huge pit that there was behind the post, and took their Identity Cards from them. A pit.
What’s that?
A pit, just a pit that was there, a huge pit. I don’t know why, he just called out names one by one, and then lets say, I don’t know, [he would say]: ‘Ziad Abu Ziad get out of the pit now!’ You see people, 50, 40 years old, after a hard day’s work, adults. – ‘Give me 20 push-ups!’ The guy would do 20 push-ups and get his ID card back. It was one very exceptional incident. A soldier reported this to the battalion commander and to the platoon commander, and quite simply I know they threw that commander out.
What, was he a corporal?
A section-commander, he was an idiot section commander, and actually they kicked him out. But I don’t know how much punishment he got. It was really serious because I saw the battalion commander hanging around there in the unit…he was court-martialed.
Rank: Staff sergeant Unit: Armored forces Place of incident: Daharia junction Description: Daharia junction. South Daharia. Palestinians pass through that roadblock on their way to work in Be’er-Sheva. They have to pass; some on foot. Tens of Palestinians a day. One of the officers wanted to keep the order, wanted them to stand in a straight line – like a ruler. He ran beside them and made them straighten up. They didn’t do it well enough, so the first person he saw at the beginning – about 50 years old with an 8-year-old kid or something similar, a little boy – the officer shot in the air and they straightened up. And on another occasion…
To straighten up the line?
To straighten up the line. And on another occasion he just beat the hell out of a person… He hit the man’s face with the handle of his rifle, kicked him in the groins, spat on him, cursed him – simply went berserk. In front of the man’s little boy. He just humiliated him.
Rank: Staff Sergeant Unit: Armored Corps Place of incident: Daharia Description: We also had a soldier … who prepared a special club. He spent to weeks making it, to hit Arabs with, and whoever didn’t … whoever didn’t do exactly as told, whoever wasn’t obedient – he clubbed him in the knee, the leg, the stomach, the head, and whoever didn’t give him a straight answer: “Where’s your ID?” “Where are you from?”… Like those thugs that beat you up… Whatever you don’t like – battering! Some people just need this power and become drunk with power and violent. And that’s not even to mention Arabs who really tried to escape, and got shot at, those who bypassed checkpoints… But this clubbing, this was really stupid.
And when you stood there, you…?
At that moment you keep silent … and you … you can’t stop it.
Rank: first lieutenant Place of incident: Qalandia checkpoint Description: During a change over with a reservist force, with us taking over the area and assuming responsibility over the Kalandia checkpoint, the officers of the outgoing unit explained to us:
Any car parked in a way you don’t like, or a way that endangers you when youre on duty, shoot its tires and blow them up. If the cars is parked in an especially troublesome manner, throw a stun grenade into the car. This blows up all the windshields.
This is the procedure used by the outgoing force during its entire service term there, contrary to brigade orders. There were no signs or warnings given to people who park their cars, when they have to cross the checkpoint by foot.
Rank: Staff Sergeant Unit: Paratroops Place of incident: South Mount Hebron Description:
Late 2001
Beside ordinary roadblocks, we would also block the main access roads. What does ‘block the main access roads’ mean? They give you an enormous Volvo mechanical shovel, they say: drive along Road no.60, and block any side-road that goes into it. OK, cool. It doesn’t matter that on some of these roads there’s somebody’s home and that he has a dirt-road leading to the main road, because the Palestinian Authority’s Public Works Division doesn’t function too well. So they didn’t pave a road to the house, just a dirt road. A command is a command, and so we would block the roads… Pretty soon we’d become bored, and of course there wasn’t an officer present, and the mechanical shovel’s driver is a bored reservist, so we started doing “Monster Truck Rally” [English in the original] – in the U.S you have these trucks with enormous wheels, we started playing this “Monster Truck Rally” game: to check what the shovel can cross and what it can lift. We would approach a house: ‘c’mon, can you hoist his car up in the air?’ – ‘Look at that, I can hoist the car, I believe I can.’ Boom! He would lift it up in the air and put it down on the path, blocking his path with his own car.
And presumably leave it like that …
Yes, leave it like that. ‘Can you…’ whatever… ‘Can you hoist his terrace?’ – ‘I don’t know, it’s heavy stone.’ – ‘C’mon, Shimon, what do you mean you can’t?’ - ‘I’ll try.’ ‘C’mon.’ Boom! Lifts up his terrace. Out of boredom you overturn peoples’ terraces, their cars. You trash them. No reason, it’s just a game. You see, I was 19-20 at the time. You give a child this enormous shovel – he can do anything… He can run wild. We did run wild. We moved boulders, blocked entrances to houses, uprooted gates. Just like that, we played with the shovel. And, of course, wherever you put up barriers, they’re open again the next day. They too have shovels. So I remember how me and my friend were pissed off that they should open these barriers. I go and put up these barriers, and fuck it the next day… It took me hours to put them up. What we did was – one time we were on a patrol, and we saw this JCB shovel and stopped and said to the guy “OK now you come with us to do a job”. I don’t know where he was going, but we appropriated his JCB for a couple of hours and used it to put up barriers.
You appropriated a Palestinian shovel …
Complete with the Palestinian guy inside. We said, ‘now you block all these roads.’ We did it all over again, put all the barriers up again. We detained him for maybe 2-3 hours. I don’t know for how long. Just out of boredom. No other reason.
Rank: First sergeant Unit: 401 unit, Armor corps Place of incident: Qalqilia Description:
August 2002
I can also speak of an incident that was handled by disciplinary action. There was a curfew in Qalqilia, you couldn't leave, and a tank that was positioned on a hill enforcing the curfew encountered a Palestinian farmer that was trying to sneak out with a wagon and donkey. They said to leave the wagon there, of course I hadn't seen this personally but I know for sure that's what happened because it was investigated on a company level.
So this wagon was laying there by the tank and then the team, especially the tank commander, thought it would be funny to go up over it. They trampled it. Some reservists happened to see it, it was Golani brigade, they reported it and it was handled by disciplinary action. The tank commander was punished for it.
Unit: Naha”l Place of incident: Tamoun [north east of Nablus] village square Description:
June 2003, 9 AM
Friday, June 2003. My company and I are entering the village of Tamoun in the Nablus area. The time is noon. Our mission is to set up a check post [a short term post to show presence in the village and maybe catch wanted Palestinians]. On Friday the village square is full of people going about their routine. We set up the check post and start checking people when all of a sudden a bunch of protesters, children it should be noted, start throwing stones at us from a distance of 300 meters (a distance from which no one can hit us). The company commander then orders the grenadier to shoot towards them a demonstration dispersion grenade (something that generates a lot of smoke, which can heat up the atmosphere in the village to an extent that there may be people killed) and all that time the company commander goes around and starts cursing all the people in Hebrew and Arabic just to heat up the atmosphere.
The grenadier refuses to shoot, and the company commander angrily orders him to go to the Safari [a military vehicle] after he states that this is refusal to obey an order and that the grenadier will be punished. He wasn’t court-martialed, but the staff punished him with all kinds of sanctions. The whole affair was silenced.
Rank of Commander During Event: Captain (company commander)
Knowledge of any Investigation Conducted: None conducted, in spite of a request from the soldiers themselves.
Rank: First sergeant Place of incident: Checkpoint in Nablus Description:
A checkpoint in crossroad 1 in Nablus (entrance to Nablus).
Heavy traffic of Palestinians. None passing through. The commander’s temper is raising, and he starts shooting in the air. 20 minutes later people are trying to get around the checkpoint, about 100-150 meters away from the checkpoint. The commander shoots close to their legs, without making sure they had not been at the checkpoint before, and know they must not pass through. It was the commander’s last day in the army [mandatory service], and he might have wanted to get a bit “loosened up”.
Rank: First sergeant Place of incident: Tamun – Nablus area, neat Tubas Description:
The Rank of the authorized soldier: Captain ***** and Colonel Yaeir Golan (the Nachal) commander.
Participants ranks: 13 people, including a captain, lieutenant and the rest were first sergeants.
We blocked the route between Tubas and Tamun to assist in capturing wanted fugitives. Before sunrise we had several prisoners, local farmers and pitot vendors on their knees with rifles trained on them. One of the cars did not stop when we put our searchlight on it and we heard the cry “Palestinian Police, Palestinian Police”. We opened fire on the jeeps and they managed to retreat while firing at us. Then they stopped and it appears they were dead. We heard a cellular phone ringing and we realized that one of them was still alive and the commander took two sharp shooters with him to make sure that everyone was dead. This happened 15 minutes after the initial burst of fire; a man lay twenty meters from us and we were in no danger at all. Captain ***** told the two sharp shooters to direct his fire in the dark and using night vision glasses they directed his fire. Documents on the body confirmed that he was from the Palestinian General Intelligence Branch. He did not have any weapons.
Rank: First Sergeant Place of incident: Nablus Description:
End of 2003
There was an operation where we were supposed to enter the city. We called it “Yossi Bachar’s Horror Show”. Aviv Kohavi was replaced by Yossi Bachar. You know, every new brigade commander wants to leave an impression, wants to make a big entrance. He got us into this completely useless operation… and in the end of this operation there was this part when we put ‘New-Jerseys’ roadblocks, those plastic roadblocks. So we were putting these New-Jersey’s roadblocks, and the battalion commander gave an order… because we put these New Jerseys to block the traffic… in Nablus… Getting to the point, we put these New Jerseys and the kids there, those who throw stones all the time, would come and move them away. There was a mess. We couldn’t… In the beginning we would put the New Jerseys and the local residents would move them away, so we put it again, and then there were riots and stown throwing and it became a complete mess. Then the battalion commander gave the order: “Whoever touches the roadblock, the New Jerseys, must be shot in the legs.” Live ammunition. Shoot his legs. We were, I was, supposed to do it. In my Army vehicle there was talk, and we asked whether he was out of his mind; a person touches the roadblock – are we to shoot him in the legs? [We thought] he was just making noise.
Apparently this specific battalion commander. thought very highly of setting personal example. In a roadblock he came to – I was not personally there, but the guys from the commanding crew [soldiers who join the commander on operations]… And actually this was a known case: the man drove his jeep next to some New Jersey, and saw this kid touching it – apparently at some distance – and aimed at the kid's leg. But, you know, instead of hitting the kid in the legs he hit him in the chest, and killed him. For touching a New Jersey. If you’ll excuse me, I do not think of touching a New Jersey as a reason for death.
How do you know the kid is dead?
Hear say. But the kid is dead. This is a well-known story. We got back to base from this operation, we talked, and then the guys who were with the commanding crew say: “Hey guys, *** killed a kid, a kid murderer, kid murderer, he killed a kid.” They told us the story. People who saw it happen. I’m pretty sure. I cannot think that someone went and checked his pulse, but not many kids survive a bullet in the chest.
Rank: Staff Sergeant Unit: Paratroopers brigade Place of incident: Hammam El Malih Description: This is about my acquaintance with Battalion 202’s Commander. We were in Hammam El Malih. There’s a checkpoint out there, at the entrance. Once, there was a checkpoint at the entrance to Hammam, separating it from Tiasir and Tamun and Tubas, manned by a Squad Commander and soldiers. When advanced training was over there were no Squad Commanders any more – just soldiers. Whenever he passed the sentry box he would either add an extra post, or take the men to be court-martialed because they didn’t wear… There was this 3-legged donkey. It’s a donkey that …I don’t know, its leg fell off and it roamed around there… Hammam El Malih is a valley, hot as hell in summer. From time to time we gave it some water. We gave it a name, I forget what it was. They gave it some water from time to time. To make a long story short, the Battalion Commander passes by in his Renault Megan, looks, says: “What’s with this donkey?” We say: “Just a donkey with three legs.” He says: “listen, maybe you don’t know it, but there’s such a thing as explosive donkeys. This one’s a potential explosive donkey.” A potential terrorist, you see. “Get rid of it.” OK, we chase it away, an hour later the donkey’s back. It got used to being given water. The donkey’s back, what can you do? The Commander comes, he sees the donkey, and goes ballistic. He says: “Now you…” This was right after changing of shifts – we were the ones he ordered to get rid of the donkey, but the donkey came back to the guys who took our place – he comes out of his Renault Megan: “You, I’m going to court-martial you for disobedience. I told you to get rid…” Of course they had no idea what he was talking about. Then they explained that he’d ordered the former shift. “So I’ll court-martial them for not passing-on information.” He became real crazy and all that. “Now you’ll see how to get rid of a donkey.” He led the donkey aside and shot it in the head.
He then court-martialed guys from the other shift, that is from my shift, for not passing on information about having to get rid of the donkey, and they told me how he – the Battalion Commander – shot the donkey.
