Our Harsh Logic: Israeli Soldiers' Testimonies from the Occupied Territories, 2000-2010

By Breaking the Silence

Israeli soldiers speak out for the first time about the truth of the Palestinian occupation, in "one of the most important books on Israel/Palestine in this generation" (The New York Review of Books)

The very name of the Israel Defense Forces—which many Israelis speak of as "the most moral army in the world"—suggests that its primary mission is the defense of the country's territory. Indeed, both internationally and within Israel, support for the occupation of Palestinian territory rests on the belief that the army's actions and presence in the West Bank and Gaza are essentially defensive and responsive, aimed at protecting the country from terror.

But Israeli soldiers themselves tell a profoundly different story. In this landmark work, which includes hundreds of soldiers' testimonies collected over a decade, what emerges is a broad policy that is anything but defensive. In their own words, the soldiers reveal in human and vivid detail how the key planks of the army's ostensibly protective program—"prevention of terror," "separation of populations," "preservation of the fabric of life," and "law enforcement"—have in fact served to accelerate acquisition of Palestinian land, cripple all normal political and social life, and ultimately thwart the possibility of independence.

The many soldiers who have spoken out have taken aim at a silence of complicity, both within Israel and in the wider world, that perpetuates the justification for occupation. In the process, they have created a gripping and immediate record of oppression. Powerful and incontrovertible, Our Harsh Logic is a supremely significant contribution to one of the world's most vexed conflicts.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Sep 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9780805095388

Breaking the Silence

Breaking the Silence, one of Israel's most internationally lauded NGOs, was established in Jerusalem in 2004 by Israel Defense Forces veterans to document the testimonies of Israeli soldiers who have served in the occupied territories.

Book preview

PART ONE

Prevention: Intimidating the Palestinian Population

An Overview

Since the outbreak of the Second Intifada in September 2000, more than one thousand Israelis and six thousand Palestinians have been killed. The considerable escalation in violence between Palestinians and Israelis both in the Occupied Territories and within Israel prompted the security system to develop new, more aggressive methods of action, which were intended to quash Palestinian opposition and prevent attempted attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers on both sides of the Green Line.

The testimonies in Part One address the IDF’s offensive and proactive military action in the Occupied Territories during the past decade. Although the security forces claim they are preventing terror, the soldiers’ testimonies reveal how broadly the term prevention is applied: it has become a code word that signifies all offensive action in the Territories. As the testimonies here attest, a significant portion of offensive actions are intended not to prevent a specific act of terrorism, but rather to punish, deter, or tighten control over the Palestinian population. But the term prevention of terror gives the stamp of approval to any action in the Territories, obscuring the distinction between using force against terrorists and using force against civilians. In this way, the IDF is able to justify methods that serve to intimidate and oppress the population overall. These testimonies also show the serious implications of blurring this distinction for the lives, dignity, and property of Palestinians.

The actions described include arrest, assassination, and occupation of homes, among others. Also revealed here are the principles and considerations that guide decision makers to take those actions—both in the field and at high levels of command. Early in the Second Intifada, the IDF established the principle behind its methods, calling it a searing of consciousness. The assumption is that resistance will fade once Palestinians as a whole see that opposition is useless. In practice, as the testimonies show, searing of consciousness translates into intimidation and indiscriminate punishment. In other words, violence against a civilian population and collective punishment are justified by the searing of consciousness policy, and they have become cornerstones of IDF strategy.

One particular action identified with the IDF’s efforts at prevention is targeted assassinations. The IDF has claimed repeatedly that assassinations are used as a last resort, as a defensive measure against people who plan and carry out terrorist attacks. However, the soldiers’ testimonies reveal that the military’s undertakings in the last decade are not consistent with statements made in the media and in the courts. More than once, a unit was sent to carry out an assassination when other options, such as arrest, were at its disposal. Also, it becomes clear in this part that at least some of the assassinations are aimed at revenge or punishment, not necessarily to prevent a terrorist attack. One testimony describes the assassination of unarmed Palestinian police officers who were under no suspicion of terror. According to the soldier testifying, the killing was done as revenge for the murder of soldiers the day before by Palestinian militants from the same area. Other testimonies describe a policy of making Palestinians pay the price of opposition: missions whose goals are, to quote one of the commanders, to bring in the bodies.

Arrests are another instrument of the effort to prevent terror. During the last decade, tens of thousands of Palestinians were arrested in almost nightly operations conducted deep in Palestinian territory. According to testimonies, arrests are frequently accompanied by the abuse of bound detainees, who are beaten or humiliated by soldiers and commanders. Arrests are used to accomplish a variety of aims, and in many cases, the reason is unclear to those being arrested. For example, during IDF invasions of some Palestinian cities and villages, all the men were detained in a specific place, although the army knew of no connection to any misdeeds and had no intelligence about their intentions; they were held, bound and blindfolded, sometimes for hours. Thus, under the guise of prevention of terror, mass arrests are used to instill fear in the population and tighten Israeli military control.

Arrests are often accompanied by destruction or confiscation of Palestinian property and infrastructure. The testimonies demonstrate that destruction is often the result of a mistake or occurs in the course of operational need, but it may also be inflicted intentionally by soldiers and commanders in the field, or by orders coming from higher up. In every case, destruction is an additional avenue for control of the population.

Invading and taking control of Palestinians’ private domains has also become common in the last ten years. Nearly every night, IDF forces invade families’ homes, often taking up posts there for days or even weeks. This action, known as creating a straw widow, is aimed at better controlling the territory by capturing positions and creating hidden lookouts. As revealed in the testimonies, though, the aim of taking control of a house is often not to prevent conflict but to cause it. Testimonies in this chapter describe decoy missions, whose goal is to force armed Palestinians out of hiding and into the streets in order to strike at them.

In addition to assassination, arrest, and destruction, the testimonies describe a method of intimidation and punishment called demonstrating a presence, one of the IDF’s primary means of instilling fear. A conspicuous expression of demonstrating a presence is the army’s night patrol in Palestinian cities and villages. Soldiers are sent to patrol the alleys and streets of a town, and they demonstrate their presence in a variety of ways: shooting into the air, throwing sound bombs, shooting flares or tear gas, conducting random house invasions and takeovers, and interrogating passersby. Field-level commanders call these violent patrols, harassment activity, or disruption of normalcy. According to the soldiers’ testimonies, demonstrating a presence is done on a frequent and ongoing basis, and it is not dependent on intelligence about a specific terrorist activity. Missions to demonstrate a presence prove that the IDF sees all Palestinians—whether or not they are engaged in opposition—as targets for intimidation and harassment.

Mock operations are another example of a disruption of normalcy. In the course of drilling and training, military forces invade homes and arrest Palestinians: they take over villages as a drill in preparation for war or to train for combat in an urban setting. Although the Palestinians affected might experience these incursions as real, the testimonies show that they are not carried out in order to make an arrest or prevent an attack but are explicitly defined as drilling and training activities. Finally, the term prevention is also used to suppress nonviolent opposition to the Occupation. During the past few years, a number of grassroots Palestinian protest movements have developed in the Territories, often with the cooperation of Israeli and international activists. These movements rely on demonstrations, publications, and legal action to make their protest—all forms of nonviolence. Yet IDF prevention extends to using violence against protesters, arresting political activists, and imposing curfews on villages in which political activity takes place.

The different objectives and methods revealed here form part of the logic of IDF activity in the Territories over the last decade. Underlying the reasoning governing this activity is the assumption that distinguishing between enemy civilians and enemy combatants is not necessary. Demonstrating a presence and the searing of consciousness express this logic best: systematic harm to Palestinians as a whole makes the population more obedient and easier to control.

The Occupied West Bank

Map by Shai Efrati

1. Stun grenades at three in the morning

UNIT: PARATROOPERS

LOCATION: NABLUS DISTRICT

YEAR: 2003

We did all kinds of very sketchy work in Area A.¹ That could mean, for example, going into Tubas on a Friday, when the market is packed, to set up a surprise checkpoint in the middle of the village. One time, we arrived to set up a checkpoint like that on Friday morning, and we started to spread out: inspecting vehicles and every car that passed. Three hundred meters from us some kids start a small demonstration. They throw rocks at us, but they come maybe ten meters and don’t hit us. They start cursing us and everything. At the same time, a crowd of people gathers. Of course, this was followed by aiming our weapons at the kids—you can call it self-defense.

What was the purpose of the checkpoint?

Just to show our presence, to get into a firefight—we didn’t know whether that would happen or not. In the end we got out without a scratch, without anything happening, but the company commander lost it. He asked one of the grenade launchers to fire a riot control grenade toward the demonstrators, the children. The grenade launcher refused, and afterward he was treated terribly by the company commander. He wasn’t punished, because the company commander knew he’d given an illegal order, but he was treated really disgustingly by the staff. That’s what happened. Another time we went into Tubas at three in the morning in a Safari and threw stun grenades in the street. For no reason, just to wake people up.

What was the point?

To say, We’re here. The IDF is here. In general, they told us that if some terrorist heard the IDF in the village, then maybe he’d come outside to fight. No one ever came out. It seems that the goal was just to show the local population that the IDF is here, and it’s a common policy: The IDF is here, in the Territories, and we’ll make your life bitter until you decide to stop the terror. The IDF has no problem doing it. But we didn’t understand why we were throwing grenades. We threw a grenade. We heard a boom, and we saw people waking up. When we got back they’d say, Great operation, but we didn’t understand why. This happened every day—a different force from the company did it each time, it was just part of the routine, part of our lives.

2. To stop the village from sleeping

UNIT: ARTILLERY

LOCATION: GUSH ETZION

YEAR: 2004

Normally, the point of Happy Purim¹ is to stop people from sleeping. It means going into a village in the middle of the night, going around throwing stun grenades and making noise. Not all night long, but at some specific time. It doesn’t matter how long you do it, they don’t set an end time. They say, Okay, they threw stones at you today in Husan, so do a Happy Purim there. There weren’t that many of those.

Is that what’s called demonstrating a presence?

I’m sure you’ve heard the term Happy Purim before. If not, you’ll hear it. Yes, demonstrating a presence. Sometimes we got instructions from the battalion to do something like that.… It’s part of the activities that happen before—

What’s the rationale behind that kind of operation?

If the village initiates an operation, then you’re going to initiate a lack of sleep. I never checked how much this kind of operation actually stops people from sleeping, because you aren’t in the village for four hours throwing stun grenades every ten minutes—if we did that three times the IDF would run out of stun grenades. These are operations that happen at a specific time, and if you throw a single stun grenade at point X in Nahalin, it probably won’t make much noise a hundred or two hundred meters away. In general, maybe this creates the impression that the IDF is in the village at night, without having to do too much, but I don’t think it’s more than

Reviews for Our Harsh Logic

[kropotkinsleftfoot · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This collection of first hand accounts in Palestinian territory is frightening and sober. This of course makes for a depressing read throughout, but its all worth knowing the tactics and daily life that happens to these mostly young men. As one reviewer notes, "It testifies to dehumanization and worse, but it testifies also to courage: firstly to the courage of the soldiers who faced what they had done and witnessed, who in many cases faced truthfully their own dehumanization and wrong doing; and secondly to members of Breaking the Silence."I would highly recommend it to those working on Israeli occupation studies as it gives some perspective that is often lost and untruthful.

[dekesolomon · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Our Harsh Logic: Israeli Soldiers' Testimonies From The Occupied Territories, 2000 -- 2010 (New York: Metropolitan Books, $21.12; 2012), nearly 400 pages long, is twisted, conflicted, poisonous, and of little or no worth to anyone. The good news about Harsh Logic is that -- if you're determined to read the thing -- you can ingest it in less than an hour.I say so for a couple of reasons. One is that Harsh Logic contains hundreds of pages of what the authors claim is eyewitness testimony by Israeli soldiers who serve "peacekeeping" duties in Gaza and the West Bank. The peacekeepers supposedly spend long nights driving through Palestinian villages, where they throw hand grenades into the streets at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. Other nights the peacekeepers go on foot from house to house. They kick down doors, drag residents into the street, torture men, beat up and/or shoot women and children, tear the homes to pieces, blow them up, set them afire. Peacekeepers kidnap residents and hold them hostage for days, weeks, months, years. They steal Palestinian money and household goods, kill livestock and pets, destroy gardens and crops, smash family heirlooms and religious artifacts. They burn schools and blow up mosques. All of those things and more in that vein are tactics in what the Israeli government, Israeli soldiers and Israeli settlers are pleased to call "peacekeeping" and "anti-terrorism" activities.Another reason is that the tales of woe are told by some outfit called "Breaking The Silence." BTS alleges that the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank employs tactics that are illegal, immoral, and inhumane. Said crimes are also counterproductive in that they foment hatred and violence in citizens of the Occupied Territories, a result which directly contradicts official, stated goals of the Israeli occupation. BTS claims they want to change all that.Their argument is laid out in an 8-page Introduction. Points made by the argument are expanded upon in the 5-or-6-page 'Overview' that leads each of the four chapters in the book. Testimony in each chapter supports and illustrates what is charged in each 'Overview.'The layout makes it possible for readers to appreciate the argument by reading just 40-odd pages instead of the whole book. Readers who refuse to take the authors' word for what is charged can read the hundreds of pages of supporting evidence and be convinced (or not) in that way.What makes the book worthless is the fact that all of the testimony is anonymous. No names or dates are mentioned. The photographs have been doctored to make people and places unrecognizable. Thus none of what BTS claims is eyewitness testimony could be used in a court of law. It cannot be verified in any way.What makes Harsh Logic twisted, conflicted, and poisonous is the mindset of the hapless clods who call themselves Breaking The Silence, who put the thing together. One notices, for example, that "Palestinian citizens of Israel" are mentioned once (p. 124) and that the terms "Palestinian" and "Palestinians" are used dozens of times throughout the book. Yet the word "Palestine" is never mentioned nor does "Occupied Palestine" apparently exist. Instead the authors tell us of "the Occupied Territories," "Gaza," "the Gaza Strip," and "the West Bank, and "the Occupied West Bank." The authors do mention "citizens of the Occupied Territories," "citizens of the West Bank," etc.The sane person has to ask "Where do Palestinians come from if there is no Palestine?" Why are they "Palestinians" and not "WestBankians," or "Gazans," or some such? If BTS is well intended, then the answer may be that members of BTS are retarded, or maybe members of BTS are so deeply immersed in the role of "oppressor" that they cannot step out of that role far enough to divorce themselves from the behavior (censorship) and the vocabulary of oppressors.Solomon sez: Breaking The Silence may be well intended, but their Harsh Logic comes way short of convincing me. I'll believe that BTS is serious when they quit speaking the language of oppression and start speaking the language of truth. When Israelis quit speaking of "Occupied Territories" and start speaking of "Occupied Palestine," then the world will know there may be a solution in the offing. When what Israelis now call "harsh logic" is known as murderous insanity, we will know that a solution can be achieved. When the "excesses" of Israeli "peacekeepers" are punished as war crimes and Palestine is no longer occupied, then most problems in the Middle East will have been solved.

[kunikov_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The problem with books like "Our Harsh Logic" is that they're fuel for the fire. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been going on for generations and the presentation of these testimonies without adequate context only enrages those who know little about what's going on in the Middle East or have a stake in playing the 'victimhood' card. There is little doubt that Israel sits in a position few, if any, find enviable. Their policies often make more enemies than friends, but to rashly judge all their positions and put them in the camp of 'imperialists' or 'zionists' is too easy and accommodating for those with ulterior motives. This is a book that is solely based on testimony from soldiers who more often than not participated in the activities they are describing and only after felt remorse. This says more about the culture of the military than it does about Israel. Imagine a book based on the US intervention/occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Soviet invasion/occupation of Afghanistan, or the US war in Vietnam told solely from those who witnessed abuse and atrocities. Would that be a fair depiction of the actions of any of these nations in their respective war zones? Hardly. And while the previously mentioned conflicts lasted for around a decade, Israeli soldiers have lived with terror and violence for generations, as have their Palestinian neighbors. There's no question that abuse takes place on a daily basis when you give teenagers and young adults weapons that can readily be used to kill and maim, especially as they're growing up in an environment where each side demonizes the other. Highlighting that abuse is pointless without adequate context and analysis. Thus there is nothing new or original among the pages of this book for those familiar with the institution of the military (which seems to cover things up on a regular basis, only to be discovered for their lies sooner or later) or the situation in the Middle East as it stands today. It's a tragic situation that few have the patience to attempt to understand, where generational animosities plays themselves out on a regular basis and perpetuate violence and hatred.

[abide01 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I won this book from the Early Reviewers group. This book is by a group called Breaking the Silence. The group was started by a group of retired IDF ( Israelie Defense Force) men to shed light on the situtation that we are all too familiar with between Israel and The Palistinians, but they share insight from an insiders perspective. The stories are told in an interview form, which after about two hundred pages you wish the format would have been different. The stories range from changing checkponit rules, this makes it harder and more aggravating to get through them, to stories of revenge by the IDF on Palestinian poloicemen for the death of a soldier, by the way the policemen are unarmed, and are chased down, shot then left to die, after a bullet has been placed in the head to make sure they're dead. After one hundred and fifty pages the stories start getting repetitive, and it's hard to finish. Some will look at these stories as IDF bullying, some will see it as IDF anti terrorist moves. I'll leave that up to you. It is a difficult read, due to some of the stories, and the format.

[phille_4 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Lengthy and detailed recounts from the occupation, prefaced by an apt introduction and contextualization. Only recommended for those truly interested however.