Brigade Commander defends battalion commander: "The signs were used to abuse young soldiers"

The commander of the Givati Brigade, Col. Netanel Shmaka, addressed the soldiers' mutiny that took place at the Sde Teiman base last week. "A lot of 'hazing' phenomena and harassment of young soldiers have emerged, we will not give it a place," he explained. Col. Shmaka backed the battalion commander's actions: "He found signs used for hazing rituals for the young ones. This is not a new case - and we are always working to eradicate it. In the past, there were soldiers in the brigade who were discharged for mental health reasons out of fear that an older soldier would come at night and abuse them. When there are such cases of abuse of young soldiers, people always ask 'where were the commanders?'" he continued. "Here, the commander was present and saw signs that signify hazing more than anything else." The brigade commander clarified that none of the smashed symbols belonged to the battalion's fallen soldiers: "I spoke with the bereaved families and I am in good contact with them. There was no insult to anyone's honor."

Desertion and punishment

As mentioned, a week ago, dozens of veteran soldiers from the Tzabar battalion in Givati abandoned the Sde Teiman base, chanting "All officers to hell," in protest against their commanders who removed signs and symbols they had hung. The soldiers claimed that these were symbols that were with them in combat in Gaza and Lebanon, and they are a tradition in the battalion - passed from cycle to cycle. It symbolizes for them the belonging to the battalion and its tradition, and therefore they were offended. The battalion commander handled the signs himself - which incited the soldiers even more. The battalion commander published a message to the soldiers' parents: "It is clear to me that you are aware of the incident of the absence of some of your sons. Those of you who are familiar from your military service with hazing games between young and old know how serious the incident is, and how many soldiers are harmed by it through violence and humiliation. Therefore, I decided to break wooden signs of a devil, the angel of death, and more, signs that represent exactly these things. I decided to remove the rest of the signs from the companies, except for a few individual signs, out of an understanding of their sentimental value."

At the end of the incident, the brigade, under Shmaka's command, began disciplinary action against the soldiers. 18 of the soldiers who led the incident were sentenced to 30 days in prison and will be dismissed from combat service. About 80 other soldiers who left the base and returned to it received significant leniency - and underwent, together with their commanders, a "command and educational process to strengthen the discipline, values, and norms expected of IDF soldiers."

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"Something I will take with me until my last day"

In a podcast, Col. Shmaka summarized the brigade's activity in combat in the various arenas, and addressed, among other things, the recovery of the fallen soldiers Lt. Hadar Goldin and Col. Asaf Hamami. "For the brigade, it was a very emotional event, because we brought back both Goldin and Hamami," he said. According to him, the recovery of the two was a "historic event" for the brigade's commanders and soldiers. "I was an officer in the brigade when it happened, and it was a very difficult feeling," Shmaka recalled of Goldin's abduction. "He was my subordinate. In the end, we managed to bring him back for burial thanks to the war, thanks to the work of the brigade and the entire IDF." Regarding the recovery of Col. Hamami's body, the brigade commander said: "He was an outstanding commander, he grew up in the Givati Brigade and did all his roles here. He was the first to understand the situation and declare war. Until we met their bodies, we didn't believe it was happening. I took the battalion commanders and the senior commanders of the brigade to receive their bodies, with great emotion and the understanding that we are in a historic event."

Col. Shmaka also reviewed the brigade's achievements in combat in the Gaza Strip, and told about the battles in Beit Hanoun: "There was a very significant underground route there, from which the terrorists came out every time, planted explosives, and fled. When we arrived, we found that same route, eliminated the terrorists, and defeated Beit Hanoun. Terrorists who had been hiding there since October 7 came out and surrendered with their hands up." Regarding the fighting in southern Lebanon, he said that in Bint Jbeil, which he called a "symbol of Hezbollah," the brigade's forces fought face-to-face against terrorists. "We killed dozens of terrorists in encounters, destroyed the Kasbah of Bint Jbeil, and defeated the city," he said. "The Givati Brigade is the first to cross the Litani River since 1982. It did it with great success, thanks to the commanders and the soldiers. I think this is something I will take with me until my last day."