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Israeli Army Admits ‘Ugly Vandalism’ Against Palestinian Property
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Israeli soldiers
killed Palestinians and rubbed them
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JERUSALEM, West Bank, April 30 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Israeli military sources admitted the systematic destruction of Palestinian property during the recent military operations in the West Bank, news agencies reported Tuesday.
"There were indeed wide-scale, ugly phenomena of vandalism," a senior military source told Israeli daily newspaper Ha'aretz.
The paper reported that another military source said that the Israeli army had to undertake a full investigation into the matter. However, there are already many individual cases prosecuted through the military justice system.
For its part, the Israeli army declined to comment on the Ha’aretz report. It, however, confirmed that five soldiers were charged with vandalism or looting.
A spokesman said investigations have been launched into other cases.
An Israeli senior officer, quoted anonymously by the Israeli daily, said: "Unfortunately, it turns out that there was widespread vandalism."
"The soldiers had orders to seize computer hard drives for any intelligence on them, but not to take or break office material as they did," the officer told Ha’aretz.
The officer also spoke of soldiers looting banks or breaking into automatic tellers. He assessed overall damage to the Palestinian Authority and other groups at hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Palestinians accused the Israeli army of looting, particularly in cultural centers in the city of Ramallah, where Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has his headquarters.
Israel refused to allow a UN fact-finding mission into the Palestinian refugee camp, fearing such a move could lead to trying its soldiers or officers for war crimes.
Amir Oren, a Ha’aretz columnist said Tuesday, “The behavior of (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon and (Defense Minister) Benjamin Ben-Eliezer over the UN fact-finding mission to Jenin is very odd. They were forced to act against the committee, not from their appreciation of the gravity of the matter, but as observers from the sidelines of Israeli officers, like an audience in a courtroom rooting for the accused.
“Maybe the two of them did not understand (despite Sharon's own personal experience with military, police, and state inquiries), that they are also on their way to becoming the accused, because the chain of command begins with them.
“Any criminal proceeding against a brigadier, corps commander, or command general will trickle upward to the chief of staff and from there to the political hierarchy above. The fate of corps commander Eyal Shlein is intertwined with that of Sharon,” the Israeli writer added.
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