ISRAEL ELÄKÖÖN - ISRAEL MUST LIVE!

Suicide now top killer of Israeli soldiers

For the first time, suicide has become the leading cause of death in the Israeli armed forces, according to an Israeli newspaper report.

Quoting statistics from Israeli army's rehabilitation division, the Hebrew daily Maariv said that in 2003, the number of Israeli soldiers who committed suicide was significantly higher than those killed during military incursions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

A total of 43 Israeli soldiers took their own lives last year compared to 30 soldiers killed in intifada-related hostilities, said the report.

This represents a 30% increase in the number of suicides over the 2002 figure of 31.

Additionally, in 2003, 32 Israeli soldiers died of various illnesses, 27 were killed in traffic accidents or during vacation and 10 died in traffic accidents while on duty.

Nine soldiers were killed during training and practice exercises and in course of military operations. A further eight soldiers died due to other reasons.

This year's suicide figure is just as disturbing. The newspaper said 15 Israeli soldiers have killed themselves in the first six months of 2004.


Soldiers psychologically scarred

The publication of the Maariv report appears to have taken the Israeli military by surprise. An army spokesman said the fatality figures may have been leaked by unauthorised sources within the army or the Ministry of Defence.

The Israeli army denies as a matter of course any connection between army "excesses" in the occupied territories and the phenomenon of suicides among soldiers.

Army sources routinely cite more mundane reasons such as emotional crises, bullying and percecution by superiors, and psychological depression.

However, it is widely believed that a significant number of the suicide cases are connected to soldiers' traumatic experiences in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

'Terrible burden'

An Israeli peace activist, said she believed many of the soldiers who went on to take their own lives, simply couldn't live with the moral burden of causing avoidable and unjustified deaths in the occupied Palestinian territories.

"They are ordered to do things that go against their moral values and when they do — because, after all, a good soldier is one who obeys orders, not one who thinks — they are left with this terrible burden which evolves into depression and eventually leads to suicide."





In another incident, which took place earlier this week, an army reserve soldier joined the small but growing list of so-called refuseniks opposed to the continued Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In a letter to his local recruitment officer explaining his reasons for disobeying orders to join his unit in the West Bank, Chaim Feldman accused the Israeli army of committing manifestly criminal acts against innocent Palestinians.

"My letter to you is short and concise. I have no intention of wearing the uniform of this organisation known as the Israeli Defence Forces which fires artillery shells on civilian crowds, including children and old people.

I see no reason why I should join this organisation."

The "conscientious objector" described the IDF as an organisation that defends "fascist settlers breaking the law and uprooting and burning olive trees".

Feldman is likely to be tried and imprisoned for disobeying orders and desertion.