I was working yesternoon afternoon when the news came through, via the Jerusalem Post, that the Israeli military had categorically dismissed accounts — all but two from the graduates of military course at Oranim College —of the abuse and killing of civilians in the Gaza War.
I was struck by how quickly the Israel Defense Forces threw out the claims, noted by nine Israeli human rights groups: “”The speedy closing of the investigation immediately raises suspicions that the very opening of this investigation was merely the army’s attempt to wipe its hands of all blame for illegal activity during Operation Cast Lead.”
Even more blatant, however, was the disconnect between the military’s “findings” and the actual statements of the Oranim soldiers.
“In effect, we were supposed to go up floor by floor, and any person we identified – we were supposed to shoot.”
The Israeli military has now completed its investigation of the claims made by graduates of the Yitzhak Rabin pre-military preparatory program, held at Oranim Academic College, of abuses by the Israeli Defense Forces during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. According to the Jerusalem Post:
The Military Police completed its official investigation into the accounts on Monday and concluded that they were categorically false and based on rumors….The probe also concluded that the stories of the soldiers who participated in the conference were purposely exaggerated and made extreme, in order to make a point to the participants at the conference. The IDF Advocate-General Brig.-Gen. Avihai Mandelblit decided to close the case in the wake of the findings.
Danny Zamir: “I don’t intend for us to evaluate the achievements and the diplomatic-political significance of Operation Cast Lead this evening, nor need we deal with the systemic military aspect [of it]. However, discussion is necessary because this was, all told, an exceptional war action in terms of the history of the IDF, which has set new limits for the army’s ethical code and that of the State of Israel as a whole. Read the rest of this entry »
This week, the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz featured the testimony of Israeli soldiers detailing the killing of civilians and the destruction of their property during the Gaza War. The soldiers, graduates of the Yitzhak Rabin pre-military preparatory course at Oranim Academic College, made their statements on 13 February, and they were published in the newsletter for the course’s graduates.
Minister of Defense Ehud Barak commented, “”We have the most moral army in the world.”
Israeli Defence Forces in Gaza: Killing civilians, vandalism, and lax rules of engagement
Amos Harel
18 March 2009
During Operation Cast Lead, Israeli forces killed Palestinian civilians under permissive rules of engagement and intentionally destroyed their property, say soldiers who fought in the offensive. Read the rest of this entry »
I was working yesternoon afternoon when the news came through, via the Jerusalem Post, that the Israeli military had categorically dismissed accounts — all but two from the graduates of military course at Oranim College —of the abuse and killing of civilians in the Gaza War.
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“In effect, we were supposed to go up floor by floor, and any person we identified – we were supposed to shoot.”
This week, 
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