One year after the Gaza Operation, the Israeli army has reprimanded two senior officers for firing cannons in populated areas. The two are the highest ranking Israeli officers to be disciplined for actions in the three-week offensive against Hamas.
Israel’s response to the UN-sponsored Goldstone report, which was submitted this week, reveals that eight months ago OC Southern Command of the Israel Defense Forces tried two of his senior officers and reprimanded them both for “the misuse of artillery.”
“They did not follow procedures, they over exercised their authority in ordering the firing of artillery shells into a built up area,” Capt. Barak Raz, an IDF Spokesman, told The Media Line. “This is why they were in fact reprimanded.”
The two were identified as Gaza Division Commander Brig. Gen. Eyal Eisenberg and Col. Ilan Malka, commander of the crack Givati infantry brigade. They have both remained in their posts.
“This something that is following them,” Raz said. “This means that it will be in their record and this is a stain in their record and unfortunately this is something they will have to deal with [in the future].”
The UN-sponsored Goldstone report accuses the Israeli army of systematic recklessness, including the firing of white phosphorus shells and demands Israel carry out an internal investigation. But Israel says its army is capable of investigating itself and that it doesn’t need any outsiders investigating its behavior to keep its army moral.
But the internal disciplinary action has renewed debate over whether current international rules of war are relevant in the modern, asymmetric battlefield that exists between sovereign states and terrorist organizations. .
“International law needs to be brought up to date, particularly in situations where you have a sovereign state with an army which is attempting to defend its civilians, as is the case with Israel, juxtaposed with an asymmetric enemy which is not complying with any of the laws,” Prof. Justus Reid Weiner, a lecturer at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and scholar at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs told The Media Line. “I think that the rules of war have not kept up with the modern battlefield.”
Palestinians charge that Israel committed war crimes through its use of phosphorus munitions. The Israelis say they never violated any international laws during the three-week offensive to stop Hamas rocketing of Israeli towns and villages. At issue is an incident in which the Israeli army dropped phosphorous shells on a United Nations warehouse during a battle in the Tel el-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City.
Set amid densely-populated, high-rise apartments, the officers called in the phosphorous to deliberately set the warehouse alight so as to provide a smokescreen for Israeli troops. Israel later paid $10 million in damages to the United Nations.
“During war, there is obviously the fog of war in which mistakes were made,” Capt. Raz said. “This is why we investigate, so that we can find these mistakes and correct ourselves for the future and know that we did everything the best that we could.”
“Israel has disciplinary procedures,” said Prof. Weiner. “Israel has court martials and if there’s a need for more serious action there will be, but to jump ahead today and to immediately start circling and looking for blood like a shark ready to pounce, well, I think we are getting ahead of the facts.”
The Israeli army said they began investigating themselves immediately after the operation. Of the 150 claims of inappropriate behavior, 29 led to the opening of criminal investigations. The judge advocate general must decide whether to file an indictment, make do with disciplinary proceedings or close the case.
Phosphorous shells are not banned by international law, but they are banned from being used in civilian areas. The sticky, burning phosphorous can burn straight through the human body. No casualties were reported from the use of phosphorous on the UNRWA warehouses.
“The international law that pertains to the rules of warfare is based on three fundamental premises: wars are fought between countries, both sides use uniformed soldiers and both sides are committed to the same codes,” Giora Eiland, a former national security adviser, wrote in Yedioth Ahronot, Israel’s largest daily. “None of those three fundamental terms were met in Gaza.”
For better or worse, Israel’s military investigations are seen by the outside world as a whitewash. Eiland, a retired major-general and member of the Israeli army’s general staff, said that even if Israel does heed the UN and forms a commission of inquiry, it would not reduce international political pressure on Israel.
“Neither justice nor law are the tools of the game, only pure politics,” Eiland wrote. “The establishment of a commission of inquiry in Israel will not ease pressure on us; rather, it will only encourage hostile people to continue to pressure Israel.”
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