Psychologist reveals troops' brutality against Palestinians

20th Oct 2007

A psychologist has reveales Isreali troops' brutality against Palestinians.  He blames assaults on civilians in the 1990s on soldiers' bad training, boredom and poor supervision

Listen to what the soldiers says and you will shudder at what the Palestinian on the street faces every day.

A study into the behaviour of Isreali soldiers is provoking much controversy in isreal.  It has awakened questions about the way the army operates in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

"Nufar Yishai-Karin, a clinical psychologist at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, interviewed 21 Israeli soldiers and heard confessions of frequent brutal assaults against Palestinians, aggravated by poor training and discipline. In her recently published report, co-authored by Professor Yoel Elizur, Yishai-Karin details a series of violent incidents, including the beating of a four-year-old boy by an officer.

According to Yishai Karin: '

At one point or another of their service, the majority of the interviewees enjoyed violence. They enjoyed the violence because it broke the routine and they liked the destruction and the chaos. They also enjoyed the feeling of power in the violence and the sense of danger.'

In the words of one soldier: 'The truth? When there is chaos, I like it. That's when I enjoy it. It's like a drug. If I don't go into Rafah, and if there isn't some kind of riot once in some weeks, I go nuts.'

Another explained: 'The most important thing is that it removes the burden of the law from you. You feel that you are the law. You are the law. You are the one who decides...

As though from the moment you leave the place that is called Eretz Yisrael [the Land of Israel] and go through the Erez checkpoint into the Gaza Strip, you are the law. You are God.'      "

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