IDF chief to soldiers: You don’t need a law to tell you to be humane

IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi says the fear of criminal prosecution should not be the only reason why soldiers refrain from actions like those that led to the death last month of a 78-year-old Palestinian man, Omar Asad, who suffered heart failure after being bound, gagged and blindfolded at a construction site in the middle of the night by soldiers.

“You don’t need a law to tell you not to leave an 80-year-old man in the cold during operational activity, and it doesn’t matter if the man is 80 or 18. You need discretion, values, and humanity, and that doesn’t require a law,” Kohavi says.

“The responsibility for the Israel Defense Forces’ norms and values belong to our commanders and all the way down to the last soldier, and of course from the chain of command. We demand that our commanders lead with these values without needing the signposts of a court system. Of course, we need [a court system], but the responsibility for the norms and values of the Israel Defense Forces is ours, the commanders,” he adds.