In her June 26 letter (“Reporters should talk to actual Palestinians”), Toronto Star letter writer Elizabeth Block claimed that Israel does not hold its soldiers to account for their actions, but this is patently false.
What Block fails to mention is that even though she may not like the verdict in certain cases, Israel consistently holds its soldiers to account when they fail to live up to the high standards of Israel’s armed forces.
In the case of Omar Assad, an elderly Palestinian man who died under Israeli arrest in 2022, following an extensive investigation, two Israeli commanders faced reprimands.
Compare this accountability to the Palestinian territories, where the Palestinian Authority (PA) actively incites its population against Israel and publishes hateful messages in textbooks and state media where it glorifies terrorism against Israel.
The Palestinian government allows rockets to be fired from its territory towards Israel. In fact, on June 26, rockets were fired towards Israel from Jenin, a city under PA control. It also actively pays the families of terrorists in a ‘pay for slay’ system, thus incentivizing violence against Israel.
Israel is a country based on the rule of law, and consequently, it holds its soldiers accountable for their actions. Peace can never come if the Palestinian leadership, rather than condemning violence, instead actively embraces it.
