cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/805380
An interview with with reporter Oren Ziv of +972 Magazine, whose latest investigation details how Israeli forces in Gaza have been authorized to open fire on Palestinians virtually at will. Six soldiers who fought in Gaza describe a near-total absence of firing regulations, with soldiers shooting as they please, setting homes ablaze, leaving corpses to rot on the streets and more.
“It seems soldiers were shooting not from a tactical reason or a real military reason, but just out of being bored, to pass the time or just because they could,” says Ziv.
“Soldiers felt they can do whatever they want, that they won’t be accountable. And all this is done also with the awareness of the commanders.”
[…] several soldiers told us, that the army was not dealing with dead people, dead Palestinians, and it was very common to see them on the side of the road when they’re moving to one place to another […] Israeli soldiers were deployed inside Palestinian homes and houses, and when they had to move to a new position, the official policy, as we understand, was to burn the house down. The soldiers would gather the mattresses and the furniture and light the house on fire and move on. The official explanation by the commanders […] was the fact that they don’t want anything sensitive to be left there, military equipment or maps or anything like that, but also that Hamas will not use the houses. But between the lines, you can understand that this was also an act of revenge to punish Palestinian civilians and also to make sure they cannot go back to those areas, areas that at least some people in the army believed would stay in Israeli control.
How do you even get around to the “I’m bored, so I’ll commit murder” mode of thinking?
Dehumanization so it doesn’t feel like murder.
I guess I just can’t even comprehend looking at what is undeniably a member of my species that way.
That is because you have a good moral compass.
I’d like to think so, thank you.
I did Nazi that coming
Brainwashing.
The US military does this too then get really upset when the young impressionable minds they’ve ruined do stupid shit.
I read somewhere that the US armed forces started to change they way they trained after they determined that too many soldiers were refusing or hesitating to shoot enemy combatants. The first true test of the new training methods was Vietnam.
I also recall reading that most new soldiers would often intentionally aim over the head of their targets. The thing about war is, though, that eventually the people you come to have strong bonds with are either killed or in danger of being killed. The longer you’re in a war, the easier it is to justify your fury.
The movie Fury is basically about this phenomenon. You start in the war perhaps reticent to murder, but if you see enough war, your moral horizon shifts in response to the real (whether justified or not) violence and horror that is inextricable from war itself, regardless of sides or justifications.