Name: | Anonymous |
Rank: | Staff Sergeant |
Unit: | Armored Corps Reconnaissance 7 |
Location: | Itamar, West Bank |
Date: | 2004 |
An Israeli soldier provides a testimony to Breaking the Silence in which he describes how the military took orders from the civilian security guard inside a settlement.
Soldier: You sleep inside the settlement. You’re sort of guarding their settlement. We did sentry duty at the entrance to the settlement, and also did security shifts inside Itamar. They were very friendly. They see the army as their friend, as the future. Sometimes it seems as if the settlement’s civilian security official is actually your commander. In Itamar, it got to the point where we were getting orders from him. Our army commander would say: If the civilian security official tells you something, do as he says. You ask yourself sometimes, who is my commander here? It was very problematic. It seemed as if the settlers and the army were the same force.