Former Israeli sergeant criticises Gaza Strip invasion

OIREACHTAS COMMITTEE:ISRAELI MILITARY policy during last year's invasion of the Gaza Strip has been heavily criticised at an Oireachtas committee by a former member of that country's defence forces.

A former sergeant in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), Yehuda Shaul (27), told the Joint Committee on European Affairs that there was insufficient regard for the safety of innocent civilians during Operation Cast Lead in December 2008-January 2009.

Mr Shaul served in a combat unit in the West Bank city of Hebron during the second Intifada and is a founder-member of Breaking the Silence, a veterans’ organisation which records and publishes the testimony of Israeli soldiers on military actions against Palestinian opponents.

In a press statement, the Israeli embassy criticised the committee for arranging, “yet another one-sided hearing by soliciting only a spokesperson for a negative view of Israel’s policies, making it the fifth such deliberation by an Irish parliamentary body in the last six months”.

The statement accused Breaking the Silence of “defaming and slandering the IDF and its commanders”. At yesterday’s hearing, chairman Bernard Durkan TD said he expected that the committee would invite the Israeli ambassador to a future meeting.

Mr Shaul said more than 700 ex-combat soldiers were involved in Breaking the Silence, the oldest of whom was in his early thirties.

The purpose of publishing the veterans’ testimonies was to “generate debate about the moral price-tag of the occupation” of the West Bank and Gaza.

Soldiers who took part in the operation were asked, “What were your rules of engagement?” and their unanimous response was, “There were no rules of engagement.” One of the soldiers said: “We were at war: you just shoot.” Mr Shaul said he did not believe innocent civilians were deliberately targeted but the position was “very, very far” from the official claim that everything was done to avoid harm to civilians.

When he was a soldier, he was taught that, where there was doubt, you refrained from shooting but in Gaza the approach was: “You have doubts: you pull the trigger.” “The IDF itself has proven to us there are other ways of conducting military operations,” Mr Shaul added, pointing to Operation Warm Winter, which was launched in Gaza in February 2008 and “did not leave even 10 per cent of the destruction of [Operation] Cast Lead”.

Several committee members congratulated Mr Shaul on speaking out. Mr Durkan said the recent Israeli refusal to allow Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin into Gaza was “not a positive thing from an Israeli point of view”.