The head of the army’s Central Command, Major General Yehuda Fuchs, has taken disciplinary action against several officers over a “serious violent incident” in which a senior officer was beaten during an altercation with a group of soldiers in the West Bank. base earlier this week, the Israel Defense Forces said on Friday.
Two officers – a major and a lieutenant colonel – were to be dismissed from their posts; One officer was jailed, two more officers, including a colonel, were formally censured; And the planned promotion of another officer was cancelled.
Additionally, a commander and several soldiers involved in the brawl were to be jailed after facing disciplinary hearings before their superiors, and a warrant officer was dismissed from his role.
IDF chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi condemned the “serious and extreme incident” involving violence by both soldiers and commanders.
The army quoted Halevi as saying, “The IDF exercises great power to defend the State of Israel, there is no room for violent actions within us.”
Halevi said there were many instances in which the authorities could have acted responsibly and taken steps to stop the violence. “By not making such an intervention, the commanders involved have committed a serious moral failure,” he said.
According to a preliminary IDF investigation of the incident and eyewitness accounts, the incident began on Sunday when the Yehuda Territorial Brigade’s chief signal operator called the deputy commander of the 51st Golani Battalion “the one”.golanchik arcsduring a video conference call.
Ars is a derogatory Hebrew slang term for those who associate with a type of macho culture, and is often used as an ethnic stereotype for working-class Israelis of Mizrahi origin.
In response, the deputy commander, a major, threatened to punish any soldier who allowed the chief signal operator to go to the Harsina military outpost near Hebron – where the battalion is currently stationed according to the investigation.
The chief signal operator, accompanied by the deputy commander of the Yehuda Territorial Brigade – a lieutenant colonel – arrived at the base on Monday afternoon and attempted to enter the base. The investigation states that the constable posted at the entrance told the two officers that they were not allowed to enter.
The deputy commander of the Yehuda Brigade telephoned the deputy commander of the 51st Battalion, who replied that the lieutenant colonel could enter, but not the chief signal operator.
The Yehuda Brigade’s liaison officer called Sergeant Golanchik Arce of the 51st Battalion, who responded by instructing the officer not to bring the officer to the battalion’s posts. When the officers arrived at the checkpoint near Kiryat Arba with the commandant, one of the fighters blocked their entry and a fight broke out@roysharon11 pic.twitter.com/t8UDTcquuI
– Kann News (@kann_news) January 30, 2023
When the senior officer again approached the constable posted at the entrance, the two argued over the phone and asked him to be allowed inside along with the chief signal operator and other soldiers accompanying him.
The soldier refused and told the officer to back off, and in response, the officer pressed his head against the soldier in an apparently threatening manner, and the soldier responded in kind. In response, the senior officer’s entourage pushed the constable and spat in his face, the investigation said.
The constable posted at the entrance radioed his company to inform them of the incident. Several soldiers including the company commander and his deputy arrived at the scene and a physical and verbal altercation ensued.
Company soldiers and officers told the deputy commander of the Yehuda Brigade that they would not be allowed to enter the base because they had allegedly hit a soldier guarding the entrance.
Several minutes later, the deputy commander of the 51st Battalion arrived at the base’s entrance and let the senior officer and his chief signal operator in.
But once inside the base, the senior officer was prevented from reaching the 51st barracks by a warrant officer from the unit, who told the Yehuda Brigade’s deputy commander that he was not allowed to enter the company area in the base, investigating stated in.
The investigation states that the senior officer was furious and grabbed the warrant officer’s hand, and twisted it before pushing him against the wall. After seeing the brawl, company soldiers ran and jumped on the deputy commander of the Yehuda Brigade, pinning him to the ground, punching and kicking him.
The chief signal operator and other soldiers in the officer’s entourage fled, leaving the deputy commander of the Yehuda Brigade to be beaten by the soldiers.
A soldier recalled the incident in an audio recording to his friends, “I’m not kidding, they choked him, kicked him, the warrant officer punched him… everyone was beating him.” “
The dispute was eventually broken up by the deputy commander of the 51st Battalion.
The extent of the officers’ injuries was not detailed by the military. did not require hospitalization
The commander of the Yehuda Territorial Brigade was to be formally censured, his deputy was to be dismissed from his post, and the chief signal operator was to be formally censured as well as jailed for 10 days.
The commander of the 51st Golani Battalion was formally laid off and his deputy would be dismissed from his role. The company commander involved in the dispute had his planned promotion cancelled. The deputy commander of the company was to be jailed for five days, and the warrant officer would be dismissed.
Additionally, after facing a disciplinary hearing, three soldiers were to be jailed for five days and a fourth soldier for eight days.
