You’re Abetting a War Crime. ‘If Not Me, Someone Else Will Do It’
Security forces sealing off the home of the family of the terrorist who killed seven Israelis in Neveh Yaakov, in Jerusalem, on January 27, 2023.Credit: Israel Police Spokesperson’s Office
Nir Gontarz reports in Haaretz
“Hello.”
Is this the office of the commander of the Home Front Command, Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo?
“Yes.”
It’s about the letter, please.
“I don’t understand.”
About the letter.
“What letter?”
About sealing off the home of the Neveh Yaakov terrorist. You wrote, “If you want to present arguments against this order, please call phone number 08-978-3777.” I have arguments. I want to speak with Mr. Milo.
“But who are you?”
Nir Gontarz.
“I can’t let you speak to him just like that. You have to submit something.”
But the letter signed by Rafi Milo says that it’s possible to contact you via this phone number.
“Okay.”
I want to speak with him. Put him on, please. It says if there’s a problem, call this number. I have a problem.
“What’s the problem?”
This is a patently illegal act. It harms innocent people. Terrorists also harm innocent people. We can’t act like they do. There’s no evidence, as of now, that anyone in his family knew about his plan or encouraged him or helped him. Nobody would damage your family’s house if you did something. This is illegal and immoral.
“We’re the most moral. I’ll give you the phone number.”
Milo’s, right?
“No. For one of our officers. 053-XXX-XXXX.”
What’s her name?
“R.”
Thank you very much.
Hello, R.?
“Yes.”
They referred me to you from Milo’s office. About the letter.
“Okay. Whom am I speaking with?”
Nir Gontarz.
“Introduce yourself. Where are you from?”
I’m a journalist.
“Okay.”
They told me I need to speak with you. I am asking you to remove the seals and to open the house. To the best of my understanding, and after checking with the police – there are no accusations against any of the relatives living in the house. And I don’t understand why you’re sealing it off.
“I’m just an officer in the office that coordinates these things.”
I don’t know if you’re a captain or a major or who knows what, but there’s a tendency among people who carry out patently illegal actions to say they are low-ranking staff who are just doing what they’re told. Ultimately, you’re abetting the execution of this war crime. Without low-ranking staffers who always cooperate, it wouldn’t be possible to do such things. At any time or any place.
“I’ll tell you what. I – it doesn’t matter what my political opinion is or what I want in my heart. I act on the basis of the Shin Bet security service’s position. I have no say and I have no control over anything. All I do is coordinate what they tell me [to coordinate]. It doesn’t matter if I’m in favor of it or not. I just coordinate it. We go solely according to the Shin Bet’s opinion. Even our general goes by their opinion.”
Then “your general” is also just a clerk with no discretion?
“If there’s some…”
Yes. I get it. But the Shin Bet security service has no God. This is an agency that tortures people, extorts and threatens innocents and more generally, always, but always, when it’s frustrated by the fact that it hasn’t managed to prevent an attack – it begins to act against the terrorists’ relatives. “The Shin Bet’s revenge, Chapter 300.” This isn’t some innocent agency.
The harming of innocent people couldn’t happen without collaborators like you. You’re part of this. I don’t have the most widely developed imagination, but I can imagine his two brothers, ages 10 and 14, and his/their father, who isn’t in the best mental health, and now, in part because of you – they don’t have a home. What are his brothers guilty of? Why did you seal off their house?
“I’m sorry to hear that. I won’t express my political opinion about it.”
This isn’t a political issue at all. It’s a human issue. Sealing off the home of two innocent children. It’s winter now and it’s cold in Jerusalem. By virtue of the fact that you’re Jewish, nobody would even dream of harming your parents if you did something. Nobody would demolish your brothers’ home.
If you and people like you had refused to collaborate with this crime, it’s unlikely that it could have taken place. The brothers aren’t guilty of anything. These children now have no home. Their brother deserved to die, and in fact did die. But what are they guilty of?
“I’m very sorry to hear this. Nevertheless, I don’t oppose orders unless it’s an illegal order.
This is an illegal order.
“I don’t know what happened there, and I’m very sorry to hear about that place, and I would also feel the same way. But if I don’t do it, other people will.”
That’s what every war criminal always says – “I was a small cog in the system.” But without cogs, the machine doesn’t work.
“Who gave you my private number?”
The person who answered in Milo’s office. I wanted to talk to the general, but the system always protects its senior members. They told me you are responsible for that daring operation against the children. And you also say that you are the coordinator of this operation. I’m turning to you because I have some reservations.
“Anyone who has reservations can, with my blessing, turn to the legal advisers of the Home Command.”
I called the number you published. How can people who deliberately seal off the house of a 10-year-old child sleep at night?
“The only thing I had to do with this was that document…if I would say anything, it doesn’t even matter.”
I think you’re wrong. I think that if the head of Central Command heard that the officers under him would obey every order he gave except an illegal order to seal off the house of a 10-year-old child, he would find it much more difficult to carry it out. If captains and lieutenant colonels told him that when it comes to illegal commands, he’s on his own, it’s doubtful the house would have been sealed off. You could have said that you would be willing to personally punish every criminal or terrorist, but that you refuse to harm guiltless children. People like you could change the situation.
“There have been many commands that were not…that soldiers did not agree with, but which they carried out anyway, since the people’s army is a state-oriented army, okay? We operate based on a state-oriented approach, okay?”
Okay. I hope you sleep well at night.
“I sleep well.”
I hope for your sake that the child whose house you sealed off won’t accompany you for the rest of your life.“
I hope so too.”
Thank you very much. “Bye.”
(Haaretz updated the Israel Defense Force’s spokesperson about this conversation with R. of the Home Front, proposing to publish instead a conversation with the major general. The spokesperson rejected the offer.)
This article is reproduced in its entirety.