On Israel’s Memorial Day observances for “fallen soldiers and victims of terror attacks,” the Defense Ministry’s commemoration unit claimed that 183 Israelis “were killed in the line of duty or in terror attacks since last year’s Remembrance Day,” according to YNet. The number appears to represent a wild exaggeration that is inconsistent with past statistics documenting the number of Israeli soldiers killed annually in combat operations versus those who died by suicide or in accidents. In recent years, suicide has been either the leading cause or among the leading causes of deaths in the Israeli army.
While I was having lunch in Tel Aviv last summer with my friend Ruth Hiller, a founder of the Israeli anti-militarization group New Profile, she told me that around 50 percent of Israelis buried in military cemeteries had died through suicide, accidents or fratricide. I asked my roommate at the time, Yossi David, a left-wing Israeli blogger who had served in occupied Hebron, if Hiller’s figures were accurate. “All I know is that there were two suicides a month in my unit during training,” David said. “It happened all the time.”
In 1989, the Israeli army’s personnel department put the rate of suicides at 35 a year. By 2003, during the height of the Second Intifada, 43 Israeli soldiers died by suicide, making it the leading cause of death in the army. By 2010, suicide was on the rise again. During the first seven months of the year, 19 soldiers had killed themselves, a ten percent spike from the previous year. That number exceeded the number of deaths that occurred that year in combat operations.
In 2008, an Israeli border policeman committed suicide in front of French Prime Minister Nicholas Sarkozy. A young soldier shot himself last year after learning that his friend had committed suicide moments before. The phenomenon continues to plague the Israeli army despite Brigadier General Avi Zamir’s pledge in 2005 to “wage an all-out war on suicide by soldiers.”
The suicide rate has been particularly high among Ethiopian members of the Israeli army. By 1997, six years after an airlift brought the second wave of Ethiopian immigrants to Israel, Ethiopian soldiers accounted for 10 percent of army suicides — but comprised only four tenths of a percent of the army. Racism was a key factor in the epidemic. One soldier’s suicide note read: “Every morning when I get to the base, six soldiers are waiting for me who clap their hands and yell, `The kushi [black] is here.’”
During Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s last major combat operation, the army suffered its largest loss of life in an accidental incident of fratricide, when a tank shell killed three members of the Golani Brigade. This year, several Israeli troops died at the Gaza border when their comrades accidentally rained mortars down on their position.
40 Israeli prison guard cadets died weeks before in the Carmel Wildfire when their bus was trapped in the flames. The cadets presumably comprised the majority of the 70 “soldiers and civilians” whom the Israeli Army spokesman claimed (via Twitter) were “killed in operational duty and terror attacks since last Memorial Day.”
This post first appeared on Max Blumenthal's site.
Oh my God. Somebody rescue these poor kids from what their parents are pushing them into.
It’s not just Israelis, Chaos, American vets that served in unconscienable wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, where they made it a sport of killing natives like Israel does, have the same problems. Israel’s Memorial Day observance is another PR opportunity.
Stats from the US’ VA of a few years back:
Suicide Rates:
Veterans are more than twice as likely as non-veterans to commit suicide and the “Katz Suicide Study,” dated February 21, 2008, found that suicide rates among veterans are approximately 3 times higher than in the general population.
The VA’s own data indicate that an average of four to five veterans commit suicide each day.
A document from the VA Inspector General’s Office, dated May 10, 2007, indicates that the suicide rate among individuals in the VA’s care may be as high as 7.5 times the national average.
According to internal VA emails, there are approximately 1,000 suicide attempts per month among veterans seen in VA medical facilities.
The VA has hired suicide prevention counselors at each of its 153 medical centers to help support the national suicide prevention hotline.
PTSD:
Approximately 300,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars – nearly 20% of the returning forces – are likely to suffer from either PTSD or major depression, and these numbers continue to climb.
An additional 320,000 of the returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan may have experienced traumatic brain injuries during deployment.
link to veteransnewsroom.com
Israel has one of the lowest suicide rates in the world, including teens.
link to en.wikipedia.org
For some reason Blumenthal fails to report this salient fact.
Hey shloomper, what does that have to do with the army?
Hey Avi, didn’t you know that Israel invented the wheel and the internets (not Al Gore)?
If the IDF is contributing to teen suicide in Israel, how come the suicide rate is still much lower for teens in Israel than in the US?
Teens commit suicide, whether they are in the army or not. Blumenthal shows no causality and not a single piece of evidence that shows that Israel’s teen suicide rate is elevated because of the IDF.
Gosh “eee” how do you suppose Max Blumenthal gets away with spouting facts which are completely so untrue?
While you, who have the truth on every subject, is unmercifully censored! Oy, anti-Semitism rears its ugly head!
“wage an all-out war on suicide by soldiers.”
Yep, I am sure that will help. Not.
“The suicide rate has been particularly high among Ethiopian members of the Israeli army. … One soldier’s suicide note read: “Every morning when I get to the base, six soldiers are waiting for me who clap their hands and yell, `The kushi [black] is here.’”
This is tolerant. liberal, Israel, right?
Mmmm, wonder what they say to each other when they see a photo of Obama & Bibi together?
What Zio was it that said ‘kushi’ wasn’t a racist slang word?
Clearly it can be used in a racist and hateful connotation. The Ethiopian felt that way. Leave it to a European Zionist Jew to speak for a Black person though.
Yup, I had friends and colleagues who shot themselves during their service. I myself got some relief from my commanding officers by making repeat appointments with my unit’s psychologists and petitions to be discharged from the army :D
I think the statistic back then was around 50-60 suicidees a year.
Though I must admit at the time I chalked it up to youth and hormones and not to the experience of being a soldier.
this is unsurprising. their are very few people who can kill others in cold blood and not suffer for it mentally. their is a reason militaries dehumanize the enemy. it to protect their soldiers mentally.
>> … Brigadier General Avi Zamir’s pledge in 2005 to “wage an all-out war on suicide by soldiers.”
“wage an all-out war on suicide” – what a zinger! Too bad he didn’t also pledge to “conduct surgical strikes on depression”. *rolleyes*
>> The phenomenon continues to plague the Israeli army despite Brigadier General Avi Zamir’s pledge …
I think this is because Mr. Zamir forgot to threaten to “cut off the hands of suicide by soldiers”. That would have straightened everything out immediately. :-D
“wage an all-out war on suicide”
With white phosphorus and cluster bombs?
“…In 2008, an Israeli border policeman committed suicide in front of French Prime Minister Nicholas Sarkozy…”
Again, after seeing the film “Defamation” — I feel the need to question the MSM story: an Israeli policeman commiting suicide, or dying on a suicide mission?
If I was a security officier having to handle the security detail of a foreign dignitary wanting to visit Israel — I would have to be really concerned with the obvious lack of psychological profiling being done on Israeli soldiers and police men and women especially when it comes to visiting dignitaries, who have an interest in the Palestinian plight.
And to cap it all — American Jewish synogogues (and Christian Zionists) are fuelling the indoctrination that could be contributing to these kids inner conflicts.