The soldiers told Haaretz newspaper they were ordered to kill unarmed Gazans who were seeking food.
Israeli soldier in Gaza, 2024 . (IDF Telegram channel/Wikimedia Commons)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz are publicly denouncing a report from an Israeli newspaper quoting Israeli soldiers who describe atrocities they were ordered to commit in the Israeli military, accusing the report of “blood libels.”
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has published an article titled “‘It’s a Killing Field’: IDF Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Deliberately at Unarmed Gazans Waiting for Humanitarian Aid,” subtitled:
“IDF officers and soldiers told Haaretz they were ordered to fire at unarmed crowds near food distribution sites in Gaza, even when no threat was present. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, prompting the military prosecution to call for a review into possible war crimes.”
One Israeli soldier attests that civilians seeking aid are “treated like a hostile force?—?no crowd-control measures, no tear gas?—?just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars.”
“We open fire early in the morning if someone tries to get in line from a few hundred meters away, and sometimes we just charge at them from close range. But there’s no danger to the forces,” the soldier says, adding, “I’m not aware of a single instance of return fire. There’s no enemy, no weapons.”
IDF sources tell Haaretz that Gaza has become “a place with its own set of rules” where they are interacting with civilians with whom “your only means of interaction is opening fire.” Deadly military weapons are used as crowd control to steer the starving populace wherever it’s determined they’re supposed to be, routinely killing desperate aid seekers.
Another soldier describes being instructed to fire artillery shells at a crowd to keep them at a distance, saying, “Every time we fire, there are casualties and deaths, and when someone asks why a shell is necessary, there’s never a good answer. Sometimes, merely asking the question annoys the commanders.”
In quote after quote after quote we read Israeli soldiers describing atrocities they were ordered to commit which they knew were wrong. I guess Israel’s PR machine never counted on some of the soldiers they sent in to perpetrate the Gaza holocaust having an actual conscience.
A joint statement from Netanyahu and Katz denounced the report, accusing Haaretz of publishing “blood libels.”
“The State of Israel absolutely rejects the contemptible blood libels that have been published in the Ha’aretz newspaper, according to which ‘IDF Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Deliberately at Unarmed Gazans Waiting for Humanitarian Aid.’ These are malicious falsehoods designed to defame the IDF, the most moral military in the world,” the statement reads.
“Blood libel” refers to the way medieval Europeans used to falsely accuse Jews of murdering Christian children in blood sacrifices?—?an early form of atrocity propaganda used to justify the persecution of Jews.
So again, just to be absolutely clear, the leader of the Israeli government is claiming that an Israeli newspaper quoting Israeli soldiers describing their own atrocities is antisemitic. And that mountains of testimony from inside the IDF is “designed to defame the IDF, the most moral military in the world.”
What can I even say about that here? It speaks for itself. I have nothing to add.
The more exposed Israel’s criminality becomes, the more absurd the arguments made in its defense are getting.
Caitlin Johnstone’s work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following her on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, YouTube, or throwing some money into her tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy her books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff she publishes is to subscribe to the mailing list at her website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything she publishes. For more info on who she is, where she stands and what she’s trying to do with her platform, click here. All works are co-authored with her American husband Tim Foley.
This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com.au and re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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Boy! Those IDFers are so Butch against women and children. I bet they would really be tuff in a fight against old women also. I bet they make themselves tuff by kicking fuzzy puppy dogs.
The accusation amounts to a de-facto acknowledgment that Israel’s heads of state no longer control the narrative the way they’ve been used to for so long.
Like saying there was only one my lai massacre.
The new memes going around.
“What is the difference between saying you have food and shooting people, and saying you have showers and gassing people?”
“What is the difference between saying you are the chosen race and bombing women and children, and saying you are the master race and gassing women and children?”
FW Hegel (The Philosophy of History):
“What experience and history teaches us
is that people and governments have never learned anything from history,
or acted on principles deduced from it.”
I despise religious bigots of all kinds.
Especially those claiming the Big Baboo wants
blood, torture, rape and murder
or the pitiless, cruel, racist
genocide of Palestinians.
Israeli snipers murdering toddlers with head shots
is enough to condemn every Israeli and all of their supporters.
Only Israel, Washington and NAYOYO creeps:
can bomb defenceless civilians without right or reason;
can destroy every Palestinian hospital, mosque, church, school and university;
can murder with impunity.
Yad Vashem is an empty gesture,
the Shoah has been emptied of all horror and sacrifice,
and Judaism has no moral center or authority.
Judith Butler (American philosopher):
“The actions of the Palestinian Movement in October 7
are neither a terrorist attack nor an anti-Semitic attack,
but an act of armed resistance
and an uprising after decades of colonization.”
Let’s see Netanyahu and Katz sue Haaretz for these alleged libels. Somehow I don’t think they’ll want witnesses testifying in court.
‘…In quote after quote after quote we read Israeli soldiers describing atrocities they were ordered to commit which they knew were wrong. I guess Israel’s PR machine never counted on some of the soldiers they sent in to perpetrate the Gaza holocaust having an actual conscience…’
Quite. But how big a conscience? Why do they obey orders that they know are so wrong? Or course they would be arrested and gaoled if they disobey orders. But what if enough of them stood up and said “No”? Easy for me to say who has not served in any military, I know. But I am sure that in a soldiers place I would not open fire and kill innocent unarmed civilians, no matter from how high the orders came. If there was some resistance inside the IDF, things might be different. But is the resistance there?
I’m waiting for Netanyahu and friends to dredge up the old ridiculous ‘self-hating Jews’ meme they use whenever they’re faced with criticism from within the Jewish community.
The Jewish supremacist population in Israel has gone berserk. You all know the polls, about 85% of the population generally has no issue with what the IOF is doing in Gaza.
That a few soldiers happen to finally tell the truth doesn’t take away from the fact that Israeli society is truly sicker than anything imaginable. And our hard pressed working taxpayers here in the US foot the entire repulsive bill!
One thing’s for sure, I can’t speak to the Medieval blood libel charge, but I can see we’re witnessing today a contemporary Jewish supremacist bloodbath that almost verges on thousands of modern day child sacrifices.
What can I even say about that here? It speaks for itself. I have nothing to add.
*
Normal men, women and children are left speechless upon hearing news of such total and complete obliteration of common human decency and compassion, – namely the cruel, intentional murder of innocent civilians seeking food to continue living.
Absent a new descriptive term which adequately expresses the sadistic nature of these heinous crimes, one is left with one extant term which reflects such barbarity: Pure Evil.
I understand the feeling. There is no moral compass. There is no conscience. There is no law. Just pure evil murder and sadism. To those of us with consciences, this is torture to witness.
Excellent comment. I think you express here very clearly what most people are feeling about the “Israeli”/American genocide in Palestine.
One thing I find offensive, disturbing (I am not sure what is the best word to use here) is that so many people (and I am not suggesting you are one of these) seem to think what we are seeing in Gaza is somehow new or unprecedented. While the “Israelis” are behaving atrociously in Gaza and there is absolutely no excuse for what they are doing, the primary thing that makes the situation unique is the simple fact that all of us all over the world are watching it happen in real time on our phones and computer screens. But everything “Israel” is doing in Gaza with US assistance, cooperation, and support has been done by the Americans before in many instances in many places to many people. We do not have video of it, but the USA tortured and slaughtered the indigenous people of North America using many of the same methods the “Israelis” are using to exterminate the Palestinians right now. The Americans did many of the same things to the Filipinos and the Vietnamese as well.
I write this not in any way to let the criminal “Israelis” off the hook, but to remind everyone that as depraved, disgusting, sadistic and, if you like the term, evil as the “Israelis” may be, they are no worse that the Americans. The USA’s crimes are so frequent that the world seems to have become numb to them, to have accepted them as natural.
People need to take some of the vitriol and anger currently directed, justifiably so, at “Israel” and send it America’s way.
For pure evil, no country can match the USA.
I remember when I was young that it was Jewish people of conscience, much more so than other white people, who joined with Dr. Martin Luther King in the civil rights movement. They put their lives on the line along with him for the sake of this highly moral crusade. I have to believe that the horrific human banality and evil that we are seeing take place in Gaza today is not based on Judaism itself but is the ultimate outcome of the distorted ideology of Zionism and a premise of exceptionalism. Zionism, like neoconism, has become like a cancer in the body of humanity and is inevitably the source of conflict wherever it takes root. These zero/sum based ideologies cloak themselves in exceptionalism and nurture psychopaths.
My thanks to Mrs. Johnstone and everyone else whose articles appear on Consortium News, for being consistent upstanding examples of sincerity, tenacity and compassion.
“These are malicious falsehoods designed to defame the IDF, the most moral military in the world,” – Netanyahu
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” – Goebbels
Netanyahu appears to have stopped taking Goebbels’ advice there, considering he went on to say:
“The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie.”
This quite literal definition of a psychopath has apparently failed to understand fundamental reality – that actions will always and forever be vastly superior to mere words…and never more so than when your actions are being live-streamed around the world, for goodness’ sake!
Indeed, “…the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” of Israel.
An entire “country” of psychopaths. The horror.
It’s beyond psychopathy. It’s some kind of evil hatred. It’s not the first genocide or even the third. And it probably won’t be the last.
“The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie.”
What is astounding, is the fact the lie has been allowed to continue for over 70 years. At least the Goebbels lies were short-lived in comparison.
But i doubt this “truth” will set the zionists free.
WOW!
In Israel, slander and libel can be treated as criminal offenses and the perpetrators can be sued for damages. Perhaps if Mr. Netanyahu believes the IDF soldiers and Haaretz have committed libel, it is his responsibility to have them charged. The accuracy of the accusations, and Mr. Netanyahu’s comments, can be examined in court.
“slander and libel can be treated as criminal offenses ”
So can the truth just ask Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.