The unjustified death

6th July, 2004

This commander from "Egoz", whose soldiers guard the gates of Adora (participating in protecting the settlements as part of their advanced training program) - the same soldiers who bothered the Israeli-Arab who stopped his car near the gates, their commander had told us a terrible story today, although it didn't seem terrible for him at all...

He just had a call from his brother who serves in Nablus. His brother had told him that during an operation there, they were attacked by a Palestinian militant. They had casualties, one officer was killed and the militant was killed as well.

His brother participated in that operation. He saw someone's head in the window, someone was looking at them. He thought it might be a militant and so he immediately fired at him (violating IDF's rules of engagement). The guy was shot in his head and was killed instantly. Later, when he approached the body, he realized it was an unarmed civilian. He said that all his brain was scattered around the room, with blood everywhere.

While the commander was telling this to us, he seemed somewhat amused by this incident. Is it funny?!

During his phone call to his brother, I overheard him saying: "does anyone else know about this?" and then he said: "okay".

Today's news announced the following: "Israeli helicopter killed 2 Palestinian civilians after a firing a rocket-..." Maybe it wasn't related at all, I don't know.

The civilian was killed for no reason. He posed no threat to the Israeli soldiers. I don't know how often these things happen, but I damn hope that it happens rarely!

Damn it! Is he any different from other civilians? He most likely has a family, friends, maybe even a wife with kids. Now they won't see him. Dozens of lives are shattered because of a stupid, careless act.

I hope that his brother will have a trial and be put in prison for this. I know that it's a real chaos out there, but you can't fire on people unless you recognize a potential threat. There are many civilians there and you can't keep firing on people 'just in case'!

Now imagine the outcome of this one single incident - his family, relatives and friends are likely to hate Israel, at least more than they already do. His friend or brother may swear revenge on Israel and be the next suicide bomber to explode on the streets of Jerusalem or Tel Aviv and kill dozens of people. Then IDF will bulldoze his home and his family will live in a refugee camp. Israeli victims' families will hate Palestinians and if one of their relatives serves in the Israeli army, this cycle is likely to repeat itself. All this may happen because of one guy who is probably even proud of his actions, the way his brother is.

Then everyone hates Israel - because of such people, who are so selfish in their hatred, so eager to show their power and use their 'license to kill' while being protected by the uniform that they're wearing, the same uniform under which they swore to abide by the ethic code of the Israeli army. These people don't care about the consequences of their criminal actions, they are unaware of the negative impact on the Israeli population, on our country's reputation in the world.

They do not represent Israel or the Israeli army. These individuals (I really hope that they are a small minority in Israel) are condemned by the Israeli nation (Again - I really hope they do!) and it's not how Israel should look like. I know many good and decent people here who make Israel what it should be, but good people don't make the news that often.

The same goes for the Palestinians. Even though I'm only in contact with 1 Palestinian through the Internet (who's a very good guy!) I'm sure that most of the Palestinians are good people. (At least I hope so)

People shouldn't solve things with violence. Even if you'd lost a relative, revenge is not a solution. Hatred only leads to more hatred. Although I don't know how I would've acted if I had lost someone. I don't wanna know and I want to escape this reality before it gets to me or my relatives. I wanna run to my Angel's arms, seek refuge in her haven and lead a happy life with her by my side! :)

I am innocent and so is she. There's no place for innocence where I live, where I serve. I belong to a different world, an innocent and peaceful world where Angel awaits me... My Angel...

I wish I could change the world and make hatred disappear. I'd be willing to sacrifice myself, absorb all the hatred in this world and fly far away, out of man's reach.

* * * * *

Tonight Yoav arrived at Adora. The moment he entered the room, Ido, his partner for 'scoring' girls had told him about the 20+ year old he had seen, during a patrol with me. Yoav said: "I'm dying to f**k her already". The next thing they did was go and look for her in the streets. Ido wishes to find a girl 17 or older to f**k. Every patrol he complains that he doesn't see any girls in this settlement.

Yes, many guys only think about sex and that's annoying. They keep talking about girls, strategies of 'scoring', different experiences, giving each other tips. Sometimes you want to punch them so hard so they'd never mention "girls" and "sex" in the same sentence ever again.