Last update - 00:00 16/08/2007
Barak: Defending the refusal of orders threatens democracy
By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent
To sanction ideologically motivated refusal of orders by Israel Defense Forces troops is to jeopardize Israeli democracy, Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned Wednesday.
Last week 12 soldiers from the Duchifat infantry battalion refused to participate in the evacuation of Jewish settlers from Hebron in the West Bank.
"The severity of refusing orders is clear to any reasonable spectator," Barak said at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, during a nomination ceremony for the IDF's new head for the court of appeals. "It matters not whether the refusal is by left-wing soldiers or by rightists. The government elected is the only decision-maker in a democracy. IDF soldiers take orders from their commanders, and no one else."
Barak went on to condemn Bar-Ilan University Professor Hillel Weiss for wishing death upon a high-ranking IDF officer. The Judea and Samaria District Police opened a criminal investigation last week against Weiss, who was filmed verbally assaulting Hebron Division commander Colonel Yehuda Fuchs during the evacuation of two families from the Hebron wholesale market.
Weiss is suspected of incitement, after saying of Fuchs, "I hope his mother will be bereaved, his wife will be a widow, and his children orphans." The professor also called the security officers carrying out the evacuation "worse than the Germans." Weiss later apologized for his statements, but then said on Monday that leftist "terrorist" pressure forced him to do so.
"Israeli society cannot and must not condone such shocking and blatant lashing out against an officer of the Israel Defense Forces, who is serving his country on the front," Barak said. "This officer's country sent him there after it had entrusted him to fulfill a mission. We must not ignore such a an act, which disrupts the very texture of our existence in this land as a Jewish and democratic society."
As for the IDF's activity in the West Bank, Barak said: "In the course of our vicious war against terror, we have had to impose certain limitations on the civilian population. We are forced to set up roadblocks and construct walls that place a strain on the lives of the local Palestinian population in these areas," Barak said.
"Yet, we have focused our war on the terrorists, and went to great pains to avoid and minimize damage to innocent civilians. Regretfully, in the course of such strenuous activity to prevent terror, omissions do occur. Errors have been made, but the IDf is still a highly moral army," Barak added.
He also said that the army's judicial system is not meant to shield the military from the law, but to uphold the law and prevent violations. "To keep the IDF's high level of morality, we must observe every degree of observing human rights and violations to the IDF morals and orders."
The defense minister also addressed the current highly-publicized and discordant dispute between Supreme Court President Doti Beinisch and Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann, who is currently promoting far reaching reforms that pertain to the Supreme Court's jurisdiction.