Heartless killer or soldier doing job?

Heartless killer or soldier doing job?
By Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson

RAFAH, Gaza Strip – He is known as “Capt. R,” his identity kept secret by Israeli military court order.

To many, he’s a cold-hearted Israeli killer accused of pumping multiple M-16 bullets into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl at close range while she lay in a gully on the edge of this battle-weary border town.

So egregious was the Oct. 5 killing that Capt. R is the first Israeli soldier to face such charges, says the military prosecutor. His court-martial opened this month; the next hearing is Thursday.

The case prompted Israeli soul searching unparalleled since a 12-year-old Palestinian boy was filmed dying in the arms of his anguished father during a firefight between soldiers and demonstrators four years ago.

To others, however, the case of Capt. R is far more complex. His lawyers say they will not allow him to be portrayed as a “bloodthirsty monster” or to be railroaded by a military intent on avoiding uncomfortable revelations about its culture or its practices.

Friends note that Capt. R is not Jewish but a member of Israel’s Druze minority, drafted into the Israeli army. They say he was unpopular with his subordinates, whose testimony provides much of the evidence against him.

His lawyers note there are questions about how many of the bullets that struck the victim came from Capt. R’s weapon. They insist he was responding to fire aimed at him, and the family refuses to exhume her body. The crime scene is a sniper zone, the lawyers say.

“He does not hate the Palestinians,” said one of his lawyers, Yoav Many. But he also does not anguish over having “justifiably killed the girl.”

“He was there to maintain security in a place where extremely hostile combatants are immersed in the regular population,” Many said.

The prosecutor, Ronen Ketsev, said the case cannot be decided on the difficult position combat soldiers find themselves in in Gaza.

“I can understand the antagonism he feels toward the enemy … the same way American and British soldiers feel toward terrorists in Iraq,” Ketsev said of the captain. “The problem is, he aimed all of his feelings toward her. She was not the enemy, she was a young girl.”

A military judge, concerned for the officer’s safety, has prohibited publication or broadcast of the captain’s name or picture, even though many Israelis and Palestinians know who he is by word of mouth and his court martial is open to the public.

Capt. R was extremely good at his job, friends and relatives say. A career soldier from the northern Israeli village of Horfeish, he is a buff and enthusiastic basic-training commander for elite units in the Givati Brigade.

That might have been one of the reasons for friction between him and his subordinates at his most recent command, the military outpost of Girit, which is about 300 yards west of the Tel-el-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah. Friends say he was determined to bring discipline to the company, which was composed of many soldiers nearing the end of their three-year draft. Such “veterans” are unofficially spared hardship duties, some former soldiers say.

That Capt. R wasn’t Jewish also contributed to the friction, friends said. As a Druze, he is a member of a minority Arab sect whose religion is an 11th Century spin-off of Islam.

Capt. R felt conflicted about his role, friends say. He embraced his military career but once told his father that the Palestinian women he saw in Gaza reminded him of his mother.

The perils were palpable in Girit, where the men had slept in armored vehicles or their reinforced mess hall for three nights leading up to the shooting because of a high-level terror alert.

Ketsev and the Israeli military refuse to elaborate on what transpired the morning of Oct. 5 beyond what appears in the five-count indictment. In it, Capt. R. is charged with two counts of illegally using his weapon, obstructing justice, exceeding the limit of violent force that was authorized and conduct unbecoming an officer.

According to the document, he broke military law by firing twice at the victim as she lay on the ground.

He later told his soldiers to violate the rules of engagement, telling them that “anyone who moves in this area, even if it’s a 3-year-old, needs to be killed,” according to a radio transmission cited in the indictment.

Reviews of the incident by Capt. R’s chain of command initially cleared him of wrongdoing.

But then two of the captain’s subordinates told Israeli reporters that the captain had shot the girl as she lay on the ground. An investigation was opened, leading to the indictment.

Prosecutor Kelsey concedes that at least one of the witnesses holds a grudge against the captain. But he says he is confident the charges are just.

The girl whom Capt. R and his men killed was Iman al Hams. When Palestinian medics retrieved her bloodied body, they found her white head scarf, striped school tunic and blue jeans riddled with bullet holes.

Her father said he is surprised that the soldiers came forward. He’s convinced that without their testimony, his daughter’s slaying would be quickly forgotten.