Israel Matzav: Encouraging discipline in the IDF

Encouraging discipline in the IDF

I should probably preface this post by saying that I never served in the IDF. Having made aliya at an age well past the age at which one is normally drafted and at the tail end of the Russian aliya, the IDF had no interest in drafting me. (They did have a brief interest in my car, but that's another story). So I never served in the IDF. But something about this story doesn't make sense to me.

Ten soldiers from the Nachal unit have been sent to the brig for refusing to follow orders. No, they didn't refuse to expel Jews from their homes. Read the story, and at the end, I'll tell you what I think the outcome should have been.

According to a letter they sent to higher-ups, the commander ordered them to hitchhike home for their weekends off – when they were stationed next to Gaza. They were also ordered to fire mortar shells, even though they were not trained to do so. In addition, the commander threatened to court-martial them for even the slightest infractions. As a result, the letter said, the soldiers no longer trusted the commander, and would no longer follow his commands.

An IDF spokesperson said that the army treats refusing orders of any type very seriously, and that the soldiers would be punished for doing so; however, their allegations against the commander would be investigated, the spokesperson said.

Armies are built on following orders and you can't have soldiers issuing blanket refusals to follow orders. On the other hand, one of the distinguishing factors of the Jewish army is that because of our experiences with the Nazis, who tried to claim that they were 'just following orders,' the IDF has a concept of a prima facie illegal order. If it's true that the commander ordered soldiers who were not trained to fire mortars to fire them, thereby endangering their own lives and those around them, that sounds like an order that ought not to be obeyed.

If the IDF deemed the charges serious enough to be investigated, shouldn't they have postponed the jail terms under after the investigation takes place? (I'm sure I will have a reader or two who is far more familiar with IDF procedures than I am, who can explain this).

Israel Matzav: Encouraging discipline in the IDF