The Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army, Aviv Kochavi, announced on Wednesday that he would not allow any politician of the right or left to interfere in the army’s decisions.
This came in a statement published by the army on Twitter, after the leader of the right-wing “Jewish Force”, Itamar Ben Gvir, criticized disciplinary sanctions imposed by the army on two soldiers who assaulted Israeli and Palestinian activists in Hebron last week.
“We will not allow any politician, neither from the right nor from the left, to interfere in the decisions of the leadership and use the army to promote a political agenda,” Kochavi said.
He added, “Political interference in the Israeli army directly harms the army’s ability to carry out its tasks and its legitimacy.”
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“Slandering leaders for political reasons is a slippery slope that we as a society must not go down,” Kochavi added.
And he added, “Soldiers, commanders and members of their families have many rights, and they must refrain from any political discourse.”
The Army Chief of Staff stressed that “only the commanders determine the rules and the way to deal with incidents in their units.”
He pointed out that the events that the Israeli army might face “are devoid of any political consideration, and even if mistakes occurred, they must be clarified within the army and the appropriate frameworks.”
The Israeli army concluded in an investigation that “the soldiers acted with erroneous judgment and contrary to expectations, using unnecessary physical and verbal violence.”
The army added, in a statement obtained by Anadolu Agency: “A soldier is not allowed to express himself in a hostile manner or to express a political position.”
A videotape showed one of the soldiers saying: “Ben Gvir will come and impose order here,” meaning in Hebron.
It is expected that Ben Gvir, who hails from the “Kiryat Arba” settlement in Hebron, will assume the national security portfolio in the government that Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu is forming.
The Ministry of National Security in Israel is responsible for the police and border guards in the West Bank, in addition to the National Guard forces.
