Israel Matzav

Lieutenant Colonel caught on video beating 'international activist'

This is all the rage here tonight. The terrorist-supporting International Solidarity Movement has posted a video online of an IDF Lieutenant Colonel beating a Danish 'activist' who was helping 'Palestinians' and other 'international activists' block Highway 90 through the Jordan Valley on Saturday by slowly riding bicycles across the road. The Lieutenant Colonel has been suspended from his command pending an investigation.

Let's go to the videotape.



The IDF will likely end the officer's career. He apparently snapped. Senior officers are supposed to maintain their composure and not start beating 'demonstrators' even if they are terror supporters. I've seen too many of these sorts of incidents to condemn the officer immediately - we don't see what happened before this (the officer's version is below). But senior officers are not supposed to behave this way, regardless of what happened. This behavior is definitely not typical of the IDF and that's why a lot of people are really upset about it. And Nitzan Alon is known for being sympathetic to the 'Palestinians.'

OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Nitzan Alon ordered the opening of an investigation into the incident. Upon receiving the preliminary results of the investigation Sunday night, Alon decided to suspend Eisner until the completion of the probe.

In addition, the Military Advocate-General's office decided to open a criminal investigation in to the incident, which IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz said Sunday evening was not representative of the IDF's ethics and morals and would be fully investigated and treated with the utmost gravity.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu condemned the actions of the officer Sunday night, saying that "this behavior does not characterize IDF officers and soldiers, and it has no place in the IDF or in the place of Israel."

Such violence by a senior officer is rare in the West Bank and soldiers serving in the West Bank are generally trained to show restraint during demonstrations or civil disturbances.

YNet has the officer's side of the story:

Lieutenant-Colonel Shalom Eisner regretted an incident in which he beat a foreign activist with an M-16 rifle on Sunday. "I should not have flung my weapon like that," he told his associates. "But those are 60 seconds out of a two-hour event," he noted.

...

Ynet has obtained Eisner's version of events as he told it to his associates. The deputy commander of the Jordan Valley Territorial Brigade said that after hearing of the activists' intention of blocking Route 90 he showed up at the scene and ordered the forces to prevent the blocking of the road.

"I explained to the activists that many travelers were using the road because of the holiday and that they are posing a major security risk," he said. Eisner noted he had done the same thing when groups of right-wing activists had tried to access the road for protests.

He said he allowed the activists to demonstrate inside the village of Ouja and ride off the road. "All was calm and in control and that is why I didn't bring a water canon and gave them 15 minutes to protest," he said.

"It was a group of 60 activists and suddenly two buses arrived and the activists all together called to block the road while closing our barrier. One of the Palestinian organizers told me at this stage that she no longer had control over the event."

Lt. Col. Eisner claims that some of the protesters started attacking him with sticks which caused one of his fingers to break. He also suffered a major injury in his wrist which required a cast. "The weapon was the only thing I had in my hands. The whole thing lasted 60 seconds, we prevented them from getting on the road and they boarded the bus. Obviously, they didn't show the part where they attacked us with sticks in the video."

Eisner's jeep contained a crowd dispersal kit which was not used during the event. "There was no reason for me to fire a gas grenade as there had been no violence in the course of two hours of dialogue. I thought about using the kit, but I decided it would be better to let them calm down."

Read the whole thing. I wonder whether someone in the IDF has video of what happened earlier. There are pictures in the YNet article of the officer walking around with his wrist in a cast.

Labels: IDF ethics, International Solidarity Movement, Jordan Valley, Palestinian terrorism

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:59 AM