We Were Sent to Systematically 'Intimidate, Punish, Hurt, Oppress and Scare' an Entire Palestinian Civilian Community — Says Ex-Israeli Soldier

Yehuda Shaul, veteran of the Israel Defense Force. (Screen capture from YouTube
video)

By Yehuda Shaul
In November 2012, Israel launched a military operation in the Gaza Strip called "Amud Anan", the literal English translation of which is, "Pillar of Clouds". Though, the official name in English was deemed, “Pillar of Defence”.

A few days ago we launched another operation named, "Mighty Cliff”, which is officially called, "Protective Edge".

Both chosen titles are highly defensive in their essence.

When I hear the names given to military operations in Gaza - especially the versions chosen for an international audience - I am reminded of my military service as a combatant in the Israeli army, whose full name (both in Hebrew and English) is: the “Israel Defence Forces” (IDF).

Watch Yehuda Shaul's presentation of Israel's
"Operation Cast Lead" in Gaza
December 2008 - January 2009

These days, I am reminded of the gap I discovered during my military service between the ethos represented by the name of the IDF, and the actual military operations that we carried out in the West Bank.

Officially, the task before us was defensive. We performed "preventative" operations, such as prevention of terrorism. But my friends and I learned that “prevention” was nothing but a code name for a bunch of actions, many of which were offensive operations in any case. Bogui Ya'alon, then chief of staff and today the defence minister, called on us to "burn the Palestinian consciousness".

In the spirit of this call, we were sent to intimidate and punish an entire civilian community systematically. This was grounded in the assumption that its members would refrain from revolting if they were hurt, oppressed and scared enough. Frightened consciousness is, in other words, "burned consciousness”.

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