Testimony - "The terrible banality of the occupation"
| Name: | Anonymous |
| Rank: | Major |
| Unit: | Engineering Corps |
| Location: | West Bank |
| Date: | 2008 |
An Israeli soldier provides a testimony to Breaking the Silence explaining why he chose to speak out. "It's very important to shed light on the terrible banality of the occupation and what it does to us as a society, as human beings."
Interviewer: When you arrive at the area, you get instructions as to what you're supposed to do if a settler attacks a Palestinian, a herd of sheep, olive trees, stuff like that– what are you supposed to do?
Soldier: Nothing. The subject never came up. Nobody even thought of it as an option. At no stage does the army teach you how to handle a civilian population. That's not your role as a commander in the army, and the only thing that trains you for this is the field. Even the indecent procedure of detaining a Palestinian for two hours or 12 hours, or not detaining him at all, or slapping him while you're at it – it depends [on who you are]. Your political views, too, influence your decision making dramatically at any given time and place, because you're king. The commander on the ground is king, he determines everything, and he really has the power to decide who shall live and who shall die.
Interviewer: And facing the settlers? When it happens with settlers, do you still have all those powers?
Soldier: No. The settlers are on our side, and the Palestinians are the enemy. It's very simple, who's a friend and who’s a foe. So by definition, we know: this is an enemy, that’s a friend, and therefore we will naturally handle a settler with kid gloves.
Interviewer: There were cases of settlers attacking both soldiers and officers. Are you authorized to arrest a settler, to detain?
Soldier: The unequivocal answer is no. There are no specifications. During training you learn how to handle riots, you learn how to handle an e-n-e-m-y. The legal definition of the army's role in the territories is to maintain order. The police’s role in a normal country, for that matter.
Interviewer: Did they [your commanders] talk to you about the term 'protected civilians’? Are you familiar with it?
Soldier: No, I'm not. I can say that I don't receive any clear, sensible, instructions as to how to handle the population and maintain daily order. And as a result, you find yourself in a situation of uncertainty, which is very problematic. At best, there’s a commander who uses his, say, moral, lawful, whatever, discretion, and does the right thing. At worst, there's a commander who doesn't use his discretion, or it doesn’t interest him, and does the wrong thing. But generally what happens is that we call the police. As far as I'm concerned, as the army on the ground, I don't want to deal with it at all. I don't want to deal with the situation. I wait for the police to arrive as quickly as possible. It’s funny, we, those trusted to maintain order, wait for the professionals to come and do that.
Why break the silence? I was never silent. I tell these stories to whoever wants to hear.
Interviewer: Why do you think it's important that people know?
Soldier: We were on a Breaking the Silence tour, and then I thought about how all these stories – there is nothing dramatic about them. We didn't grab anyone and put a bullet through his head, we didn't beat anyone black and blue at a checkpoint, there wasn't... All these stories are very mundane. A few weeks ago there was an article in Haaretz, I forget whose, claiming that especially for those who come from a place of being human rights-minded, Breaking the Silence is a problematic organization. Why? Because when you hear of all the terrible cases, it's easier for you to say, "It isn't us, there are psychos, they need to pay". Even if you're a person who cherishes human rights, you say: I'm not shooting anyone, I don't eat Palestinians for lunch, and this isn't my army and this isn't the army I know, and that’s why such incidents are exceptional incidents, and the exception indicates the norm, and the norm is that it’s fine. [But] my wife told me that it's not true, that it’s not the case, that there are actually tons of mundane stories. And then it really hit me [that] the huge mass is really a mundane mass and it's important to 'zoom in’ on the banality, on the situation you're in, [on] all the stories that don't reach the news. Stories about what it means to be an occupier, not only what it does to them [the Palestinians]. I don't want to be there, I feel shitty about it, and for me it's much easier to fight an enemy. Our presence there is horrible. When the enemy shoots, I shoot back. That's clear to me, there's no other way. But to sit there, to maintain this industry called the occupation and then not to deal with its consequences and wash your hands clean of it, and say 'they did this and they did that to us' – that doesn't work. And that’s why I say that it's very important to shed light on the terrible banality of the occupation and what it does to us as a society, as human beings. There are people who might really be evil, or that's their ideological standpoint – that Arabs only understand force and that’s how it has to work, and it can't be helped. But there are enough people who arrive there, and I really believe that people who have moral stances shouldn't hold themselves back from stating them. But still, you're worn out on every level, everyone is, you lose focus, you lose your humanity."
