Female soldiers break their silence

[Scurrilous]

Six years after first collection of Breaking the Silence testimonies, organization releases booklet of testimonies from female soldiers who served in territories. Stories include systematic humiliation of Palestinians, reckless and cruel violence, theft, killing of innocent people and cover-up. Here are only some of testimonies

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3841480,00.html

<snip>

"A female combat soldier needs to prove more…a female soldier who beats up others is a serious fighter…when I arrived there was another female there with me, she was there before me…everyone spoke of how impressive she is because she humiliates Arabs without any problem. That was the indicator. You have to see her, the way she humiliates, the way she slaps them, wow, she really slapped that guy."

"The Breaking the Silence organization on Friday released a booklet of testimonies by female soldiers recounting various abuse cases involving Palestinians in the West Bank.

In recent years, females have been increasingly involved in combat and field operations in the IDF and Border Guard. Among other things, these female soldiers engage in daily contact with the Palestinian population – at roadblocks and in Palestinian communities.

According to the latest testimonies, many of these young women have trouble coping with the violent reality they are exposed to and find themselves facing situations that contradict their values. Some of them end up engaging in acts, or turning a blind eye to acts, that will burden them years later. Like their male counterparts, some of these females have a need to speak about what they saw.

"The girls have greater difficulties in telling the story, because they're the minority to begin with" the organization's director Dana Golan says."

<snip>

"In the framework of the latest project, Breaking the Silence gathered the testimonies of more than 50 female soldiers who served in various posts in the territories. Ynet presents some of the highlights in this report.

Golan noted that female soldiers were not more sensitive to the Palestinians than their male comrades.

"We discovered that the girls try to be even more violent and brutal than the boys, just to become one of the guys," she said."

[varelse]

1. The Occupation is taking a toll

Even small children did not escape arbitrary acts of violence, said a Border Guard female officer serving near the separation fence: "We caught a five-year-old…can't remember what he did…we were taking him back to the territories or something, and the officers just picked him up, slapped him around and put him in the jeep. The kid was crying and the officer next to me said 'don't cry' and started laughing at him. Finally the kid cracked a smile – and suddenly the officer gave him a punch in the stomach. Why? 'Don't laugh in my face' he said."

On both sides.

[Violet_Crumble]

2. That's just absolutely sickening to read...

Anyone who'd do that to a small child is a monster...

[varelse]

3. War makes monsters

and an armed occupation spanning generations, is spawning generations of monstrosity.

[grassfed]

4. Female soldiers break their silence

Six years after first collection of Breaking the Silence testimonies, organization releases booklet of testimonies from female soldiers who served in territories. Stories include systematic humiliation of Palestinians, reckless and cruel violence, theft, killing of innocent people and cover-up. Here are only some of testimonies

"A female combat soldier needs to prove more…a female soldier who beats up others is a serious fighter…when I arrived there was another female there with me, she was there before me…everyone spoke of how impressive she is because she humiliates Arabs without any problem. That was the indicator. You have to see her, the way she humiliates, the way she slaps them, wow, she really slapped that guy."

The Breaking the Silence organization on Friday released a booklet of testimonies by female soldiers recounting various abuse cases involving Palestinians in the West Bank.
( http://www.shovrimshtika.org/index_e.asp )

In recent years, females have been increasingly involved in combat and field operations in the IDF and Border Guard. Among other things, these female soldiers engage in daily contact with the Palestinian population – at roadblocks and in Palestinian communities.

more http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3841480,00.html

[azurnoir]

5. War stories our daughters won't tell us

The most shocking testimony in the new Breaking the Silence report, I think, is number 95. A female Border Police sergeant describes how the guys would catch Palestinian kids trying to sneak into Israel to sell cheap little toys:

It was simply routine – emptying the children’s plastic bags and playing with their toys. You know, grabbing the stuff and throwing the toys among us like balls.

Q: The children cried?

Constantly. They cried and were terrified. I mean, you couldn’t miss it.

Q: Adults cried too?

Sure. To humiliate them. One of our goals was this: I made him cry in front of his child, I made him shit in his pants.

Q: You saw cases of people soiling their pants?

Yes.

Q: Why?

Especially at beatings, beating them to a pulp and threats and yelling, where the guy is terrified, especially in front of the kids... There was this once, again, an adult detained with his child, a tiny kid, about four years old. The child was not hit, but the patrolman was annoyed that the adult was taking the kid with him so he’d be shown consideration, and told him: “You’re taking the kid along so as to be pitied. Let’s show you what’s what.” And he beat him to a pulp, yelled at him, said: “Why, I could kill you right in front of your kid. Maybe you’d feel more...”

Q: And he wet his pants for sheer fright?

Yes.

Q: In front of his child?

Yes. There are lots of honor stories like, I made him shit in his pants, I made him do that. Such talk was routine, not anything special...

Q: Where would this be told? In the dining hall? In the presence of the officers? Openly in public?

Openly in public. I think that if an officer says he didn’t know, he’s lying. At least the senior officers knew. Again, the platoon commanders dealt with this less, but the company commander, the deputy company commander, the operations officer – they encouraged this even in a big way. Again, not directly, they didn’t actually come out and say go on, beat them up, but there was this legitimacy. Otherwise it wouldn’t have happened.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=167766

[Violet_Crumble]

6. Here's a link to the report...

http://www.shovrimshtika.org/UserFiles/File//women2009eng.pdf

[LeftishBrit]

7. Interesting - very depressing about human nature

I would expect similar results from many conflicts; and few sex differences despite the stereotypes about women being gentler.