The IDF prosecutor on Thursday, January 31, 2019, submitted a criminal indictment against five soldiers in Netzach Yehuda (Nachal Chareidi) on charges of beating two Palestinian prisoners in their custody.
According to the indictment, on Jan. 8, the soldiers “beat the Palestinians whilst slapping them, punching them and using blunt objects against them while they were handcuffed and blindfolded.”
The Palestinians were arrested on suspicion of assisting the gunmen involved in shooting attacks that left two Israeli soldiers dead in December.
The soldiers face charges of “aggravated abuse and serious injury in aggravated circumstances.” Military prosecution sought to extend the detention of the soldiers until the end of the proceedings in their case.
It should be noted that two of the fighters are also charged with the offense of obstructing legal proceedings after they conferred with one another to prepare their statements before being questioned in the case.
The commander of the fighters, an officer with the rank of lieutenant, is in open detention.
“We are confident that at the end of the trial the facts and circumstances will be clarified, and the situation will look different,” said the defense attorney, who represents the soldiers, in response to the filing of the indictment: “This is an indictment that would have been better not served in the first place. A month ago, their colleagues were murdered by a terrorist and they were forced into an impossible situation – to lead to the arrest of the terrorists involved in the murder of their comrades.
The defense added the soldiers in question are all “outstanding combatants, salt of the earth, whose fellow unit members were murdered in a terrorist attack only a month ago and they were forced into an impossible situations, [to be involved in events that] led to the arrests of the terrorists who murdered their friends”.
The defense feels the indictment “lacks an understanding” of the situation vis-à-vis the soldiers and what they have been through of late, and what was expected of them immediately following the fatal terror attack at Givat Assaf Junction in Shomron, an attack that claimed the lives of Nachal Chareidi soldiers Yossi Cohen HY”D and Yuval Mor Yosef HY”D. A third member of their unit, Netanel [Ilan ben Shaina Tziporah] Felber was critically wounded by gunfire to his head and is still in need of Rachmei Shomayim.
MK (Bayit Yehudi) Betzalel Smotrich responded to the news of the criminal indictments, “Turning IDF soldiers into criminals harms the security of the state and endangers life. The Military Advocate General once again lost common sense and hurt the IDF”.
Smotrich added, “The IDF soldiers are our heroes who are battling our enemies for us, battling a harsh cruel enemy, and they deserve our backing, even if they erred and not to be abandoned in the name of distorted legal morality”.
He concluded that the soldiers can be dealt with in a disciplinary fashion rather than bringing criminal charges against them in a court of law. Smotrich added that even if they erred, the incident does not warrant the response it is receiving as it was not that serious.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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7 Responses
They should have killed them, not just beat them. Shame on the IDF
This is a disgrace and a major Chillul HaShem. Bad enough that the soldiers are Jewish, but that they’re supposedly religious? What are they being taught? And we should be gentle with them because of their “mental health “issues? If we can’t count on the IDF obeying the law, who can we count on? The injuries are witnessed by hospital staff – it’s not a “they said -, but they said- ” situation. Is this how a ben Torah behaves? Is all of Nachal Chareidi like this, or are these just a few “bad apples?” Vengeance is for HKBH, and the law is for us. Now the world will look and say, “See how they treat the Palestinians? And these guys are supposedly religious Jews” And then we’ll complain about anti-Semitism as usual, when real anti-Semitism is compared to “whitewashing.”
Time do do a cheshbon hanefesh on this sort of thing, before the Torah is mechallel any more.
Midwest2, Torah teaches us that the one who becomes merciful to a cruel will become cruel to a merciful. I hope this is not a case with you.
There are two issues here.
1) Law – both secular and Torah. Makos (beating) is only permitted at the direction of a kosher Beis Din. Anything else is assault. Since there are no Batei Din currently empowered to sentence someone to makos, that is not an option here. The secular law is very plain about this also. To be punished by secular law a person must be tried and convicted. The Palestinians in question had been arrested, but not charged or tried or convicted. In any case, Israeli law does not permit hitting prisoners. (The only exception might be Shin Bet who are trying to get information to stop an imminent terror attack.) After conviction, the sentence is prison, not beating. So by either viewpoint, this was an illegal assault and the persons who conducted it are chargeable with assault. The law is the law. “Cruelty” has nothing to do with it.
2) Where in the Torah does it teach us that we are allowed to express our hatred by beating someone who is tied up and helpless? Your quote about cruelty applies to being lenient with lawbreakers on the part of the court. It does not speak about people taking the law into their own hands. The world at large will just conclude that the Torah is a Torah of violence and hate, and bring contempt on Torah and the people who uphold it. Not exactly Shimon ben Shetach here.
We must uphold the law, both Torah and secular Israeli, no matter what our feelings are. Cheering when someone tied up and helpless is being beaten causing broken bones is neither permitted nor menschlich.
Midwest! I can belive that you are siding with those arab murders and their friends and blame those brave Jewish Heroes. So they punched few times whose “Jewhaters” and I am sure Israel provided them the best medicine in the world for free. I just hope it is the cold weather in Midwest that got to you, otherwise I would suggest you to see the specialist because in the time of war (and there is one going on between Israelis & arabs if you did not notice) you better choose the right side.
To ahavas yisroel: Did you pick your online name because you want to test my ahavas yisroel? Soldiers should not beat or kill anyone in their custody.
There is a pattern with leftists on this forum: they all side with our worst enemies, here in US and in Eretz Ysroel.