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Commentary;
Israel National News is reporting;
… That yeshiva students in the Givati Brigade took part in the military operation to destroy the Federman-Tor farm and homes three nights ago? … Senior security commanders lied to them and told them they were participating in a mission to help catch a terrorist.
Basically, IDF senior command appears to have learned a distorted lesson from the expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif — to lie and deceive those subordinate to them so as to mislead them into doing immoral actions under the guise that their mission is totally different from what it actually is. MB
Below are further excerpts from the report;
Soldiers Were Tricked Into Guarding Kiryat Arba Destruction, Hillel Fendel (Israel National News)
Excerpts;
Ro’i Sharon, reporter for the Maariv daily newspaper, revealed that it was feared that the young soldiers would refuse to take part in the mission if they knew it was not military but rather one of destroying Jewish homes.
A member of Hevron’s emergency alert team, which generally works closely with the army, was quoted as saying: “This creates mistrust between echelons in the military framework, and is liable to cost human life. In the next security incident, the residents won’t believe the security forces, and the soldiers won’t believe their commanders.”
Border Guard officials confirmed that the soldiers had been tricked. “The sensitivity of the incident required us to maintain high secrecy,” a Border Guard source told Maariv.
The incident in question was the bulldozing of two Jewish homes in Kiryat Arba in the middle of the night, in which the occupants of the two buildings were given five and zero minutes, respectively, to get dressed and pack some belongings.
The forces arrived in three rings: Special black-uniformed Yassam policemen in the inner ring, doing the actual destruction, …. policemen to protect them and ensure that Jewish neighbors not come close; and soldiers at street intersections to prevent Jews from entering the area.
“This creates mistrust between echelons in the military framework, and is liable to cost human life. In the next security incident, the residents won’t believe the security forces, and the soldiers won’t believe their commanders.”
The soldiers were some 40 yeshiva hesder soldiers whose job it was to man the entrances to the area. They told residents who wished to enter the area to fight the destruction that a terrorist had been sighted in the area. In some cases, they had to fight with Jews who tried to enter despite the warnings.
Thanks to the soldiers’ work, the Federman and Tor homes were practically empty of Jews, and their destruction proceeded without interruption.
One soldier told reporter Sharon afterwards, “I still cannot believe that I had a part in this eviction. I am a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, not a policeman, and there is no reason that they should take me on missions that have nothing to do with protecting Jews. I almost cried when I found out.”
To read the entire report, click here.