In letters sent to the press, to ministers and Knesset members, soldiers from different units complained that they had been ordered to stand aside as rampaging settlers dragged Palestinian motorists out of their cars, beat them up and set the cars on fire.
In several cases, the orders to stay passive were given by officers who were settlers themselves. Such officers seem disproportionately numerous, especially in the junior grades, in the units stationed on the West Bank; the military authorities often approve requests to serve "in the vicinity of home".
A particularly difficult situation prevails in the city of Hebron, where a very fanatic and determined group of settlers have established themselves in the midst of the Palestinian population, expecting the army to give them full backing in the frequently occurring clashes.
In November, soldiers fresh from a tour of duty in Hebron published in Ha'olam Hazeh their detailed testimonies of settler violence; a settler spokesperson, asked to comment, told the reporter: "We know who they are, they are leftist paratroopers".
The debate was continued in the pages of Ma'ariv, where a paratrooper officer stated: "These settlers complain that we don't do enough to catch terrorists — but when you try to tell them that their own wild behaviour is keeping the army tied up half of the time, they start getting violent, calling the soldiers 'Nazis' and 'PLO informers' and spitting in their faces."
Also in November, soldiers of a reserve company concluded their term of service in the Gaza Strip by sending a letter to Rabin:
"We were told that our main task would be 'to protect the settlers against terrorist attacks'. But as things turned out, we were actually required to prevent settlers from attacking the Arab population. This was something for which we had no instructions — whether or not to use force and, if so, how much. Each of us had to act according to his own judgment. As a result, political debates started among us, creating such polarisation that it became nearly impossible to still function as a military unit." Ironically, this letter was publicised by the settlers' "pirate" radio station.
[From the December issue of The Other Israel.]