The Head of Central Command, Maj.-Gen Gadi Shamni, reprimanded Col. Itai Virov, Commander of Kfir Regiment, for testifying in court that the army uses violence against noncombatants in fighting terror.
Shamni told Virov that his statements do not match the “spirit of the IDF” and “could cause haziness among IDF soldiers regarding what was allowed and what was forbidden.” He decided to add a “commander’s reprimand” to Virov’s military file.
The IDF Spokesman said that “the Head of Central Command stressed the importance of avoiding the use of force against residents who had already been arrested or detained, and insisted that the safeguarding of human rights is a central and leading value in Central Command and in the IDF.”
The reprimand is expected to hurt Virov’s military career prospects.
Virov testified on behalf of the defense in the trial against Lt. Adam Maloul, who is charged with attacking an Arab in Shomron (Samaria) while searching for a terror suspect.
Disruption
“A slap, sometimes a blow to the back of the neck or the chest, sometimes a knee or a chokehold in order to calm the person down are reasonable" Virov testified. "Is there a chart that says what is allowed and what is not? No, and there can never be one.”
Virov explained to the court that Lt. Maloul had been under orders to carry out a procedure known as “disruption.” The idea, he explained, is “to try and upset the balance of a neighborhood, village or location in order to obtain information, or to cause a hostile element inside the village to make mistakes as a result or as a reaction to our forces’ actions, and thus disrupt his mode of operation and discover him.”
Virov detailed several levels of “disruption.” Level one, he said, could be achieved simply by a high-speed entrance into the village by jeeps. A second level involves lobbing stun grenades, breaking into several homes, arresting residents, taking up positions on roofs, and actions of that type.
It works
The system works, Virov told the court. One example he gave was the capture of the terrorist who murdered the young boy Shlomo Nativ in Bat Ayin, south of Jerusalem, about a month ago. A “very aggressive” entry into the village of Khirbet Safa disrupted the escape route of a person who had seen the murderer. In another incident, aggressive contact with the residents of a house in Jilazoun near Ramallah led to the unexpected discovery of a pipe bomb behind a window shutter.
Virov said there was no way to reach the terrorists without causing some uninvolved people to suffer on the way. “We will break into a thousand homes to find one Kalachnikov [assault rifle],” he explained. “We will detain and interrogate, and we will use physical pressure – customized for each person – in order to reach the individual terrorist. In all of the pressure methods we use, most are used against an uninvolved populace. That is the case with roadblocks, with combing through entire neighborhoods and with questioning of passersby in the street.”
These actions could include “holding a person against the wall, a push, a blow that does not injure. These are absolutely common things in attempts to carry out a mission.”
The commander said, however, that a head butt, especially with one’s helmet on, is improper. “Violence for violence’s sake is a serious thing, an offense,” he said. “Letting off aggressions is an improper action.”
He explained that IDF soldiers are always under threat in Judea and Samaria, and that danger can pop up from anywhere, at any time. The commanders have to trust their instincts and their best judgment because the rules of engagement cannot be codified, he told the court. “I always balance my concern over violence, abuse and undue humiliation with my concern that we will not succeed, that we will fail in our mission to protect the citizens of Israel,” Col. Virov said.
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