Tel Aviv, Israel - Rabbis affiliated with the Israeli army urged troops heading into Gaza to reclaim what they said was God-given land and "get rid of the gentiles" -- effectively turning the 22-day Israeli intervention into a religious war, according to the testimony of a soldier who fought in Gaza.
Literature passed out to soldiers by the army's rabbinate "had a clear message -- we are the people of Israel, we came by a miracle to the land of Israel, God returned us to the land, now we need to struggle to get rid of the gentiles that are interfering with our conquest of the land," the soldier told a forum of Gaza veterans in mid-February, just weeks after the conflict ended.
A transcript of the testimony given at an Israeli military academy at the Oranim college on Feb. 13 was obtained Friday by McClatchy and also published in Haaretz, one of Israel's leading dailies. The soldier, identified as "Ram," a pseudonym to protect his identity, gave a scathing description of the atmosphere as the Israeli army went to war.
"The general atmosphere among people I spoke to was ... the lives of Palestinians are ... let's say far, far less important from the lives of our soldiers," Ram said. The religious literature gave "the feeling of almost a religious mission," he said.
Jonathan Peled, the Israeli Embassy spokesman in Washington, said that Israel "absolutely" had no intention of expelling Palestinians from Gaza and has no territorial or other claims there. While he hadn't seen the religious literature mentioned by the soldier, he said the Israeli army "is a secular army and is not run by any religious institution but by army commanders answering to the democratically elected government of the State of Israel."
Brig. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit, the Israeli army's chief prosecutor, on Thursday announced the first criminal investigation into the killing of Palestinian civilians during Israel's military incursion. He issued the order after the Haaretz and Maariv newspapers published an account from the Oranim forum of how an Israeli sharpshooter killed a Palestinian woman and her two children when they inadvertently took a wrong turn after being released from detention in their own home.
There are questions about the Israeli Defense Force's commitment to prosecute war crimes and burgeoning criticism of the operation itself. According to Haaretz, the army first learned on Feb. 23 of the Oranim forum allegations and obtained a full transcript on March 5. The army told McClatchy on Thursday it had received the transcript that day, but on Friday a representative said it had received the document "a few days ago."
The Israeli Embassy in Washington said the army "holds itself to the highest moral and ethical standards, and as such is investigating the claims with the diligence one would expect in order to determine their accuracy, should further action be required."