4 Israel Soldiers Convicted of Brutality in Arab’s Death

Four Israeli soldiers Thursday were acquitted of manslaughter in the beating death of a Palestinian refugee but were found guilty of a lesser charge of brutality.

A military judge hearing the case decided that because the Palestinian was later beaten again, by unidentified soldiers, the responsibility for his death cannot be determined.

The judge, Col. Emmanuel Gross, issued a 100-page opinion in which he harshly criticized the army, saying that an order given to the soldiers to beat stone throwers was illegal. In any event, he ruled, the soldiers exceeded their orders.

“The order given to them was manifestly illegal,” Gross said. “The beating of someone who disturbs order for the purpose of deterrence is not a military need. It is punishment.”

Poor Investigation

He said the investigation into the incident had been poorly conducted and that it is doubtful that the soldiers who administered the fatal beating can be identified.

“The investigation . . . was incomplete and not sufficiently professional,” he said. “ . . . In our opinion, the prosecutors rushed into drawing conclusions and putting the accused on trial for the grave offense of manslaughter.”

The four soldiers are to be sentenced next month, Israel government radio said. The maximum punishment for brutality is three years’ imprisonment.

Thursday’s verdict climaxed the most controversial case to date of alleged military abuse against Palestinians. Light punishment meted out in other instances has prompted human rights groups and the U.S. State Department to argue that Israel deals leniently with such cases.

Moral Erosion Feared

The Israel Defense Forces, proud of their record as defenders of the nation’s borders and its moral values, have been torn by criticism of their role in suppressing the Arab uprising in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Several high-ranking officers have warned of moral erosion in the ranks as troops are put into an unaccustomed police role.

The trial of the four soldiers--the Givati case, it has been called, after the Givati Brigade to which they belong--began last October. It followed a long investigation into the death of Shahani Shami, in his 40s, who was beaten earlier that year by the four soldiers after they broke into his Gaza Strip home pursuing two of his sons. He lived in the Jabaliya refugee camp.

Among the witnesses at the trial was Lt. Gen. Dan Shomron, the military chief of staff, who testified that orders given troops were generally concise but that there were “gray areas” that allowed soldiers to use their own judgment.

Early in the Arab uprising, which began in December, 1987, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin authorized troops to beat protesters and rioters under a policy of “force, beatings and blows.”

In their defense, the four soldiers--1st Sgt. Yitzhak Adler and Pvts. Yitzhak Kibbudi, Aryeh Luchato and Ron Hakhel--cited specific orders telling them to pummel stone throwers. They said they beat Shami because he was shouting and drawing a crowd to the house. They admitted beating him with rifle butts and broomsticks. One of the soldiers jumped from a bed onto his chest.

Doctor Acquitted

If the defendants had been convicted of manslaughter, they could have been sent to prison for up to 20 years. The judge also acquitted a military doctor, David Nussam, of negligence related to his treatment of the injured Palestinian.

Conviction on the lesser charge dovetails with an emerging pattern of military discipline: Soldiers are occasionally blamed for exceeding orders but not for killing.

Four other soldiers were brought to trial recently for beating to death an Arab youth last year, also in the Gaza Strip. The four were charged with causing “severe injury.” Prosecutors said they could not bring more severe charges because an hour elapsed between the time that the victim, Iyad Aqel, was beaten and his arrival at a hospital.

Border police involved in the slayings of five Palestinians in the West Bank village of Nahhalin haven’t been charged with any offense in court, even though an army investigation concluded that they used “excessive fire” in a nighttime raid on the village.

So far, the most severe punishment meted out in the Nahhalin incident was the transfer of the officers and policemen involved, plus a reprimand for a superior.

Execution Alleged

Last month, Amnesty International, the London-based Human Rights organization, charged that Israeli soldiers summarily executed a 26-year-old Palestinian activist during a roundup last year.

According to an Amnesty International statement, the activist, Atwah Lufti Umar Hirzallah, and three other people were approached by two soldiers in the West Bank village of Deir Ibzi and, “on orders from the soldiers, the youths raised their hands. One soldier turned a flashlight on the four, then focused it on Hirzallah.”

The other soldier, the human rights group said, “then shot him with an M-16 rifle at almost point-blank range. . . .”

Amnesty International said it sent Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir a telex message expressing concern “that the evidence available suggested that Hirzallah may have been summarily executed by Israeli soldiers.”

Also last month, Amnesty International accused the Israeli government of effectively encouraging troops to kill or wound Palestinians in the intifada , as the uprising is called in Arabic.

The Israeli army has investigated about 600 crimes allegedly committed by military forces during the intifada , from theft to causing bodily injury to killings, an army spokesman said.

About 55 people have been brought to trial, and 37 cases have been decided, including 19 that involved death by shooting or beating, the spokesman said. The maximum sentence imposed so far was a year and a half in prison.

In violence Thursday, Israeli troops killed an Arab protester and wounded 11 at the Jabaliya camp when stone throwers attacked an Israeli vehicle carrying troops, Gaza hospitals reported.