IDF Chief Dismisses Officer Who Hit Danish Activist

By Haaretz April 18, 2012

IDF Lt. Col. Shaul Eisner, who was filmed over the weekend hitting a Danish protester with his rifle butt in the Jordan Valley, was dismissed from his position on Wednesday.

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz decided to dismiss Eisner, after the recommendations of GOC Central Command Nitzan Alon and Sami Turgeman, commander of the Israel Defense Forces’ ground forces, on the grounds that the attack was a “moral failure.”

Gantz said that an investigation into the incident revealed operational failures in the preparation of IDF soldiers for the protest bike ride in which the activist took part as well as in the soldiers’ handling of the confrontation that erupted.

Eisner, who was due to receive the rank of first lieutenant, will be transferred to a senior staff position and will be barred from carrying out any command position in the IDF in the next two years. Starting 2014, Einser will be able to return to a command position, should he fulfill the necessary requirements.

Video footage posted on YouTube showed Eisner, deputy commander of the IDF’s Jordan Valley brigade, striking Danish activist Andreas Ias in the face with an M-16 rifle during a cycle rally near Jericho in the West Bank.

Watch the video (content is graphic):

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