I serve in the reserves in paratroopers battalion --, brigade ----. We were called up for reserve duty on February 18, 2007 and began an "Exercise Before Mission" -- before every mission on the line we do an exercise, the forces are trained -- shooting practice, standard things, nothing special.

 

On the day of our call up we already knew we were going to take over two villages [as part of the battalion's exercise]. We get to the reserves and the first thing is "what's up, what's going on, what exercise are we doing?" There is always a battalion's exercise before we go on our mission. "So, how far is the walking, how long far is the walking?" That's what we want to know -- how far is the walking. But we thought [the exercise was going to be in] a street-warfare training area or, it's okay, nothing special... We do that every training session.

 

And then they told us we were going to have a battalion's exercise which includes a scenario that could happen today, which is actually to take over two villages. We're not talking about going in for arrests, which is a surgical operation, which is what we usually do on the lines, arrests and things like that, but staging like an all-out war and now we are going in and taking over the village. In terms of military doctrine, I'm not going into that right now, there are other ways to do it, more aggressive activities... noisier because it is war, we are not trying to arrest anybody. And then gradually when we understood we’re talking about live villages people started to raise their eyebrows and there was a lot of complaining.

 

The main points of the order were such: we walk 12 km to two villages -- Beit Lid and Safarin -- those are two adjacent villages. We weren't told how many people live there. We were told these are villages that are considered "cold" and we did not anticipate problems there. The whole batallion homes in, there is a plan, it doesn't matter how right now... And at zero hour -- 4 a.m. -- the whole battalion "opens fire" at the village, methodically, without bullets or anything, we "open fire" on the village and take over the village. We start... The idea was that when we get to the village there would be two escorts, it is not staging an enemy, it is two officers who would tell us -- "you see here, you are being fired on from here, you are being fired on,” they would open a stick light, the order being to go around without magazines inserted. [So that it would be clear that] if there was any shooting it would certainly not be from our force, nobody was doing it. By the way, I don't know if there was any peripheral security... I don't know, in our company, for instance, there wasn't, I know that for sure. And there would be stick lights and you are not allowed to go into a house unless it is a house that has a stick light and in the first place we know there are houses that are abandoned and things like that. But in general you don't know anything, they wanted to create uncertainty on purpose in order to simulate a real battle, but I think in this case which is a little sensitive they should have at least notified some... I don't know... It was very problematic, we felt like we really didn't know. So... We walked... And it was "there are the villages, go there and deal with whatever is there." A very vague order on purpose, usually our orders are very clear -- "House number five, House number two..."

 

As far as rules of engagement, that was problematic too. No shooting unless we see someone... There is no staging of enemies -- if now we see someone with a kefiyah and a gun he is not a staged enemy, that means he is an enemy, [the battalion commander said] "the villages are known to be cold, these are villages that we have no problems with," which makes me even angrier but we can talk about that later too... And that's it... They told us there are also some hunters that live in the village.

 

There was no comment at all about what happens with innocent civilians, there was no comment. They did not talk about civilians sleeping in their homes who suddenly wake up because the army is in the village. [They left that for the] judgment [of the soldiers], like we are all big kids, the point is not to bother people. There was reference to the hunters who live in the village because the question came up, there was reference to "in case you are engaged," which is of course that the whole battalion changes the mission and the mission is the terrorists, or whoever does the shooting, and that's it.

 

The definition was -- this is an exercise in a real setting that also includes a planned military operation. Like high visibility planned operation whose goal is not to carry out a targeted assassination, but if we do engage [terrorists] then "hey, great." I can tell you that the brigade commander was saying like "so great, if there is an engagement, then I already did a kill in the exercise, good for me."

 

As early as the order stage people started raising eyebrows and saying... A lot of people raised eyebrows and it was not clear how this could be and what was going on, wait, do we go around with magazines or without magazines? What happens if you are suddenly engaged? Are these "cold" villages? Are these "hot" villages? Do we shout "fire fire" [as we do exercises instead of shooting] or what? Even in terms of the moment we go in and we actually don't want to bother them so we shout "fire fire," and go into houses? Right? There were a lot of questions and confusion and everybody felt... No... No... Something is wrong here. I can tell you that even our officers up to the level of company commander sort of raised their eyebrows and didn't know what to do but you see here that loyalty supersedes everything. When you're with people such a long time you know when a person is simply loyal and when he really believes in it.

 

There was somebody that went to talk to the brigade commander. His answer was something like "listen, it's..." In the order he said it too, "we are talking about... We don't have time for games, the army has to be ready," and on that point I agree to a certain extent, when you do such an exercise in real villages, you can't imagine it in any mock built-up training facility, surely not what we have in Israel. I mean it is the closest thing there is to the real thing, and I agree with it at that level, and I don't agree with the way the exercise... Okay, we will get to what I don't agree with in a minute. But [the brigade commander] said the idea is to really provide a real setting, to really perform a planned operation, it still is villages and somebody is holding the line there and somebody is carrying out a planned operation -- a planned operation can be low-visibility which is "hush-hush," arrests, ambushes, or a high-visibility operation that also has a purpose -- to make noise and to say we are in charge here, that is also a kind of preventive operation. So they told us "this is a kind of high-visibility operation," except that an entire brigade going into a village is not high-visibility -- it is much more. High visibility is to go into the middle of the village with a Jeep and a flashing blue light, or to do patrols, or for four people to go and talk out loud -- that is a high-visibility activity. To put up manual lighting... not an attacking battalion. That's it, and then we started to understand.

 

The order was over and people went to bed, and I saw it... starting from the level of the orders from the company commanders, who were squirming and giving those answers... And even at the level of the battalion commander with all the company commanders... And it isn't clear, it isn't clear. I remember the guys were joking and saying hey lets call [TV] Channel 2 [news], let's call Channel 2, like... but you know you are in reserve service, that's how it is...

 

The exercise was on Wednesday night, between the 20th and the 21st or between the 21st and the 22nd, no, between the 20th and 21st I think. If I'm not mistaken it was between the 21st and the 22nd, in reserves you lose your sense of time.

 

There were some other mishaps there -- you take guys from civilian life who need time to make the switch, it's not... true -- we are combat soldiers -- in the [Lebanon] war we were all called up and when you have to make the switch you make the switch but this is a line... There was a drop in tension after the war, there’s nothing to do about it, you take things more easily. It was very cold and it takes your body time to adjust to the temperature. When you are used to being in an office for half a year, after three days [in reserves] it is problematic. What happened? People went into a kind of apathy. They dragged us for about 12 km on a stony riverbed, which is a very difficult terrain. Anybody who walks knows, it ruins your feet.

 

So you take people who are not ready, grind them for 12 km, in conditions of cold that people are not used to, and by the time we got to the villages we were apathetic. We started walking at 9 p.m., and we enter the village -- the zero hour was 4 a.m. Three companies went to Beit Lid and one to Sarafin, which is a considerably smaller village.

 

We entered the villages on foot, no cars, no jeeps. There were vehicles for the covering force but not for [those who walked into] the villages. In the villages it was only walking, there was only infantry.

 

The exercise was shabby, and it wasn't shabby because we aren't good soldiers -- we have already done quite a lot of exercises that you wouldn't believe. The exercise was shabby because people were angry about the exercise, people were worn out from the walking, because it takes time to adjust, you can't help it, it was cold and the clothes stuck to you and you didn’t have... not clear at all. Suddenly you get to the village and you are confronted with "they're shooting at you from here, they’re shooting at you from there" and you're like "well okay." It looks sort of shabby. And it was also a disgrace the way we walked around there, and suddenly you're in the middle of a village shouting "fire fire fire." It looked so crazy, and I think the residents there got a heart attack.

 

There were residents who went to pray at those hours. There was no instruction on how to deal with them. Everybody is on guard, we are big kids, and we are not playing. So of course we did not do searches on them, we were very polite, we said "come through, just walk through." We let the residents go by and didn't search them, that was not the goal. The goal was to do an exercise.

 

The minute we met people on the street we said "wait a minute, we are in the middle of an exercise." There are some we told to walk by... old people. It's a problem. They were either apathetic or already used to it. They were very... didn't know what... it seems to me (laughs) we said "fire fire fire" and went around with stretchers like retards and I'm not sure they understood what was going on there. People woke up, lights went on in the houses. You can't help hearing a battalion go into the village. It is not three people.

 

There was shouting, we saw lights go on in the windows and people looking, and we said "it's okay, it's okay" but it's not... I think, first of all it is not ethical, second of all it does not contribute anything... A dangerous [exercise] -- both on the level of friendly fire and on the level of mishaps, if God forbid we really do engage. True, we are big kids and we are supposed to know how to handle it and everything, but this is no way to do it, what is this? Because there is no doubt that if they did engage us, they would have killed a few of us before we could react. Because we were not in a reaction mode, we were in an exercise mode, even though it may be a little bit more of an operational exercise, but it is still a mode of... You can't concentrate on the exercise and at the same time... You can't... It doesn't work... As per the order is the weapons were with no magazines in them, but if you engage [terrorists] you put in a magazine and load... That's why I say some of us would've been killed before we could react, I have no doubt of that, I have no doubt.

 

And nobody was assigned to security. That is a mishap. By the way, the fact that nobody was designated for security is our mishap, I think my own too. I should've got up and said "just a minute guys, wasn’t anybody assigned to security?" We should've asked that. I am not blaming the commanders for everything, but it is still the commanders' responsibility. Maybe the officers who led, maybe they were in “insert" position, but there is no chance that they were defined as security. If they were our security than woe is us. It is a miracle nothing happened, really, a miracle. Nothing physical happened, but who knows if something mental happened there in the village, that's the thing.

 

There was something that happened at the end, it was actually funny, after all the army understood, it learned a lesson [in Lebanon] that there was a problem in evacuating the wounded and I agree with that. So what did they do? "Okay, there are wounded, so let's make stretchers," so it was like evacuating on stretchers, now what was the problem with evacuating the wounded [in Lebanon]? The problem of securing the parameter, the problem of managing the event, not the problem of carrying the stretcher. Carrying a stretcher is not a problem, even if it is very, very hard for you, when your friend is on the stretcher you find... That is not the problem, but in order to check it off the list, like -- we learned lessons about evacuating the wounded -- here we really did do an evacuation with stretchers. So we went around the village with stretchers which looked unclear, now, if God forbid we would really get engaged I am afraid to think about how that would have ended. We were all glued together, we were concentrated in the exercise, nobody was defined as security, [there was not] someone to be told "you are not part of the exercise, you are securing the force." You know what -- if there were friendly fire -- God knows. A lot of forces spread out, after all when you take over a village it is not as if the whole force, let's say a force of 12 people, goes to a house and takes it over, it is a lot of teams in a lot of divisions in the whole village everywhere and suddenly there is shouting like you can't imagine, it is a miracle that it did not end with friendly fire, and that is what bothered us the most.

 

The exercise went on for about three hours. The zero hour was 4 a.m. and we went out at about 7 a.m. The instructions were to get out by 6:15 so that we wouldn't bother their lives, which is something... But you know, the army.

 

It was the first time I ever heard of such a thing [an exercise in a Palestinian village] and personally I think it is the first time it was done. I heard that a previous battalion from our brigade, that held the line before us, did this exercise and so is the next battalion that comes after us in the brigade supposed to do the exercise. We know this is something new in the army, something that wasn't done before. They told us that the exercise file is thick. That you need a lot of permits, lots and lots of permits. They needed lots of permits and finally they managed to convince whoever they needed to, I don't know the chain of permits on this issue. I can only imagine, but I know for sure that it is not at the level of the brigade commander.

 

I can say that after the exercise... Don't forget one of the goals of the exercise before going on an operational mission is to raise morale -- this exercise crushed morale. Everybody was like... the exercise was crummy, I don't remember such a crummy exercise ever. So morale was in the pits, we harassed a "cold" village which now might turn into a "hot" village because of it, and believe me that I don't believe, and if the third battalion gets there, I don't know... It's not clear... it is not acceptable, it is not ethical, even the officers raised their eyebrows about this... And if something had happened it would have been a disgrace, a mess, the damage would have been great. I'm afraid to think of what would happen, either bilateral shooting or an engagement, only God could help us. Was it worth it? Do you think it makes me more ready for war now? Not at all. Not from that.

 

I mean you take a group of people, you give them in order that everybody is surprised and angry about and everybody is like "what's going on?" And everybody knows... And this is completely my own speculation -- it is not a fact, that these are all political games, that the brigade commander wants to show -- "here I am thinking outside of the box and I'm special and I'm a hero" because in the war they made a movie about us that we were the only battalion that two months before the war really did do an exercise that was exactly like the war, and it is true -- we really did it, we were ready for the war like you wouldn't believe. It looks like [the brigade commander] wanted to show off and show how special he is and that is probably the only justification.

 

After the exercise I heard the battalion commander say "you know there is an elite unit that also wants to take this exercise file and do this kind of exercise and say...” Like it is cool, what enthusiasm, and I... Part of the reason I'm here is because you can't stop our [exercise] but I hope the others... We manufacture our own wars.

 

I heard the previous battalion also had a bad exercise. And what is most infuriating is that in the exercise summaries they give it PR as if it was an excellent exercise, an outstanding exercise, and that is what led me to believe it is politics and hot air.

 

It is wrong, it is more than wrong, it is one of the most shocking things I ever did in my service.

 

It is important for me for it to be understood that I don't feel I am a soldier of my battalion commander or my brigade commander and certainly not of my defense minister, I do reserves for my country, and people change but the country stays and if the people who now are my commanders do these things than I have no problem confronting them but... I am confronting the people because I think they are doing things that are wrong... But the country and everything... I am a real patriot. I always did reserves and I do reserves and I am prepared to die for my country and everything, I am not kidding... And by the way that is why I am giving my testimony anonymously, because it's clear to me that if this comes out I will not be in my company anymore and I will not be able to do reserves. Which is an issue in its own right... Maybe another time.