Avichi Sharon is shocked by Israeli society’s indifference to the deaths of innocent victims in the Occupied Territories.

Avichi Sharon is shocked by Israeli society’s indifference to the deaths of innocent victims in the Occupied Territories. After five years of the Intifada, the IDF has got its responses down pat, like the one we were graced with last Saturday. On that occasion a paratrooper force shot and killed a 13-year-old Palestinian child, Udai Tantawi, during a routine operation in the Askar refugee camp.

The IDF subsequently said that this was a case of a violation of the norms of procedure and that the force’s commander, a sergeant, had been suspended. The account provided by the IDF was that stones and bottles were thrown at the force while it was operating, a common occurrence in the Territories.

Israeli society has become used to such announcements. As with a Hollywood movie, we know the script in advance – it would be deemed as an exceptional deviation from the norm, and the local commander – a sergeant or a second lieutenant -- would be removed from his position.

In recent weeks the organisation “Shovrim Shtika” [Breaking the Silence] has published a new compilation of eyewitness accounts relating to the subject of opening fire in the Territories. Here is what a soldier from the paratrooper brigade said about orders and the procedures related to opening fire that he received during the Intifada. “…my crew has killed innocent people, or at least those deemed to be innocent. Some of these were in error, a genuine error. But what is an error? In all honesty, you go and tell them – sorry, there has been an error, we have killed your husband or your daughter, or your son or your grandfather or I don’t know what. And then there were others that were executed as a result of orders that in my opinion were illegal…”

In a state whose regulations for the opening of fire are classified and are not subject to public scrutiny, we can never tell whether we are witnessing a tragic error or a crime. During the current confrontation in the Territories, every soldier is familiar with situations where a child could appear to be armed, a pregnant woman may be a bomb-carrying terrorist and so on.

Tragic results

The reality of the IDF soldiers operating in the Territories is that every operation carries the potential for tragic consequences. During my service I found myself more than once in the Nablus region, including the Askar camp. For some reason the IDF has never deemed it necessary to supply us and train us with the means of dispersing demonstrations.

My unit, like lots of other IDF units, was never supplied with rubber bullets or tear gas. Despite our repeated requests, the IDF has never deemed it necessary to equip the soldiers with means that would enable a non-lethal response for incidents such as the one that occurred last Saturday. That decision has cost many lives, including by my own unit.

The question of the opening-fire procedures provides yet one more example of the bleak reality that Israeli society prefers to close its eyes to. Within hailing distance of our homes, a corrupt reality exists that turns our children into men and women with blood on their hands. But neither our community nor its leaders wants to respond to that reality.

This lack of response to such incidents epitomises the immunity of the security forces to criticism. Worse still, it embodies the public’s moral indifference to what is done in its name in the Territories.

The case of 13-year-old Udai joins a long list of thousands of fatalities, including hundreds of children, that have been killed by IDF forces in the Territories. For our part, we continue to live in our comfortable and indifferent bubble until the next incident when we will again be reminded of our soldiers and their victims.