The army has announced that it will assume responsibility for the
soldiers' actions in the framework of "evacuations and confrontations
with" Yesha residents, but it was not immediately clear whether this
included monetary damages they might be required to pay. Arutz-7's
inquiry to the IDF on this issue is under investigation by an IDF
spokesman's office representative.
One observer writes, "Soldiers are liable to find themselves facing a
U.S. court for ethnic cleansing and crimes against American citizens,
and courts there sometimes dole out very painful sums for damages.
Therefore, all soldiers and policemen face this choice: Either to
refuse orders, leading to being fired or even a few months in jail,
which some 12-year-old girls have shown is not so terrible, or to face
possibly being sued for tremendous financial damages."
An article by Arutz-7's Haggai Segal warns soldiers taking part in the
forcible expulsion of Jews of the psychological consequences of their
actions: "'You must knock on the door gently,' you were informed in
the page of instructions your officers gave you. But even if you are
very gentle, and even if you shrug your shoulders in contrition, the
family inside will never forget those knocks. The family will be
shaken by those knocks more than any other mortar shell or rocket that
has ever fallen in their yard or living room. As far as they are
concerned, you are the executor of a cruel decree that has been
decreed upon them with no justification - a decree that has not even
been decreed upon the families of terrorists; not one of them was ever
thrown out permanently, because the Supreme Court and the media didn't
let."
"'In case of refusal,' the page states, 'you will have to break down
the door.' The odds are that you will in fact have to break down the
door... If you had a hard time at the checkpoints, when you were
forced to detain Palestinian mothers and their children, it will be
much harder in Gush Katif. The crying of the expelled will ring in
your ears for many years to come... Behind the broken down door you
will find a whole family - not wanted terrorists, not escaped
criminals, but a father, a mother, five or six children of all ages,
and sometimes an elderly grandmother. They will look at you with
fear, and you'll look at them, no less scared, and neither one of you
will ever forget the other... True, the Chief of Staff recently
promised that the army would carry out this mission with 'sensitivity
and firmness,' but you will suddenly realize that it's impossible to
expel with sensitivity, just as it's impossible to be a polite rapist
or a considerate thief. With your own hands, you will have to open
closets that are not yours, to pack belongings against the will of
their owners, to uproot children from their rooms while they are
kicking and crying. This will be an impossible experience, and one
that is against the IDF's ethical code, which states, "An IDF soldier
will not use his force or weapon against a non-combatant population.'
Did they tell you of this clause in your latest training sessions?"
"And then afterwards, you'll probably be forced to drag the parents as
well, and the elderly grandmother, through the broken down door and
across the tiled path to the bus waiting outside. Hundreds of press
photographers will eternalize you as you carry out this act. In time,
you'll discover, to your horror, that you appear in almost every
documentary on the Middle East and every press article on the
disengagement... You will have been the 'agent of sin' for the
terrorists who have waited for years to expel Jewish residents from
their homes... Years later, you'll come back to apologize, to explain
that you received an order... but you'll find yourself alone, without
the Prime Minister, Knesset, Supreme Court, Chief of Staff, Chief
Education Officer - just you, yourself, alone against the judgment of
history and of your own conscience."
soldiers' actions in the framework of "evacuations and confrontations
with" Yesha residents, but it was not immediately clear whether this
included monetary damages they might be required to pay. Arutz-7's
inquiry to the IDF on this issue is under investigation by an IDF
spokesman's office representative.
One observer writes, "Soldiers are liable to find themselves facing a
U.S. court for ethnic cleansing and crimes against American citizens,
and courts there sometimes dole out very painful sums for damages.
Therefore, all soldiers and policemen face this choice: Either to
refuse orders, leading to being fired or even a few months in jail,
which some 12-year-old girls have shown is not so terrible, or to face
possibly being sued for tremendous financial damages."
An article by Arutz-7's Haggai Segal warns soldiers taking part in the
forcible expulsion of Jews of the psychological consequences of their
actions: "'You must knock on the door gently,' you were informed in
the page of instructions your officers gave you. But even if you are
very gentle, and even if you shrug your shoulders in contrition, the
family inside will never forget those knocks. The family will be
shaken by those knocks more than any other mortar shell or rocket that
has ever fallen in their yard or living room. As far as they are
concerned, you are the executor of a cruel decree that has been
decreed upon them with no justification - a decree that has not even
been decreed upon the families of terrorists; not one of them was ever
thrown out permanently, because the Supreme Court and the media didn't
let."
"'In case of refusal,' the page states, 'you will have to break down
the door.' The odds are that you will in fact have to break down the
door... If you had a hard time at the checkpoints, when you were
forced to detain Palestinian mothers and their children, it will be
much harder in Gush Katif. The crying of the expelled will ring in
your ears for many years to come... Behind the broken down door you
will find a whole family - not wanted terrorists, not escaped
criminals, but a father, a mother, five or six children of all ages,
and sometimes an elderly grandmother. They will look at you with
fear, and you'll look at them, no less scared, and neither one of you
will ever forget the other... True, the Chief of Staff recently
promised that the army would carry out this mission with 'sensitivity
and firmness,' but you will suddenly realize that it's impossible to
expel with sensitivity, just as it's impossible to be a polite rapist
or a considerate thief. With your own hands, you will have to open
closets that are not yours, to pack belongings against the will of
their owners, to uproot children from their rooms while they are
kicking and crying. This will be an impossible experience, and one
that is against the IDF's ethical code, which states, "An IDF soldier
will not use his force or weapon against a non-combatant population.'
Did they tell you of this clause in your latest training sessions?"
"And then afterwards, you'll probably be forced to drag the parents as
well, and the elderly grandmother, through the broken down door and
across the tiled path to the bus waiting outside. Hundreds of press
photographers will eternalize you as you carry out this act. In time,
you'll discover, to your horror, that you appear in almost every
documentary on the Middle East and every press article on the
disengagement... You will have been the 'agent of sin' for the
terrorists who have waited for years to expel Jewish residents from
their homes... Years later, you'll come back to apologize, to explain
that you received an order... but you'll find yourself alone, without
the Prime Minister, Knesset, Supreme Court, Chief of Staff, Chief
Education Officer - just you, yourself, alone against the judgment of
history and of your own conscience."