The IDF likes to reverse the old saying: “Let no good deed go unpunished.” It likes to ensure that no war crime goes unrewarded. Col. Ilan Malka, who was named by the Goldstone Report as possibly responsible for two sets of war crimes during Operation Cast Lead (one of them was the murder of the al-Samouni family, resulting in the deaths of 20 civilians including women and children), just received a promotion from the IDF chief of staff. He will be the new chief of staff of the Central Command, assigned to protect settlements and provide the security necessary for expanding the settler enterprise in the West Bank. He will rise in rank from Colonel to Brigadier General.
Malka was one of only two officers who were ever investigated for their murder of civilians during the war. The worst punishment he received was to have further promotions put on hold since 2010. Now, Brig. Gen. Gantz has freed him from this military Purgatory and he can continue to work his way up the ranks to his own level of incompetence. Or should I say “competence,” since the IDF appears to view soldiers who kill civilians as being supremely competent. How else to explain this promotion?
Once the IDF saw that Judge Goldstone had emasculated his own report by disavowing major elements of it, the army realized it had nothing to fear and the investigative files against these two officers were closed last May. The only soldier who was ever disciplined was one shlump who stole a Gazan’s credit card.
There may not be justice in Israel for this general, but Turkey has just indicted most of the IDF command involved in Cast Lead. So he may still get his day in court.
Another war criminal ascends to greater power. It just shows the moral bankruptcy of Israeli society.
Mary: “Another war criminal ascends to greater power”
Isn’t a criminal someone who has been tried and found guilty? I thought suspicion and/or speculation is not enough to make one guilty? Has anyone seen even an indictment in any recognised tribunal?
Or is the rule of “innocent until proven guilty” a democratic right reserved in your mind only to Palestinian “criminals”?
One ought to keep to agreed democratic principles when using epithets such as “accused” “criminal” “guilty” etc for ALL sides of the conflict
Oh, sorry. I guess I should just hold my breath and wait for the ICC to catch up to him. I’m sure he’s really a nice guy. I’ll ask the Samouni family what they think, and I’m sure they will concur.
The world has offered Israel the chance to judge its own. That’s part of the protocols of international laws of war. When it refuses to do so, as it almost uniformly does unless there is an issue of international relations at stake (as in the cases of Tom Hurndall & James Miller) then it opens itself to demands that the ICC take jurisdiction. When its feet are not held to the fire, it refuses, as in this case. When there is no law in a society, then people are forced to draw their own conclusions about perpetrators’ guilt. The best way to allow people to judge whether someone’s committed a war crime is to have a fully independent, transparent & robust investigatory & judicial process–which Israel does NOT have.
I say this not because I want vengeance (though Palestinians may see this differently) but because I believe that doing this is in Israel’s best long term interests.
Right — as Israel didn’t try this one, any observation and any inference is justified.
What difference Turkey makes? who cares? turkey doesnt have what it taked to get back
at Syria which bombared Turkey everyday
Turkey will lose half pop kurdish to Kurdistan
So will Iran
Why should Israeli war hero give hoot about Turkey??
Just take a look what kind of jet fighters Turkey uses 1st line
ww2 model
Let him vacation in Turkey next time. Or maybe the Turkish government will kidnap him as this is Israel’s favored method. I recommend that they do just that. Let Israel be outraged like the good number of sovereign states violated by Israel in this regard.
Well actually you SHOULD hold your breath and wait, that’s what democracy is all about.
Democracy means due process which unfortunately is often breached by democratic countries in the West.
Labeling a person not indicted, tried or found guilty as a “criminal” puts you together with so called enlightened democracies which abuse their own principles when it suits or refers to the other side.
If the Samouni family believe in democracy they will want due process for the purportrator, not a lynching, and will want the right man, not some possibly connected high ranking soldier to take the rap. So should you!
No Israeli officer, or soldier, has ever been convicted of murdering a Palestinian. It is that simple. I could give you a long list of Palestinians murdered by IOF soldiers, and I do mean civilians including children, but I think you get my point.
Yeah, isn’t it amazing that Shmuel who has told us here that he’s a military judge has the chutzpah to speak about democracy. Wonder whether he believes in it himself…. Maybe Shmuel has a list of Israeli soldiers convicted of killing Palestinian civilians.
Yet another Israeli Border police officer was acquitted of killing a Palestinian child a couple of weeks ago:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MewNews/message/67004
Noam Sheizaf has an article on 972mag (I don’t post the link in order not to postpone the posting): The conviction rate for Palestinians in Israel’s Military Court is 99,74 %.
Sure, makes one believe in Israeli democracy.
Study your history. You lie once again.
Ami Popper was given life sentence for murdering Arabs in cold blood.
How many other mistakes have you mad? plenty!
How many Palestinian civlians have been murdered in cold blood with no charges being brought. One case doesn’t prove a rule. It’s an exception that proves the rule.
@ Chulent
Well, I’m not going to answer for Mary, but according to wikipedia, Ami Popper was neither a soldier nor an officer – the case that Mary mentioned – when he killed Palestinians. He was a discharged soldier who stole his brother’s uniform, but that doesn’t make him a soldier.
In fact, you’re right: two policemen were convicted recently for dumping a sick Palestinian, still in his hospital pyjamas, in some desert place where he died.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-court-sends-police-officers-to-prison-for-leaving-palestinian-to-die-by-side-of-road-1.449857
And a soldier was convicted to 45 days in prison for killing two Palestinian women, a mother and her daughter, waving a white flag, during Cast Lead. 45 days….
You wrote:
“And a soldier was convicted to 45 days in prison for killing two Palestinian women, a mother and her daughter, waving a white flag, during Cast Lead. 45 days….”
This is not true.
There was not enough evidence to convict the soldier of killing those Palestinians (as well as significant discrepancies in testimony) so he was instead tried and convicted of a much lesser charge.
It’s simply untrue that “there was not enough evidence.” Wishful thinking on your part. There was more than enough evidence. There was no will to prosecute or hold anyone accountable. That’s an entirely different matter.
Earlier I called this case the exception that proved the rule. Thanks to your clarification it turns out it’s not an exception, but rather follows the rule completely.
@ Bob
Yeah, I’m aware that the 45 days was because the charge against him was changed, still he killed those two women. What was the charge, tell us: legitimate self-defense ?
As the Border Police officer who has just been acquitted of killing 10-years old Ahmad Moussa said: “Even in a bulletproof car you have to respond. If they see you don’t respond, it can be perceived as weakness”. So he opened the car door and shot Ahmad Moussa twice with live bullets in his forefront.
And three years ago Bassem Abu Rahma of Bilin was murdered by an Israeli soldier who aimed a tear gas canister at him and shot him in the chest, crushing his heart. The murder was caught on video but even so, the soldier was found not guilty of any wrongdoing.
Chulent in your studies of history have you encountered any Palestinian life sentence prisoner who had killed 7 Israeli Jews having holidays (furlough) from the Israeli minimum security prison. Ami Popper was out of the prison on a 48 hour furlough when he was driving without a driving license and killed her wife and one son in a claimed accident. Most probably this was not the first or last holiday this Jewish mass murderer / terrorist had.
“Funny” that a man who reveals that Israel has nuclear weapons has to spend in solitary confinement for years, but a mass murderer of Palestinians gets a VIP treatment in the Israeli minimum security prisons. The terrorist Popper is even given the opportunity to bully with his religious collages to the former Israeli president Katsav (in prison for rape) for not freeing him. That is one of the most hilarious examples of that the Israeli “blind justice” works sometimes. Chulent if Israeli President Katsav had raped and harassed Palestinian women would he been sent to prison?
Do you think the soldiers who shot Ahmad al-Nabaheen, 20 years old, mentally unstable and epileptic, who wandrered about and ended up in the buffer zone between Gaza and the State of Israel last monday, and who during six hours shot at the Palestinian para-medical staff who tried to get him out – and when they finally got the permission, he had bled to death – will ever get to court ?
Do you think the soldier/pilot who killed Ahmad Younis Abu Daqqa, 13 years old, last Thursday when he was playing footbal outside his house, will ever get punished ?
You know, these two civilians were killed by the IDF BEFORE militants in Gaza targeted the Israeli jeep (by the way, where was that jeep exactly ?) and wounded 4 soldiers which the hasbara – and the Western media – represent as a Palestinian agression to which Israel only ‘responded’.
Do you think the soldiers who killed four young Palestinians on Saturday as a ‘response’ to the shelling of the jeep – two youngsters playing football in the first air raid and two others who came running to rescue them in the second air raid – will ever go to court ? Do you think the mother of Matar Abu al-Atta who gave birth to a baby boy on saturday two hours after her eldest son was killed will ever see that thug in prison ? Do you ?
The IDF closed the case. Why would anyone hold their breath in this case? I’m sorry but in this case, when Israel flouts the norms of rule of law then we can legitimately discuss his guilt. Get yourself a fully independent investigatory process when it comes to such crimes, then we can talk. As a judge, you should have some sway & influence in these matters. I look forward to seeing you lobby your colleagues on this matter.
The Samounis will NEVER get justice inside Israel.
So, Bob, then there were none, right?
Everyone wants due process, but none is forthcoming. So what’s your point? He gets off without insinuations and assumptions? Is that fair to the victims?
I know I’ve already posted this documentary before, but it’s simply a MUST. Channel 4/Dispatches’ “Children of Gaza” where we follow four children in Gaza among them Amal Al-Samouni and her brother Mahmoud. I would really like all Israelis to see that documentary, particularly now that it seems The-Only-Democracy is looking for an excuse for a new mass-slaughter in Gaza.
http://palestinevideo.blogspot.fr/2010/03/dispatches-children-of-gaza-2010.html