![]() ![]() He stands in the place where not only Ben-Gurion stood, but where Moses, too, stood. Nations other than Israel are a "world of robots without souls." In classic fascist fashion, he stated that in war the most "sublime things in man appear." He seems to believe that he is the Messiah, saying his mission is "to save the people of Israel and the State of Israel." Such a leader, Eitam said, "also leads the Jewish people. In a long interview with the Israeli daily Haaretz, Eitam called Palestinian citizens of Israel a "ticking bomb" and a "cancer" (" Dear God, this is Effi", 20 March 2002). In 2002-04 he held several cabinet-level portfolios in the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, including minister of housing and construction, a post he used to accelerate settlement in the Golan Heights, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. ![]() Elected to the Knesset in February 2003, he helped form the National Religious Party and the Renewed Religious National Zionist Party. Shortly thereafter, Eitam resigned from the army, but his career flourished. As a nation we are inhibited" ( "Eitam quits IDF", The Jerusalem Post, 27 December 2000). We have a problem of having the will to do this. ![]() conquer Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip and expel the population there overnight. He called Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat "a miserable murderer," attacked the government for sharing control of Jerusalem, and proposed a new Nakba, or dispossession: the Israeli army "can tomorrow. Chafing at the slight, Eitam gave an incendiary anti-Oslo lecture at Bar-Ilan University. In December 2000, after Rabin's death, Barak's successor Shaul Mofaz refused to promote Eitam to the general staff. Nevertheless, when Ehud Barak became Rabin's general staff chief, he promoted Eitam to brigadier general. The Jerusalem Post quotes sources suggesting that his likely appeal to Israel's high court of any conviction might have implicated his higher-ups, including Rabin, in the beatings and murders ( "Effi Fein Reprimanded to Prevent Him Appealing to Supreme Court", 19 July 1992). Then, on 13 July 1992, Rabin became prime minister, and three days later, Eitam got off with a reprimand and a recommendation against promotion. Still, he received no judgment for almost two years. ![]() The army judges found that Eitam's "violent behavior became the norm, and was taken as an example by those under his command" ("Soldier Sentenced for Palestinian Beatings," Associated Press, 31 October 1990 "Givati Commander Denies Telling Men to 'Break Bones'", The Jerusalem Post, 23 February 1990 "Givati 4 Are Convicted", The Jerusalem Post, 2 October 1990). He admitted driving around Gaza with four batons in his jeep, including a shatter-proof, non-regulation knout made of thick rope. In 1990, an Israeli court martial convicted these soldiers of assault, reduced their ranks, gave suspended sentences to three, and sentenced the fourth to two months ("Soldier jailed for intifada killing will sue Rabin," Guardian, 2 November 1990).Įitam's soldiers testified he had ordered and participated in the Givati beatings. Khalid Aqel survived his 21-year-old brother Ayyad died. They cuffed and blindfolded them, beat them for a while in their own home, then took them to a secluded olive grove, where they kicked and beat them for 20 minutes. On 7 February, he ordered four of them to break the bones of two brothers from al-Bureij refugee camp. According to the testimony of Israeli soldiers, Colonel Eitam relayed the message to his Givati Brigade, then occupying Gaza. In February 1988, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin discreetly told the Israeli army to break the bones of Palestinians rising up during the first Palestinian intifada. Hillel of Buffalo, New York, invited Eitam to speak at our campus, the University at Buffalo (UB), on the recommendation of UB Professor Ernest Sternberg, a board member of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East and a founder of its local campus chapter. Since Israel was founded, the JNF has organized the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the settlement of Jews on their expropriated land Eitam sees himself as the messianic soldier-prophet directing future expulsions of Palestinians from Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. They beat him to death.Įitam, who since then has held several senior posts in the Israeli government, has recently toured the US as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "Special Emissary" to the "Caravan for Democracy" program of the Jewish National Fund (JNF). Colonel Efraim (Fein) Eitam was only following orders when he told his troops to beat Ayyad Aqel in 1988. ![]()
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