Israel: Trial Begins for Killing of ISM Activist, Tom Hurndall, Commentary by Jewish Voice for Peace
JPN Commentary: The trial of an Israeli soldier for the indiscriminate or illegal use of force is an exceedingly rare event. Although the IDF has a long-standing but informal policy of using indiscriminate and excessive force against Palestinian civilians, as well as in Lebanon and other conflicts, it is rare for anyone to be held to account for it. Typically, as was done in the death of Tom Hurndall (and Rachel Corrie and others), the IDF "investigates" the charges and finds the culprit(s) did not act unreasonably or unlawfully. On the rare occasions that someone is deemed culpable for having acted improperly, as is the case with American soldiers abusing prisoners in Iraq, they are invariably characterized as "bad apples" - people acting outside the system on their own initiative - rather than as *products* of the system, doing exactly what they were required and expected to do within the culture of the overarching institutions to which they belong.
An army investigating itself is like a police force investigating itself -- not only are soldiers unwilling to testify against other soldiers, and senior officers have an incentive to cover-up wrongdoing so as not to be held responsible for it, but no one ever questions the underlying concepts and doctrine that cause the war crimes in the first place. Who, after all, has investigated Israel's use of supersonic jets and anti-tank missiles to target building and individuals in densely packed civilian areas of the West Bank and Gaza? Who has questioned the use of tank shells against civilians who violate curfews? Who has demanded to know why snipers target underage children throwing stones at armed soldiers wearing helmets and body armor? Not to mention illegal home demolitions, the disproportionate targeting of journalists in numerous conflicts, the indiscriminate use of artillery against civilians in Lebanon, and myriad other abuses dating back to the founding of the state itself.
The Israeli (and Western) double-standard on this issue - that Palestinian (and other) militants are terrorists, but that the IDF's recurring pattern of indiscriminate and excessive force and so-called "collateral damage" is by definition accidental, rather than flowing from a deliberate policy to intimidate and cause suffering to the wider Palestinian population - is what allows ordinary Israelis to accept these abuses and the rationale for the occupation itself, while similarly providing Americans and particularly American Jews with a false and hypocritical sense of self-righteous, which has been made all the more insufferable in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and the subsequent "war on terror".
The idea that governments - and, by extension, their security forces - are somehow incapable of committing terrorist acts merely because they act in the name and under the authority of the state and its laws is of course ludicrous. The fact is, the IDF, the U.S. army, and numerous Western armies and security forces deliberately use terror - just as they do torture - to intimidate and subjugate the populations they are trying to control and suppress. Like other terrorists, they use it when more traditional means of warfare are ineffective or unavailable to them, and they face failure and/or defeat. The degree to which they are able to hide this under the cloak of "rules of engagement" and "collateral damage" depends on the credulousness of their own populations and the people therein whose job it is to observe and report on such things.
Jewish Peace News http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org
Israeli Tried for Killing UK Man
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/3701157.stm
05/10/2004
He risked all for others
Saturday, July 19,2003
As written by Tom Hurndall's mother
Emily Sheffield
http://www.palsolidarity.org/activists/tomhurndall/heriskedall.php
Photo courtesy of The Tom Hurndall Fund PLEASE VISIT:
http://www.tomhurndall.co.uk
JPN Commentary: The trial of an Israeli soldier for the indiscriminate or illegal use of force is an exceedingly rare event. Although the IDF has a long-standing but informal policy of using indiscriminate and excessive force against Palestinian civilians, as well as in Lebanon and other conflicts, it is rare for anyone to be held to account for it. Typically, as was done in the death of Tom Hurndall (and Rachel Corrie and others), the IDF "investigates" the charges and finds the culprit(s) did not act unreasonably or unlawfully. On the rare occasions that someone is deemed culpable for having acted improperly, as is the case with American soldiers abusing prisoners in Iraq, they are invariably characterized as "bad apples" - people acting outside the system on their own initiative - rather than as *products* of the system, doing exactly what they were required and expected to do within the culture of the overarching institutions to which they belong.
An army investigating itself is like a police force investigating itself -- not only are soldiers unwilling to testify against other soldiers, and senior officers have an incentive to cover-up wrongdoing so as not to be held responsible for it, but no one ever questions the underlying concepts and doctrine that cause the war crimes in the first place. Who, after all, has investigated Israel's use of supersonic jets and anti-tank missiles to target building and individuals in densely packed civilian areas of the West Bank and Gaza? Who has questioned the use of tank shells against civilians who violate curfews? Who has demanded to know why snipers target underage children throwing stones at armed soldiers wearing helmets and body armor? Not to mention illegal home demolitions, the disproportionate targeting of journalists in numerous conflicts, the indiscriminate use of artillery against civilians in Lebanon, and myriad other abuses dating back to the founding of the state itself.
The Israeli (and Western) double-standard on this issue - that Palestinian (and other) militants are terrorists, but that the IDF's recurring pattern of indiscriminate and excessive force and so-called "collateral damage" is by definition accidental, rather than flowing from a deliberate policy to intimidate and cause suffering to the wider Palestinian population - is what allows ordinary Israelis to accept these abuses and the rationale for the occupation itself, while similarly providing Americans and particularly American Jews with a false and hypocritical sense of self-righteous, which has been made all the more insufferable in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and the subsequent "war on terror".
The idea that governments - and, by extension, their security forces - are somehow incapable of committing terrorist acts merely because they act in the name and under the authority of the state and its laws is of course ludicrous. The fact is, the IDF, the U.S. army, and numerous Western armies and security forces deliberately use terror - just as they do torture - to intimidate and subjugate the populations they are trying to control and suppress. Like other terrorists, they use it when more traditional means of warfare are ineffective or unavailable to them, and they face failure and/or defeat. The degree to which they are able to hide this under the cloak of "rules of engagement" and "collateral damage" depends on the credulousness of their own populations and the people therein whose job it is to observe and report on such things.
Jewish Peace News http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org
Israeli Tried for Killing UK Man
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/3701157.stm
05/10/2004
He risked all for others
Saturday, July 19,2003
As written by Tom Hurndall's mother
Emily Sheffield
http://www.palsolidarity.org/activists/tomhurndall/heriskedall.php
Photo courtesy of The Tom Hurndall Fund PLEASE VISIT:
http://www.tomhurndall.co.uk