The Golani Brigade officer who entered Syria with out permission and ended up killing Syrians is more likely to be discharged from the military within the wake of an investigation by Haaretz.
Lt. Man Eliahu, a squad commander in Golani’s reconnaissance unit, shall be summoned by the top of the military’s Northern Command to debate his continued service within the Israel Protection Forces. Throughout this dialog, Maj. Gen. Amir Baram is extensively anticipated to inform Eliahu that his military profession is over.
>> Elite Israeli troops went on a rogue op inside Syria. The result was deadly
Except for the Syria incident, Eliahu’s squad additionally slashed the tires of Palestinian cars in Nablus, and three of his troopers had been killed in an accident on Freeway 6 after he violated security laws. Furthermore, after their deaths, he cast a doc to keep away from testifying within the trial of the motive force who hit their convoy.
Senior military officers who learn the Haaretz report about the elite troops who went on a rogue operation inside Syria additionally wish to assessment the best way senior officers – commanders of each the reconnaissance battalion and the brigade – handled all these incidents. It’s not but clear how that assessment shall be carried out.
As Haaretz reported, Eliahu’s unit entered Syria without permission, went to a constructing the place Syrians who posed no risk to Israel had been current and demanded that they arrive out. An alternate of gunfire ensued, and two or three Syrians had been killed.
“It may simply have ended with troopers being kidnapped or with troopers’ our bodies [ending up] in Lebanon or in Tehran,” a supply acquainted with the incident mentioned.
Golani troops prepare within the Golan Heights. Credit score: Gil Eliahu
Nonetheless, the brigade determined to hush up the story. It didn’t conduct an in-depth inquiry into the troopers’ unauthorized entry into Syria, nor did it take any measures in opposition to these concerned.
Each the incident and the whitewash proved to be a part of a sample. Eliahu and his troopers repeatedly ignored operational laws and received concerned in troubling incidents, but their superiors, as much as and together with the brigade commander, stored turning a blind eye.
“He’s an officer with no inhibitions,” mentioned a supply acquainted with Eliahu’s squad. “It’s not clear why the commanders ignored his actions – a few of which border on felony offenses – over time.”
Eliahu’s unit was concerned in a deadly accident in February 2018, when a truck driver crashed right into a army convoy that had stopped on the facet of Freeway 6, killing three members of the squad. In March, Haaretz reported that there had been issues with Eliahu’s conduct each earlier than and after the accident.
Even the military’s inquiry into the accident concluded that Eliahu had exceeded his authority and violated security laws. Nonetheless, the brigade commander, Col. Shai Kelfer, despatched him to an organization commanders’ course on the Tactical Command School.
Then, when Eliahu was known as to testify on the driver’s trial, he submitted a doc ostensibly signed by his commander on the school saying he couldn’t testify as a result of he needed to take part in an train that day. However no such train ever befell, and actually, Eliahu was on trip that day.
Kelfer put him on disciplinary trial for forging the doc and sentenced him to 21 days in jail, of which seven had been suspended. Later, the commander of the army schools, Maj. Gen. Itai Virov, diminished the sentence to per week for “private causes.”
After that accident, Eliahu’s unit was despatched to Nablus to conduct nighttime arrests. The following day, Israel’s Civil Administration within the West Financial institution obtained videotapes exhibiting the troopers vandalizing Palestinian automobiles.
Lt. Col. Shimon Siso.
The commander of the reconnaissance battalion, Lt. Col. Shimon Siso, ordered an inquiry, and as soon as Eliahu realized the incident had been filmed, he confessed to permitting his troopers “to let off steam.” They needed to avenge themselves on Arabs, he mentioned, as a result of the motive force of the truck that killed their comrades was a Palestinian from East Jerusalem.
But Siso neither punished Eliahu himself nor referred the case to the army prosecution. Some troopers and officers, livid on the determination, then introduced the problem to the eye of the brigade commander at the moment, Shlomi Binder. However he, too, determined to not punish Eliahu.