WATCH: IDF officer pins disobedient soldier to the ground
IDF says no criminal investigation will be launched against battalion commander after initial probe shows he was trying to prevent three Givati cooks from abandoning their posts in the West Bank and returning home for the weekend, leaving combat soldiers without hot food.
The lieutenant colonel and battalion commander was reprimanded for his conduct after the incident by the IDF and the Military Police decided against launching a criminal investigation.
The incident took place one week ago in a settlement in the West Bank near to a military post between Nablus and Qalqilya. According to soldiers present, the skirmish erupted after three soldiers attempted to go home despite the fact that they were forbidden from doing so on a weekend all their comrades were to remain on the base.
The officer caught the soldiers as they attempted to leave the post where they were stationed. After disobeying the officer’s command that they stay put, the officer eventually grabbed one of the soldiers which led to the physical altercation.
Throughout the short clip, the pinned-down soldier can be heard shouting and repeatedly telling the officer to release him, complaining that his jaw was in pain.
The officer tells the soldier that he will get into a vehicle and “will not escape” as the soldier replies by refusing the order.
The video was passed on to the military criminal investigation division (CID) which decided not to take the matter further than a reprimand.
According to an initial internal investigation, the unit remained on duty last weekend and one of the unit’s cooks was among those caught trying to leave without permission.
The soldier, along with two other cooks, attempted to leave the post and make their way to the bus stop nearby.
After being spotted by a commander, the officer was called to the scene and arrived minutes later. After attempts to convince the soldiers to return to his post failed, the officer promised that he would speak to them in his office to solve whatever problem they may have been facing. He also reminded them that they bore responsibility for the unit’s soldiers.
Realizing that the soldiers were not heeding his warnings or commands, and with the bus approaching, the officer called the master sergeant and asked him to send a military police vehicle to the scene.
Arriving late, the battalion commander sought advice on the phone of a military police officer and asked whether he was allowed to employ physical force in order to prevent the soldiers from going home.
At that point, the officer pinned one of the cooks to the ground and prevented him from leaving. The officer did not hit or kick the soldier. By the end of the incident, the cook managed to go home and has yet to return to base. His two friends returned to the post for a private conversation with the officer.
During the investigation, the battalion commander said that he acted for the sake of the unit’s soldiers so that they would not be left without cooks and without hot food during the weekend. Moreover, he said that he had hoped to prevent further punishment being meted out against the cooks.
