Hannibal directive

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The Hannibal Directive ( Hebrew נוהל חניבעל, נֹהַל חַנִיבַּעַל Nohal Ḥanibaʿal , literally Hannibal procedure ) is a secret and controversial directive of the Israeli army , which regulates the action of the troops, if Israeli soldiers get into enemy captivity .

Content of the directive

Israeli censorship banned journalists from reporting on the directive for seventeen years, and its exact content is still not entirely clear.

Finally, in 2003, Haaretz reported that, from the army's point of view, a dead soldier was better than a captured soldier who was suffering and could force the state to exchange thousands of prisoners in order to obtain his release.

According to the "Hannibal Directive", Israeli commanders and soldiers are apparently required to do everything in their power to prevent capture, even if this results in the death of the prisoner. The prisoner himself is allegedly also urged not to be captured alive and, in extreme cases, to kill himself and his kidnappers with hand grenades.

After the application of the "Hannibal Directive" in Rafah in the Gaza Strip at the beginning of August 2014, the directive was interpreted to mean that the Israeli army must do everything possible to kill the Israeli prisoner if it cannot free him immediately.

application

Israeli soldier Hadar Goldin went missing during the attack by the Israeli army on Hamas, which ruled the Gaza Strip, in July and August 2014. After Hamas sources reported the successful kidnapping of an Israeli soldier, the army assumed it had been kidnapped. When the "Hannibal Directive" was applied in early August 2014, a massive attack with tank ammunition, artillery fire and air strikes "to isolate the area where Goldin was suspected", 130 to 150 Palestinians were killed, most of them civilians numerous women and children who had not been warned of the massive attack. According to military sources, it was the most aggressive operation of this type by the Israeli army to date. It later emerged that Goldin had been killed in the first firefight. Amnesty International and a team of researchers from Forensic Architecture produced a report based on interviews with eyewitnesses and video and photo recordings, from which the researchers concluded that the Israeli Army's Hannibal Directive had been excessively applied. The Israeli military withdrew the directive in 2016 following public allegations and internal investigations into what was known as Black Friday. It has been replaced by an order that distinguishes between kidnapping soldiers during and outside of combat hours.

criticism

Some commanders refused to explain the "Hannibal Directive" to their troops because they considered it to be obviously illegal.

Uri Miśgav called the “Hannibal Directive” a “monstrosity” (מפלצתיות) and “ cannibalism ” (קניבליזם).

Forensic Architecture's documentary on Black Friday was shown as the film Hannibal in Rafah in 2016 at the Berlinale.

literature

  • Gili Cohen: Dozens of innocents killed in IDF's 'Hannibal' protocol . In: Haaretz , August 4, 2014.
  • Anshel Pfeffer: The Hannibal Directive: Why Israel risks the life of the soldier being rescued . In: Haaretz , August 4, 2014.
  • Amos Harel, Gili Cohen: What happened in Gaza's Rafah on 'Black Friday'? . In: Haaretz , August 8, 2014.
  • Uri Miśgav: מצוק איתן לסגן איתן: דוקטרינת חניבעל נחשפת במלוא היקפה . In: Haaretz , August 11, 2014.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ Margalit 2014, Pfeffer 2014.
  2. ↑ Leibovich-Dar 2003.
  3. ↑ שרה ליבוביץ-דר: דילמת השבוי. May 20, 2003, accessed August 2, 2014 (Hebrew). Sara Leibovich-Dar: The Hannibal Procedure. May 21, 2003, accessed August 1, 2014 .
  4. ↑ Uri Avnery ; Ellen Rohlfs (ex.): Hannibal's procedure. In: AG Peace Research . May 25, 2003, accessed August 2, 2014 .
  5. ↑ Ulrike Putz: Gaza conflict: Israel's delicate Hannibal directive. July 21, 2014, accessed August 1, 2014 .
  6. ^ Anshel Pfeffer: Hamas claims its prize and deepens its isolation. August 1, 2014, accessed August 1, 2014 .
  7. ↑ Cohen 2014, Zavadski in 2014, Harel / Cohen 2014, Haaretz of 2004.
  8. ↑ Lizzie Dearden: Israel accused of killing 75 children during the day of 'carnage' and war crimes in Gaza war . Independent, July 29, 2015, accessed July 15, 2018
  9. ^ Strong Evidence 'of Israeli War Crimes in Gaza, Says New Amnesty Report . Newsweek, July 29, 2015, accessed July 15, 2018
  10. ↑ Raf Sanchez: Israel ends the 'Hannibal Directive' - military policy to kill your own troops rather than let them be captured . Telegraph, June 29, 2016, accessed July 15, 2018
  11. ^ Gili Cohen: The IDF Wanted to Investigate a Key Moment in the Gaza War. Netanyahu Said No. In: Haaretz from July 13, 2017, accessed on September 24, 2018 (English)
  12. ↑ Miśgav 2014.
  13. ↑ Hannibal in Rafah: A reconstruction of one bloody day in the 2014 Gaza War from user generated videos . Film data sheet Berlinale, accessed on July 15, 2018