IDF Training Psycho Drama Features Killing Settler To Resolve Scenario

Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 5 March 2011

Chagai Segal reports in his 4 March column in Makor Rishon that three months
ago reserve soldiers in the Carmeli Brigade where presented with the
following two psycho dramas written by an IDF colonel and performed by the
“Dilemma Theater” in order to prepare the soldiers for their reserve duty:

Scenario #1: Hungry young Palestinian is offered 50 NIS by someone to throw
a fire bomb at Jews. An IDF ambush observes the transaction and follows the
youngster as he prepares to throw the fire bomb at an Israeli car. The
soldiers hesitate what to do and in the end shoot him in the leg. The
youngster is wounded and cries out “all I wanted was the NIS 50”.

Scenario #2: A group of soldiers sets up a roadblock in the territories an
hour before the Sabbath. A tense driver approaches from one of the
settlements. The soldiers explain that he can’t pass for the time being
because of a suspicious item in the area, He demands that they let him pass
anyway because it is almost the Sabbath but the soldiers insist on blocking
him. The settler driver then gets out of his car, draws a knife and puts it
against the neck of one of the soldiers and threatens to kill him if they
don’t let him pass.

With the participation of the reserve soldiers watching the psycho drama
performance, the drama is “resolved” by killing the settler with shots to
his head.

Settlers among the reservists protested the scenario, noting that such a
scenario never transpired but the colonel who wrote the scenario rejected
the complaints, saying that he didn’t understand what all the fuss was
about.

Segal notes that the same scenario was repeated at the next round of
“Dilemma Theater” presentations to reserve solders in the brigade but it was
dropped after that.

The IDF Spokesperson defended the scenario to Segal, writing that “scenarios
are frequently intentionally exaggerated in order to prepare the commanders
so that they can deal with complicated situations”.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il