Yet another witness in the court-martial of an Israel Defense Force colonel has implicated former Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the beatings of Palestinians.
Capt. Victor Sudhai, who took the witness stand Tuesday at the trial of Col. Yehuda Meir in Tel Aviv, was the latest of several IDF officers who named Rabin as the source of their instructions to “break the bones” of stone-throwers.
Meir is on trial for issuing such orders to his troops in Beita and Huwara villages, near Nablus, in January 1988, about a month after the intifada broke out. The defense contends he was following explicit instructions from the IDF high command, which originated with Rabin.
Sudhai quoted the former minister as saying, “I want you to catch stone-throwers and break their arms and legs, but not their heads.”
Rabin has flatly denied allegations that he gave such orders.
Addressing the Foreign Press Association in Tel Aviv on July 4, he said there was no evidence to support such charges, should he ever have to answer before a commission of inquiry.
Rabin explained that in the early days of the intifada, the IDF borrowed police riot-control tactics. Troops were ordered to storm the rioters, “beating them with fists and batons, not to punish them but to hurt them and force them to cease their assault,” Rabin said.
But according to Sudhai, the defense minister visited his unit in Ramallah on Jan. 19, 1988, and told him directly, “The hand that threw the stone must be broken.”
Meir’s trial is concerned with the events of that day. Another witness, Capt. Ran Falah, a former platoon commander in the Golani Brigade, related that in mid-January 1988, his unit was sent to the Amari refugee camp on the outskirts of Ramallah to arrest suspects on the wanted list.
“We tied up the people, we mounted them on buses and drove them away from the village,” Falah said. “The commander said that after we arrest them we should beat them up a little and release them.”
According to Falah, he acted on his instructions, “mostly kicking them.” He said he heard other units had the same orders.
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