Great Falls Tribune · 5 July 1979

CP-1979-036

Israeli politician says soldiers were told to kill Palestinians

Scan 860 × 1942 pixels

Transcribed from the clipping

Editor's Note: Portions of the following story were deleted by the Israeli military censor. JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli soldiers on a massive anti-guerrilla invasion of southern Lebanon last year apparently were ordered to shoot suspected guerrillas on sight and not to take prisoners, an Israeli parliament member claimed Wednesday.

The assertion by Meir Pail of the small leftwing Sheli Party came during a debate of no-confidence in Prime Minister Menachem Begin's government in the context of new allegations of misconduct during the “Litani Operation” — the three-month occupation of southern Lebanon that began in March 1978.

The Knesset, or parliament, easily defeated the motion by a 54-4 vote with 25 abstentions. Pail's party had demanded the government's ouster for failing to fire Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Raphael Eytan after he reduced the sentence of a paratroop lieutenant convicted of murdering Arab prisoners.

Pail said Eytan had not exceeded his legal authority by reducing the lieutenant's eight-year prison term to two years, but he charged the army commander had used poor judgment in a case of a war crime.

Pail told the Knesset: “If I put this on the background that orders have been given, apparently also during the Litani Operation, not to take prisoners, meaning to kill them, and if it is true that during the Litani Operation orders were given that every armed person should be shot at once and not taken prisoner,” then the government is not enforcing standing orders “and is not fit to govern.”

Pail later told The Associated Press orders to shoot on sight apparently came from field commanders, and violated the army's fighting code. “I don't know who gave the orders, but orders were given not to take prisoners,” he said.

In another allegation in the growing scandal, Pail asserted a top general pressed Eytan to grant clemency to the lieutenant because the general's daughter was the young officer's girl friend. Pail later named the general as Maj. Gen. Danny Matt, in charge of the Israeli-occupied territories captured in 1967.

Pail conceded he had no proof Matt's intervention was behind Eytan's controversial decision. In a report that created a national furor earlier this year, the state comptroller blasted the army for lack of discipline that cost an undisclosed number of lives during the Litani Operation.

The incident in which the unidentified lieutenant killed two Arab prisoners was banned from publication for more than a year by military censors, and details of the incident are still under censorship. Pail said earlier reports that four prisoners were killed were inaccurate. The first public acknowledgement of the affair came during a Knesset debate on censorship Monday.

The censors, apparently by mistake, failed to strike the information from the Knesset record. Two army censors sat in the visitors' gallery during Wednesday's two-hour debate. Without prompting from the army officers, Knesset speaker Yitzhak Shamir ordered one sentence of Pail's speech struck from the protocol when he named the officer involved in the case.

How this transcription was made

The paper is Maria’s identification from her slide label, recorded 2 November 2026. No masthead, folio or credit line appears on the clipping. Masthead not readable on the scan. The label on the slide read: UNCONFIRMED by masthead — Maria's slide label pairs this slide as “The Post-Star Jan 10 1978 / Great Falls Tribune July 5 1979”, and this is the GREAT FALLS TRIBUNE item, the SECOND label, applied to the FIRST image. — ORDER REVERSED ON THIS SLIDE, the same way slide 81 is reversed. Maria's labels run chronologically (1978 then 1979) but the images run reverse-chronologically (1979 then 1978). s097_1 is the 1979 Montana paper and s097_2 is the 1978 one. Position-based mapping of labels to images fails on at least two slides in this batch.

Cite this clipping

More from Great Falls Tribune

• 70 Arabs Slain in PalestineGreat Falls Tribune · 10 December 1947
• Martial Law Ordered by Arab LeaderGreat Falls Tribune · 11 March 1948
• Palestinian killed by IsraelisGreat Falls Tribune · 3 July 1972
• Breakout from GazaGreat Falls Tribune · 24 January 2008
• Yes: Palestinian state would benefit Israel, advance peaceGreat Falls Tribune · 4 March 2008
• No: End-of-term effort undermines U.S. anti-terror messageGreat Falls Tribune · 4 March 2008
• 1 more from this paper in the full text →

More from the 1970s

• Dayan warns Arabs in Israel and the territoriesThe New York Times · 24 January 1979
• SIX ARAB STUDENTS IN ISRAEL CONFINEDThe New York Times · 27 January 1979
• Are Israelis guilty of systematic torture? Perhaps, U.S. reports cautiously suggestHonolulu Advertiser · 7 February 1979
• Colony for U.S. Jews Is Approved by IsraelThe New York Times · 8 February 1979
• Israel Denies Torture of ArabsThe New York Times · 8 February 1979
• WritersDes Moines Register · 11 March 1979
• All 338 clippings from the 1970s →