http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/146/oped/The_next_step_for_Israel+.shtml
The next step for Israel
By James Ron, the Boston Globe, 5/25/2000
Many hope that Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon will bring peace to the
troubled border. But without acknowledgment of the destruction visited on
Lebanon by Israel over the last 32 years, some Lebanese will not forgive
and forget. Guerrillas will continue to fire rockets over Israel's northern
frontier, triggering retaliations and more fighting. If the international
community pushes Israel to acknowledge and compensate its Lebanese victims,
however, the hostilities will finally end. I'll take a first step by
apologizing for my own misdeeds.
My first Lebanon raid was in 1986. I was a 19-year-old Israeli conscript, and
my paratroop platoon was sent to a village whose name I can't recall. I provided
security for two Lebanese militiamen and their Israeli handler. We broke down
the door of a home, shoved the family aside, and pulled a middle-aged man
outside. After blindfolding him and tying his hands behind his back, we took him
to a secluded alley, forced him to his knees, and put a gun to his head,
threatening to shoot if he didn't talk. A UN peacekeeper appeared and put an
end to that incident, but there was more to come.
The next day we performed a mock execution on a 10-year-old Lebanese boy.
We forced his family into the kitchen and dragged him to a nearby orchard. My
lieutenant pressed the child's face into the dirt while I jammed my rifle
against his skull.
Although the officer threatened to shoot his head off, the boy did not respond,
keeping silent even after we threatened to throw him from the roof of his
three-story home.
I was a recent transfer from another unit, and my colleagues were more familiar
with the drill. I watched and learned as they blew off doors with explosives,
poured sacks of flour onto dirt floors, scattered utensils, broke dishes, and
rifled through drawers. For days we ransacked the village, searching for signs
of guerrilla presence. The elderly, female, and young villagers were trapped in
their homes, ordered to observe a 24-hour curfew. Their men were gathered in a
central square, blindfolded, and hauled off for questioning. When another
soldier and I expressed reservations, we were ridiculed by our colleagues. More
often than not, however, we thought little about the villagers we were
tormenting.
Casual brutality was not limited to lower-income recruits. Omri, child of an
intelligence officer, liked to fire bursts toward villagers peeking through
doorways. Rafi, son of a liberal parliamentarian, kicked a cup of hot tea into
an elderly man's face. Several were from kibbutzim, others from middle-class
families, and our lieutenant was devoutly religious. We were one of the standing
army's elite and disciplined units.
My experience was a small part of a long-running conflict. During the 1947-49
war, more than 750,000 Palestinians lost their homes to the new Israeli state,
and many fled to Lebanon. In the late 1960s, Palestinian guerrillas began raids
from Lebanon, provoking powerful retaliations.
After their main Jordanian base was crushed in 1971, Lebanon became a center
of guerrilla activity. Palestinian attacks killed 332 Israelis between 1967 and
July 1982. In return, Israel killed 5,000-6,000 Lebanese and Palestinians. The
fighting helped trigger a 15-year Lebanese civil war that claimed
75,000-120,000 lives.
During the 1970s, Israeli shelling emptied dozens of villages and drove an
estimated 300,000 civilians into Beirut's slums. Northern Christian militias
received Israeli arms and training, while Syria supplied Israel's opponents. In
the south, Israeli-paid gunmen acted as informants, interrogators, and
enforcers. Israel's strategy was to disrupt Palestinian guerrillas by
punishing the surrounding Lebanese population; the result was deeply felt
Lebanese anger.
Israel invaded in 1982 to end Palestinian political ambitions. Jewish
nationalists were eager to annex the West Bank and Gaza, and many believed this
first required smashing the Palestinians' Lebanon base. One goal of the
invasion, later publicized by Israeli journalists, was to deport Palestinian
refugees from Lebanon with Christian militia help. The plan later collapsed,
along with Israel's other grand designs.
During the invasion's first months, Israel killed 12,000-15,000 persons and lost
360. Although the Israeli casualties were combatants, most of their victims were
civilians. Israel pounded Palestinian camps and Lebanese slums to drive the
guerrillas out, turning neighborhoods into rubble.
Israel's allies doubled as death squads, massacring hundreds in Tel el-Zatar,
Sabra, Shatila, el-Khiam, and elsewhere. Palestinian fighters were eventually
driven from Beirut, but Israeli brutality helped create new enemies. Islamist
fighters began to attack Israeli troops and fire rockets into Israel,
stimulating further reprisals. When Jewish civilians were forced into shelters,
journalists diligently conveyed their suffering. They did not give Israel's
victims equal attention, however. With television dwelling on Israeli rather
than Lebanese pain, the more plentiful Israeli-induced casualties became remote
statistics.
How do nations move beyond such conflicts? Recent history suggests that
political deals are not enough, and that truth-telling is vital. Consider South
Africa, where a commission requires former abusers to acknowledge their
crimes in return for amnesty. Or consider El Salvador and Guatemala, where
commissions have publicized definitive accounts of official wrong-doing, helping
the political healing. The international community has advocated reconciliation
through truth-telling and accountability in Argentina, Congo, Cambodia, Chad,
Chile, Indonesia, Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, and now Sierra Leone. In
these and other cases, war termination can be helped by official recognition of
victims' pain, apologies, and compensation. Why should Lebanon be different?
If Israel wants a peaceful border, it must do more than withdraw from a mess it
helped create. Palestinians and Lebanese languishing in camps and slums still
harbor great bitterness toward Israel. If it wants to end this anger, Israel
should recognize and compensate those it harmed. If Israel will not do so on
its own, the international community should pressure it to do so. If other
countries can face up to their unpleasant pasts, why not Israel?
Let me begin by asking forgiveness from the 10-year-old whose name I never
knew and from the village whose name I no longer remember.
James Ron, assistant professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University, is a
field investigator for international human rights groups.
This story ran on page A25 of the Boston Globe on 5/25/2000.
(c) Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company.
