An organization made up of Israeli soldiers critical of their country’s policies toward Palestinians has released a report saying Israel used excessive force in the Gaza War. The World’s Matthew Bell has details.
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JEB SHARP: I’m Jeb Sharp.  This is The World.  A new report raises some serious questions about Israel’s military offensive in Gaza earlier this year.  The report contains testimony by Israeli soldiers who took part in the conflict, and it alleges that the Israeli army committed widespread abuses against Palestinian civilians.  The Israeli government says it takes such allegations seriously, but it also questions the veracity of the report published today.  The World’s Matthew Bell reports.

MATTHEW BELL:  The group behind the report on alleged Israeli military abuses in Gaza is called Breaking The Silence.  It’s collected anonymous testimony from about 25 veterans of the Gaza offensive, and it put out some of that testimony in short videos.  In this clip, an Israeli reserve sergeant describes the rules of engagement his unit was operating under.

AMIR:  “At any obstacle, any problem, we open fire and don’t ask questions.  Even if it’s firing in the dark, firing aimed at unknown target, firing when we don’t see, deterrent fire – no problem with any of that.  A vehicle that’s in the way – crush it; a building in the way – shoot at it.”

BELL:  A spokesman for the group Breaking The Silence has said that Israeli troops sent into Gaza were essentially told to shoot first and ask questions later.  He also said the soldiers’ testimony was taken anonymously to protect them as whistle blowers.  Mark Regev is a spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister.  He told the BBC today that the soldiers’ claims in this report are not credible because they’re impossible to verify.

REGEV:  We don’t know whatsoever what their position was.  Were they involved directly or not so?  We don’t know how this information was gathered.  We don’t know what the credibility is to check this out or not to check this out. We have none of those references at all.  I mean, this doesn’t even make the most basic standards of tabloid journalism.

BELL:  Regev called on the report’s authors to verify their claims and then go public with them so they can be addressed in a serious way.  The allegations were serious enough, however, to draw a response from Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak.  He said Israel has one of the most ethical militaries in the world and it acts according to a high moral code.  Author and former Israeli soldier, Jeffrey Goldberg, agrees with Barak.  But he says asking tough questions about recent military operations is a vital part of Israeli life.

GOLDBERG:  Every neighborhood, every apartment bloc, every communal farm is sending people to war and they come back in 2 weeks or a month, 3 months, whenever – and they talk about what happened.  And because Israel is a very self-critical place, you will here in society incredibly detailed and informed criticism of the way in which particular wars or particular operations were waged.  It’s a check against military abuse.

BELL:  Goldberg agrees the latest allegations of abuses in Gaza, if they’re verified, should be taken seriously.  But he says they’re also a reminder of how Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians makes it difficult for the Jewish state to live up to its own moral expectations.

GOLDBERG:  No army can emerge unscathed from a military operation.  The choice is that commanders on the ground have to make are often choices between something untenable and something truly untenable.

BELL:  Goldberg says the actions of Hamas are largely what led to the death and destruction suffered by Palestinians in the Gaza War.    At the same time, he says, one of Israel’s greatest strengths is in its ability to engage in self-reflection.  For The World, I’m Matthew Bell.

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