Ten soldiers from the IDF's Nahal Brigade have been found guilty of refusing to carry out orders and incitement to rebellion, after they refused to cooperate with a platoon commander whom they said they do not trust. They received sentences of 20 to 45 days in military jail, Voice of Israel government radio reported.
The soldiers serve in the brigade's Assisting Company. They claimed that they wrote letters to the brigade commander and to the battalion commander several months ago in which they raised serious accusations about their platoon commander. Their letters went unanswered, they said. After they completed their operational stint and were sent for training in the Jordan Valley, they announced that they would not continue to cooperate with the platoon commander because they have no faith in him.
The soldiers said that the officer ordered them to return to their unit from Gaza by hitchhiking at night, which the army forbids. He also ordered soldiers to fire mortar shells although they had not been properly trained to do so, they accused. They claimed that the platoon commander threatened to jail soldiers over “every small thing” and often meted out collective punishment.
The IDF Spokesman's Unit responded by saying that the army “deals severely with refusal of orders” because the military is based on obeying of orders. The complaints against the platoon commander are being checked, the Spokesman's Unit said.