General ordered tough tactics—papers
NZPA-Keuter Tel Aviv The Israeli Chief-of-Staff. Lieutenant-General Rafael Eitan, ordered soldiers to harass the Palestinian population on the occupied West Bank and use strong-arm tactics to crush violent unrest there in ' March and April last year, according to documents presented to a court martial vesterdav.
Seven soldiers, including the former deputy military governor of the West Bank town of Hebron, are on trial accused of brutally mistreating local residents.
The documents were presented yesterday by a defence lawyer. Yehuda Ressler. He said that they contained a record of two discussions held by General Eitan and his senior officers on how to stamp out an unprecedented spate of antiIsraeli demonstrations in March and April. The violence erupted after the Israelis dismissed several West Bank mayors in
crack-down on supporters t the Palestine Liberation Organisation. •
Captain Akiva Saranovitch. operations officer in Hebron at the time of the unrest, testified that the documents had been circulated among
Israeli officers and represented a clear policy statement on how to behave towards local residents. “The documents contain the phrases, 'harass the population' and ‘enforce tough punishments'", Mr Ressler said. The rest of their contents were not made public. One document was signed by General Eitan’s adjutant and the second by the head of his bureau. Mr Ressler said that he would call Gen-
eral Eitan to testify if the prosecution cast doubt on the validity of the documents. The Court also heard evidence yesterday from Major Baruch Nagar. a senior officer in the Israeli civil administrator's office at Hebron. Major Nagar was convicted in April last year of assaulting a Palestinian and received a two-month suspended sentence. But he was allowed to remain in his post. Yesterday he described how soldiers had beat up Palestinian detainees from the Hebron Islamic College in March. He said that he had intervened to stop the beatings. In previous hearings several witnesses said that the Israeli military commander of the West Bank and the governor of Hebron had ordered soldiers to beat Palestinians suspected of organising anti-Israeli demonstrations.
At least three officers have confirmed evidence by the accused that there was a policy of arbitrary punishment' aimed at the population as a whole and not only at people suspected of being trouble-makers. The trial continues.
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Press, 21 January 1983, Page 6
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380General ordered tough tactics—papers Press, 21 January 1983, Page 6
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