IDF blamed for mass grave found in Sinai./Human Rights Organization accuses Israel of killing POWs.
joseph hobeika
Tuesday, June 27, 2000
IDF blamed for mass grave found in Sinai
By Daniel Sobelman
Ha'aretz Correspondent and Agencies
The Egyptian opposition daily Al Wafd reported on Monday that a
mass grave was found in Sinai containing the remains of 52 Egyptian
prisoners of war, allegedly executed by IDF forces during the Six-Day War.
The mass grave was uncovered by Egyptian workers at the town of
Ras Sudar, 200 kilometers southeast of Cairo.
While no identity tags were found in the grave, some of the dead men
were identified through identity cards found in the remnants of their
clothing.
Al Wafd stressed that some of the skulls had bullet wounds in them,
"which proves that the soldiers were executed."
No official response was made by Egyptian authorities to the
newspaper's report.
The spokesperson at the Israeli embassy in Cairo said that the embassy
had first learned of the allegations when its staff read the article in
the newspaper. The Egyptian authorities did not contact the embassy on
the matter, the embassy spokesperson added.
According to researchers and retired IDF soldiers, hundreds of unarmed
Egyptian soldiers were executed in Sinai by IDF soldiers during both the
1956 Sinai Campaign and the 1967 Six-Day War.
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BBC Summary of World Broadcasts
September 9, 1997, Tuesday
Human Rights Organization accuses Israel of killing POWs
Source: MENA news agency, Cairo, in Arabic 1340 gmt 7 Sep 97
Cairo, 7th September: The Egyptian Human Rights Organization [EHRO]
has stressed that it possesses certified voice testimonies coupled
with photographs and eyewitness accounts, which confirm that Israel
killed Egyptian prisoners of war [POWs] during the wars of 1956
and 1967. It added that some of those POWs were buried alive in
mass graves and estimated the number of those victims at between
7,000 to 15,000 prisoners.
EHRO Secretary-General Muhammad Munib held a news conference today
following the issue of the organization's report on Israel's crimes
against military men and civilians during the wars of 1956 and 1967.
The report is entitled "Crime and Punishment...Give the Prisoners
their Rights and Try the Murderers."
Munib said the report had taken 18 months to prepare and complete, during
which certified testimonies were obtained from several Egyptian officers
and soldiers who were eyewitnesses to the killing of Egyptian POWs at the
hands of Israeli forces during the wars of 1956 and 1967. He added that
the locations of 11 mass graves had been determined in Sinai and Israel,
in which thousands of Egyptian prisoners were buried. He noted that the
prisoners were military men and civilians of whom several were killed by
Israeli tanks that used to go over them while they were tied up. He added
that this was the first report on those crimes, which transcended what had
taken place during other wars such as World War II and the war in Bosnia.
Munib called for holding an international trial for Israeli war criminals
who committed many crimes such as the killing of 300 workers employed
in Sinai in 1956 whom Israel had slain despite knowing that they were
just workers who did not belong to the military.
The EHRO secretary-general demanded that the Foreign Ministry take steps
through diplomacy to commit the perpetrators for trial in this regard.
He added: We are ready to present all the documents and testimonies in our
possession. He also demanded a suitable financial compensation to be given
to the families of the victims as well as an official apology from Israel.
Munib said the EHRO would take all necessary measures to bring this issue
before various international organizations, including the United Nations,
and demand a similar procedure as the one applied during trials of war
criminals of World War II and criminals of the war in Bosnia. He added
that this humanitarian issue should be presented appropriately in order
to capture its fitting share of international attention...
__________________________________________________________________________
BBC Summary of World Broadcasts
March 22, 1999, Monday
Egypt accuses Israel of killing thousands of POWs, TV says
Text of report by Arabic-language MBC TV on 19th March 1999
An Egyptian government source has revealed to MBC television that the
government has prepared a large dossier on the case of tens of thousands
of Egyptian and Arab prisoners of war who were killed by Israeli troops
in the 1956 and 1967 wars. The issue is expected to provoke a political
and legal crisis between Egypt and Israel in the next few weeks.
Our correspondent Tariq al-Shami reports from Cairo.
[Shami - recording] Sixty-thousand Egyptian and Arab prisoners of war
were killed by the Israeli forces in the 1956 and 1967 wars. This came
in a 600-page Egyptian government report, to which MBC had access.
The report includes hundreds of documents and testimonies by Israeli
military commanders who participated in battles against Egypt and who
admitted that 900 Israeli officers and soldiers perpetrated hideous
massacres against Egyptian troops and unarmed Egyptian civilians who
were buried in 700 mass graves.
Among the most prominent commanders who perpetrated these crimes are
the following:
Gen Ari Pero, who supervised the killing of 8,000 Egyptian POWs,
including 2,000 at Sinai's Mitla Pass and hundreds near al-Arish;
Ariel Tizhaki, commander of a military intelligence unit called Shako,
who supervised the killing of 760 Egyptians;
Ezra Gadi, aide to then Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Dayan, who
supervised the killing of 16,000 POWs, including 800 Sinai Bedouin
civilians.
The Egyptian government report, which relied on intelligence data
and confessions made to Israeli commissions of inquiry and newspapers,
included prominent names such as Ehud Barak, leader of the Israeli
Labour Party, who admitted that he took part in the killing of
Egyptian POWs and Palestinian volunteers on the orders of Ezer Weizman,
Israel's current President.
Arie Sharon, the current Israeli foreign minister, gave instructions
to kill 380 Egyptian POWs.
This threatens to cause a new crisis between Egypt and Israel.
[Hilmi Sha'rawi, director of the Arab Research Centre] That the POWs
were gathered in the hideous form that has been described by the Israeli
sources themselves and killed, during a sacred war, with such barbarity is
an issue that must not be forgotten by the Egyptian people or the Arabs.
[Shami] The report recounts ugly stories about the torture to which
the POWs were subjected before being killing. Indeed, some of them
were buried alive. Egypt embarked on gathering this information after
[Israeli PM Binyamin] Netanyahu halted the investigations into the case
that the Israelis began during the terms of Yitzhaq Rabin and Shimon Peres
in response to Egyptian pressure after the case was first raised in 1995.
Diplomatic sources expect Egypt to begin action against Israel either
by demanding that it conducts an urgent investigation into the documents
that are in its possession or by resorting to the United Nations and
urging it to form a commission to handle the issue. The sources said,
however, that it is unlikely that Egypt will raise the issue before
the Israeli elections in order not to be accused of adversely affecting
their results.
_________________________________________________________________________
The Times (London)
November 29, 1996
Report claims both Egypt and Israel killed Sinai PoWs
Ross Dunn in Jerusalem
AN ISRAELI Government inquiry has found that both Israeli and Egyptian
soldiers were guilty of murdering prisoners-of-war during the 1956 Sinai
campaign, it was revealed yesterday.
The daily Yediot Aharonot described the report as political dynamite
because relations between Egypt and Israel have been tense lately. It said
the strained ties spurred Binyamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, who
received a draft copy a few weeks ago, not to publish it. Yesterday, he
confirmed the existence of the report but questioned the accuracy of the
article.
"There is such a report, which I think is very favourable in its findings
vis-a-vis Israel's behaviour. I have not made it public but it was leaked
inaccurately," Mr Netanyahu said.
The newspaper said the investigation found one case where Israeli soldiers
were involved in killing a group of Egyptian soldiers taken prisoner
during the battle. The inquiry also found incidents during the Sinai
campaign where Egyptian soldiers killed Israeli PoWs.
The investigation was initiated last year by the previous Labour
Government after claims by Colonel Arieh Bino, of the reserve force.
His remarks that Israeli soldiers had murdered Egyptian PoWs led to
protests from Egypt.
The Egyptian Government demanded an investigation and compensation for the
families of the soldiers. Shimon Peres, the former Prime Minister, agreed
to establish the inquiry, and a committee worked for several months
collecting testimonies and examining documents.
The newspaper said no copies of the findings were sent to the Egyptians.
Shai Bazak, Mr Netanyahu's media adviser, said: "When we decide to publish
the report we will announce it."
_________________________________________________________________________
United Press International
December 9, 1995, Saturday
Peres pledges Egypt POW deaths inquiry
CAIRO, Dec. 8 (UPI) - Israel has agreed to appoint a reserve army general
to investigate allegations that the Israeli army killed Egyptian prisoners
of war in 1956 and 1967, the Israeli national news agency said Friday.
Shlomo Lahat, also a former mayor of Tel Aviv, would head the inquiry into
the deaths on the Sinai Peninsula during Arab-Israeli wars, the
independent Itim news agency said. The Peres announcement marked a major
departure from previous Israeli government policy on the allegations. A
bitter dispute between Egypt and Israel erupted after the allegations were
revealed by an Israeli historian and former army officers who said they
had been present for the alleged executions. In particular, Egyptian
Foreign Minister Amr Moussa had repeatedly demanded an investigation and
war-crimes prosecution of those responsible. The conflict threatened to
spoil the peace signed between Israel and Egypt at Camp David on March 26,
1979. On his plane returning Thursday from a summit in Cairo with Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak, Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres announced the
inquiry plan to reporters. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had held that any
alleged massacre exceeded the 20-year statute of limitations in Israeli
law, so an investigation would be moot and likely only to revive anger and
resentment. But Rabin was assassinated Nov. 4 and succeeded by Peres. No
details were available Friday in Egypt or Israel on the scope of the
investigation, what powers Lahat would have for calling witnesses or
preferring charges, whether the inquiry would be limited to 1956 and 1967,
compensation to families of alleged victims or other issues. No reaction
was available from Egyptian or Israeli leaders Friday, which is a day of
rest and shut-down government institutions in the Middle East. Adel
el-Safti, an undersecretary in Egypt's Foreign Ministry, said Nov. 14 that
Israel had for the first time expressed willingness to discuss
compensation in the alleged slayings. That development took place at the
Middle East and North Africa Economic Conference in Amman, Jordan's
capital, at the end of October, he said. El-Safti also said Egypt has
conclusive evidence that Israelis killed unarmed Egyptian POWs in the
Sinai. Egypt's government-run media and researchers have published
interviews with war veterans and Sinai Bedouins that supported the stories
of Israeli army officers describing alleged massacres. Members of an
expedition led by an Egyptian newspaper said they had unearthed mass POW
graves. Egypt has denied committing similar massacres during the 1973
Arab-Israeli War and has invited the presentation of evidence supporting
such an allegation. [...]
_________________________________________________________________________
The Toronto Star October 8, 1995
Prisoners of the past
An Israeli general reopens old wounds with revelations about the
massacre of Egyptian PoWs
By Martin Cohn TORONTO STAR
JERUSALEM - Even in peace, Egypt and Israel are at war again, fighting
over the bitter legacy of their past battles.
Twenty-two years after their last war, Cairo newspapers have printed
artists' illustrations of Israeli soldiers killing Egyptian prisoners of
war in cold blood. Screaming headlines attacked the "savage and inhuman
behavior of Israel."
The press was merely taking its cue from a retired Israeli general,
who admitted executing 49 captured Egyptian soldiers during the 1956
Sinai campaign - and said he would do it again.
The provocative newspaper images have whipped up a new round of
anti-Israeli sentiment in Egypt, giving fresh ammunition to Islamic
and nationalist opposition groups still opposed to peace between
the two countries.
Egypt's influential doctors' union, dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood,
called for an end to "all forms of normalization with the Zionist enemy."
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak raised the issue with Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin during a White House summit last month, and
demanded redress: an enquiry, a formal apology, financial compensation,
and trials of the accused.
"We don't want to make it a case between two countries," Mubarak was
quoted as saying in Cairo late last month.
"But public opinion here is taking the problem very seriously and I cannot
stand against them. We told the Israelis this situation cannot be solved
unless you start an investigation."
Both leaders seem anxious to put a damper on the issue, recognizing its
potential to inflame tensions in an already rocky relationship. But the
controversy has already spiralled out of control in Cairo, fed by further
revelations of PoW killings by Israelis.
Many Israelis were also shocked to hear the first confirmation of such
executions from the lips of retired Gen. Arieh Biro.
For Israelis who give pride of place to the army - which stresses its
"purity of arms" code - the news jarred their sense of Jewish morality
and punctured historical myths.
Biro said he did what he had to do. As commander of a paratroop battalion
dropped deep behind enemy lines during the 1956 Israeli invasion of Egypt,
he said his soldiers had their hands full with their military objectives.
They were being taunted by their captives.
"Egyptian troops were pouring into the area, and the prisoners were
shouting, 'Just you wait, the Egyptian army will slaughter you.' "
Biro said he was unable to hold them, and unwilling to risk releasing them
with knowledge of their location at the Mitla Pass, which leads to the
Suez Canal in the Sinai Peninsula.
So, he and a lieutenant lined them up and gunned them down.
"I didn't have the troops to guard them - we had to move on to Ras Sudar -
so I decided to liquidate them," Biro was quoted as saying.
"I have ached over what I did . . . but, under the same circumstances,
I think I would do it again."
At one point, Biro said he emptied his canteen in front of Egyptian
soldiers pleading for water.
"Whoever we managed to screw, we screwed."
Biro suggested his battalion commander, Rafael Eitan - who rose to become
the army's chief of staff and now heads the right-wing Tsomet party - was
aware of the executions. Likud politician Ariel Sharon was the brigade
commander at the time, and was later made Israel's defence minister until
he was disgraced in the Lebanon war.
Perhaps more chilling than Biro's graphic admissions were hints of more
dark secrets lurking in Israel's wartime past.
"If they try to throw me to the wolves, I'll speak out," Biro warned.
Indeed, the government has already signalled it will not prosecute Biro,
because a 20-year statute of limitations for murder has lapsed. Israel
has no war crimes law except for acts of genocide or crimes committed
by Nazis.
It is an irony that has not escaped Egyptian commentators. Israelis and
Jews abroad have relentlessly pursued Nazi war criminals for decades for
war crimes committed during World War II. But Biro remains beyond the
reach of Israeli law.
Although Rabin condemned his actions, the prime minister pointedly noted
that Biro was a Holocaust survivor.
"They chase Nazi war criminals for the rest of their lives, 60 to 70 years
down the road," Egyptian political scientist Walid Kazziha observed in
an interview. "But for Israeli crimes of mass murder, they're letting them
go - even when they admit it."
Kazziha said the matter won't be laid to rest until Israel offers
financial compensation to the families of the murdered PoWs. But
he doubted it would seriously damage the already frosty bilateral
relationship, because the Egyptian government hasn't made it a priority.
Biro's admissions and implications of more guilt to go around prompted
other Israeli historians and soldiers to speak out. Journalist Gabriel
Brun wrote that he saw five PoWs shot by Israeli soldiers during the
1967 war, after they were forced to dig their own graves.
"I saw five prisoners killed in this way. Earlier, I had heard 10 similar
shots. I interpreted those to mean that another five were executed."
The testimonials prompted Egypt's military, and the Al Ahram newspaper,
to mount an expedition to the Sinai in search of the PoWs' remains. They
found two mass graves near a former runway near Al Arish, 330 kilometres
northeast of Cairo, containing prisoners' uniforms and bones where roughly
90 people may have been buried.
Israel's ambassador to Egypt, David Sultan, says dwelling on the past
is pointless.
"Things happened on both sides, and I ask what purpose this will serve,"
he said in an interview from Cairo.
But Sultan himself has become part of the story, targetted by the Egyptian
opposition press as responsible for killing 100 PoWs as a paratrooper
during the Sinai campaign.
In fact, Sultan says, "I was still in school in 1956, I was never
a paratrooper, and I was never an officer."
Israeli press reports say Sultan has requested a transfer from Cairo
because his life is in danger. But the ambassador denied the suggestion,
saying his tour of duty is up after three years in Cairo.
While Sultan wants to set aside the issue, Egypt's ambassador to Tel Aviv,
Muhammed Bassiouni, keeps raising it in Israel. He insisted on Israel
Radio last week that while both sides may have committed atrocities,
only an Israeli general has publicly admitted his guilt - making him
an obvious mark for investigation and prosecution.
Many Israeli historians feel torn between their academic obligation
to publicize the almost inevitable atrocities of wartime, and the
obvious consequences for an already delicate peacetime relationship
between the two former enemies.
Bringing the information out into the open forces Israel to confront
the moral challenge of preventing recurrences, said Ephraim Kam, deputy
director of the Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv.
Something must also be done to rescue the bilateral relationship, he says.
"Mubarak needs a ladder to get off the tree, and if we provide it, he
will be satisfied."
But any subsequent investigation aimed at placating him "should be done
without too much noise," he said.
Shlomo Gazit, an academic and former director of military intelligence,
argues the events are being taken out of context.
"This is really a storm in a teacup," he says, adding the problem is not
with the killings, but with the fact that they were publicized.
"I don't think that this is the kind of story, with all the delicacies,
that should come out," Gazit said in an interview. "I've been to five
wars, and I haven't seen a war that was a tennis game. A war is an ugly,
dirty, cruel act with many, many unplanned and unwanted circumstances."
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Retired Israeli Gen. Arieh Biro AP FILE PHOTOS: LONG
MARCH: Israeli soldiers lead away Egyptian prisoners captured during
Israel's invasion of the Sinai Peninsula in 1956. UNDER GUARD: An
Israeli soldier guards Egyptian PoWs captured during the 1967 Six-Day War.
An Israeli journalist claims he saw Israeli troops execute PoWs during
that conflict.