IDF officer barred from promotion for three years after assault on leftists, Palestinians

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The Israeli officer who assaulted left-wing Israeli and Palestinian activists last month will not be promoted for the next three years, the Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit announced Sunday.

The military released conclusions from its investigation of the officer, Moshe Maor, which revealed that he attacked left-wing protesters and Palestinian activists on two different occasions in the West Bank’s Hebron Hills area.

The probe, which was conducted by the chief of the Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fuchs, stated: “The officer acted in both episodes in a matter that does not conform to expectations.”

In the first incident, Maor, a deputy battalion commander in the Engineering Corps, was caught on video pushing a left-wing activist from the anti-occupation group Combatants for Peace. The activist had come to the scene along with dozens of Israelis and Palestinians to bring a water tank to a local family. In its investigation of the case, the IDF said that the officer would be reprimanded.

An Israeli officer pushes his knee against the head of an activist in the South Hebron Hills, last month.

In the second incident, which occurred after the reprimand, Maor was filmed pushing a Palestinian in the village of al-Mufqara in the southern Hebron Hills. The event took place as dozens of masked settlers threw stones at Palestinians, who in response also hurled stones at settlers, slightly injuring three of them.

The investigation by Fuchs determined that in both incidents, “mistakes were made in the use of force and operational management.” As a consequence, for the next three years, Maor will not be allowed to attend a course for senior officers at the army’s Command and Staff College. According to the IDF, the officer acted wrongly in both incidents, “and especially in the second incident, in light of the fact that his commanders had already shown him the gaps in his conduct in the first incident.”

The probe published by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit last month stated that Maor would be reprimanded since he “made a mistake and acted in a matter not required by the situation and not conforming to IDF norms.” During the incident, soldiers assaulted Israelis and Palestinians who had come to the area to bring a water tank to a local community, injuring six of them. The IDF claimed that the activists had tried to block the entrance to the nearby outpost and had attacked the soldiers.

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The IDF’s statement also said that the use of stun grenades and tear gas grenades by the soldiers had been a mistake, and so had blindfolding one of the protesters who had been arrested. The investigation also stressed that in general, when Israeli citizens are involved, the police and the Border Police should be involved. “Friction and contact between IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians should only occur when there is no choice,” the report stated.

Combatants for Peace responded: “The army’s decision to suspend promoting the violent officer caught last week abusing Palestinians and striking human rights activists is a mockery and silent consent to violence. The violent deputy battalion commander should be severely punished, but he is not operating in a vacuum, rather with the knowledge that this is [in] the spirit of the commander and the political leadership. The investigation and minimal punishment cannot cover the embarrassing silence of Defense Minister [Benny] Gantz, on whose watch the hilltop youth run wild and settler violence increases.”