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.

He said the army is deliberating about the revelations.

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 persecution 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, who spoke to Aljazeera.net on condition of anonymity, 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.

“Israeli soldiers are ordered to do things that go against their moral values ... and they are left with this terrible burden which evolves into depression and eventually leads to suicide"” Israeli peace activist

"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."

Last month, a number of former conscripts who had just finished their army service in the southern West Bank town of Hebron, described vividly the manner in which they mistreated and humiliated Palestinian civilians.

The group set up a photo exhibition opposite the Defence Ministry complex in Tel Aviv, featuring graphic pictures of ordinary Palestinians being tormented, often in a sadistic manner, by occupation soldiers.

The Israeli army tried unsuccessfully to prevent the exhibition on the grounds that it tarnished its image and undermined "the war on terror".

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.

	Troops have also borne the brunt of Palestinian resistance attacks

Mounting toll

To be sure, a majority of Israelis regard the refuseniks and their supporters as "traitors" and "Hamas lovers".

None the less, a growing and increasingly vocal minority of Israeli intellectuals and citizens back them, arguing that "conscientious objectors" in the armed forces represent the "the Jewish people's true moral ideal" of "not doing unto others what one wouldn't others to do unto you".

Since the outbreak of the present intifada in September 2000, the Israeli army and paramilitary Jewish settlers have killed more than 3400 Palestinians, a majority of them innocent civilians, including some 640 children and minors.

Thousands of others have been injured, many of them disabled for life.

During the same period, as many 950 Israeli soldiers, settlers and civilians have been killed by armed Palestinian fighters, including human bombers.

Aljazeera