As the Israel Defense Force continues to be misrepresented on the international stage, Capt. Matan Katzman spoke out to the Human Rights Subcommittee of the European Parliament in the face of criticism from Break the Silence, a group serving to expose supposed "wrongdoings" by the Israeli army.
According to Israeli publication Israel Hayom, Katzman said, "Behind every Israeli soldier there is a human being, a human being that has to go out and defend his country, although he faces the complexities of war."
Katzman, along with fellow soldier Avichai Shorshan, founded My Truth, an organization dedicated to gathering IDF soldier testimonies in an attempt to combat the slandering of the army, to be a worldwide phenomenon, and to spread awareness of the fact that the Israeli’s are righteous in the face of terrorist threat.
"In Gaza, our mission was clear: to stop the rocket fire that put over a million Israeli children in bomb shelters last summer," Katzman said. "The IDF has a clear policy to protect Palestinian civilian life, even at the expense of compromising the safety of its own missions, as it does when it repeatedly warns civilians about incoming attacks."
Given that the Israelis have a clear policy on the preservation of innocent Palestinian life, Hamas will use this as a tactic against them. Hamas stores weapons in densely populated areas and public institutions because they know that Israel will not attack an area with civilians in the way.
"Our policy is so concrete and clear that Hamas is an expert on it and uses it to their advantage. They place snipers in schools and hospitals, they stock weapons in homes."