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She said once when she was on alert, there was a boom. "We heard a shot and of course I was on patrol so we ran over to see what happened, and there's a girl soldier standing like this, facing an Arab bleeding on the ground, and she says something like: 'He tried to attack me.' We look at him and he's shot in the belly (and) we ask her. What did he do? How did he attack you?"
She was confused and didn't know what to say, then "told some story about asking him for his ID and he wouldn't show it, and then he attacked her and somehow she tried to get away and turned around and shot him in the belly, something of that sort. You look and see an Arab who's been shot at point-blank range and he's holding his ID. And you say to her: Listen, this is impossible. Your story doesn't add up."
Apparently he approached to hand her his ID. "She then shoved him off with her rifle" and shot him in the belly. Instead of saying what have I done, we hear her saying he tried to attack me. This girl finally admitted he really got too close so she shot him....And she was not prosecuted....She was re-assigned to the Military Police. That was her punishment."
The commander tried to cover up the incident. He said "Just stop it! Stop asking her what she means! Enough of this! She's telling you he tried to attack her, what's there not to understand?"
So you can shoot someone, spit in their face and never get caught. "I think that this determination 'never to get caught' really shows that what I'm doing is wrong - so I mustn't get caught....It means everyone was pretty much aware of what went on there, and that it's not right." But soldiers do it all the time.
Another Hebron Sergeant talked about Palestinian children fearing Israeli ones because they threw stones at them as they passed by. And their parents said nothing. It became routine. "Since the one (throwing stones) was Jewish and the other Palestinian, it seemed all right....And the Palestinian had done nothing. I know this kid's parents teach him to hate Palestinians. I'm a Jewish Israeli soldier, and I'm supposed to be against the Arabs who are my enemies, (but I think) the Jews are wrong. So wait a minute, no, I have to switch my mind and go on hating Arabs and justifying the Jews. But wait," it's not okay.
So "on the one hand you're angry at your own people for being here....On the other hand, you also hate the Arabs because they kill your buddies and give you a hard time." So you end up hating everyone. "I'll swear" and spit at Arabs....it was a cool thing to do. I mean I can't go around boasting of having arrested anyone, or be proud of having caught a terrorist....But I can spit at them and humiliate and ridicule them."
Another Hebron Border Patrol Sergeant recalled going on a weapons search mission at 2AM. "So we entered these people's home, the father opens the door for us, in his robe, and the mother and grandmother and two little kids woke up too....The kids were absolutely horrified. The soldiers turned their whole house inside out, I never imagined it like this....you can open a drawer and throw all of its contents out, and leave it like that....The soldiers go on, opening and trashing and trashing just about everything in the house....And we didn't find a thing. Nothing."
They spent a hour "and were going nuts because (we) were certain, (we) had information, I don't know what, (we) were confident (we) were going for a find. So (we) trashed and trashed and left not one thing in its place. Then we went on to the second house, and I couldn't understand why we do it this way. And that was the first moment I realized why we are looked at like that, and why we are so hated. You enter in the most disgusting manner, without a drop of humanity....And the owner keeps pleading, saying don't do this to me....I just wanted to get out of there, just get out." When the men entered, they kicked the father in front of the kids.
A Hebron Sergeant told of an Israeli girl who saw an Arab walk by so "she grabbed this huge rock and ran toward him, leapt and boom! She banged his head with it....And this man was just an old man walking along the street. Then she started yelling: 'Yuck, his blood is all over me, so sickening!' (Then a soldier) charged at him (for yelling at the girl) and punched him as though he was threatening (her). I stood there in absolute shock."
A Hebron Medical Corp Lieutenant recalled cases where Palestinians were denied aid. "In Hebron, on the seam-line when a Palestinian got hit, the first procedure was to summon the Red Crescent....The medics of Kiryat Arba - Hebron do not approach Palestinians to give them aid." Once, she acted on her own initiative, spoke to the division medical officer in charge, "and he yelled at me, no way! We don't confirm such events. So I still activated MDA Kiryat Arba, sent them in after all, in other words lied to them and said it was authorized, and yes, go on, take the guy in. I got yelled at on every possible echelon later on....The division medical officer (told her) to forget it. Who cares....Yes....Right. He's a doctor."
A Seam Zone First Sergeant told about women combatants slapping Palestinian women. "There were two of them who really enjoyed hitting out. But the guys, too, had no problem slapping women. If she would scream they would (say) shut up and slap her. It was routine violence there. Again, there were guys who didn't, but everyone knew about this."
A Border Patrol First Sergeant was teamed "with some guy, we stopped someone (and) the soldier said: What are you laughing at? The guy was not laughing, (but the soldier said) I'm not a Border patrolman, let's fight. Obviously the guy is not going to hit him back, only pleaded and pleaded with him to let him go." The soldier kept taunting him to punch back, so "he pick(ed) up his rifle and start(ed) using it to hit the guy....This was routine there."
A Gaza Erez Crossing Sergeant described it, saying "It's constructed as a vast compound with lots of concrete ledges, but not too high. The checkpoint is huge. It's a giant installation you can see from very far off....you can always see the Palestinians moving around....It seemed to me like a jail....there are these metal pens, with people, soldiers scattered along several strategic points. Everyone's armed of course....It's all metal doors, a highly upgraded checkpoint as it were, hardly any human contact at all."
Palestinians queue up when the gates open at 3AM. "There's already crowding around one AM, they'll wait and quarrel and all. Because they're not told how many will be allowed in....Back in the good old days....tens of thousands came through....(Now) there are no humanitarian work permits....In short, regulations have gotten much tighter since I got there."
A Gaza Education Corp Lieutenant said she was shocked by a video showing "some old Palestinian farmer who got too close to the (Separation) fence, and you simply see the tank shell coming and blowing him up....It doesn't make sense and it's inhuman." There were many other cases like it. "Cases where Palestinians didn't mean to infiltrate or anything like that, as it came out in inquiries after the fact, but were shot" for being under suspicion....it looked to me like some kind of video game, you're not really seeing a human being." It's like "it's not happening."
