IDF Archivist Can’t Find Procedures For Summary Execution Of Palestinians

“It’s nothing less than scandalous that this far into the seven-decade-old ethnic cleansing, no specific manual exists on how soldiers are to execute one of the basic techniques of that project.”

Tel Aviv, April 2 – The army clerk in charge of maintaining and accessing the IDF’s official procedure has been unable to locate any of the documents that instruct Israeli soldiers how to conduct executions in cold blood of Palestinians.

Lieutenant Colonel Hotzaa LaHoreg of the IDF Archives Section, located within the Ministry of Defense, informed combat unit commanders this week that he suspects such procedures were never developed, a prospect that casts doubt on the IDF’s diligence in preparing for various important scenarios.

In an unclassified memo leaked to the press by a ministry official, Lt. Col. LaHoreg told six separate junior and senior officers stationed in the West Bank that a thorough check of all of the IDF’s training manuals turned up not a shred of official procedures for the field execution of Palestinian youths. The officers had been prompted to request the manuals after encountering reports in the international media that the military had repeatedly engaged in such activity, and concluded that if such executions are indeed part of their units’ responsibilities, they need to familiarize themselves with the proper procedures for conducting them.

“IDF records appear not to contain formal procedures for the activities you describe,” wrote the archive administrator. “A more comprehensive check necessitates an examination of older, non-digitized materials, and will require several weeks. Please advise if such an examination is required.”

If indeed no such procedures exist in the IDF repertoire, the army will have to develop them in a hurry, says analyst Bobby Yaar, a former government minister. “If there’s anything we’ve learned over the last several decades it’s that international media coverage and tendentious NGO reports dominate the prevailing narrative on Israel, and the country has had a hard time living up to those expectations,” he explained. “This case, though, really demonstrates how unprepared the Israeli military is to play the role those organizations insist it perform – namely, the barbarian, child-killing, justice-twisting, ethnic-cleansing Satan. It’s nothing less than scandalous that this far into the seven-decade-old ethnic cleansing, no specific manual exists on how soldiers are to execute one of the basic techniques of that project.”

Yaar recommended an emergency committee to formulate the procedures immediately. “I can recommend several members the committee, if the IDF would simply listen,” he added, with a touch of ruefulness. “There are experts in this field all over the Middle East, including countless numbers of them in Syria and Iraq. I’m sure they’d be happy to be consulted on the subject.”