[GushShalom] Jenin Bulldozer Driver Speaks - full translation

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/

This is the full translation of a unique document. 

It was published in Yediot Aharonot, Israel's most widely circulated tabloid paper, on 
May 31, 2002. It is the first absolutely sincere Israeli eye-witness testimony on what 
actually happened in Jenin, by one of those who did it and are proud of it.

After publication - and in spite of it - the unit to which the man belongs received from 
the army command an official citation for outstanding service.

[A transcript of the Hebrew original will soon be published on our website, and is 
available at request.]

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"I made them a stadium in the middle of the camp"
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

	I entered Jenin, driven by madness, by desperation, in the worst condition
      possible.
	I told my wife: "If anything happens to me, at least someone will take care of
      you".
	The funny bit was, I didn't even know how to operate the D-9.
	Within two hours, they taught me to drive forwards, and make a flat surface.
	I tied the 'Beitar' football team flag to the back of the tractor and told them: "Move 
away, let me work.".
	For three days, I just erased and erased
	I kept drinking whisky to fight off fatigue
	I didn't see dead bodies under the blade of the D-9, but I don't care if there
      where any.

By Tsadok Yeheskeli, Yediot Aharonot.

Moshe Nissim, nicknamed "Kurdi Bear1", the D-9 operator who became the terror of 
the Jenin refugee camp inhabitants, speaks with no censorship about his time of glory.

"I entered Jenin driven by madness, by desperation, I felt I have nothing to loose, That 
even if I 'get it', no big deal.
I told my wife: "If anything happens to me, at least someone will take care of you!".
I started my reserve service, in the worst conditions possible. Maybe this is why I 
didn't give a damn. Not about explosive charges, not about gun fire.
"My life was in deep shit for the past one and a half years. For almost half a year I am 
suspended from work as a senior inspector in the Jerusalem municipality.
I worked there for 17 years, till that cursed day, January the 20th, exactly my 40th 
birthday, when the police came and arrested me.
They said that I and my colleagues in the inspection unit are suspected for being 
bribed by contractors and other business owners, that in fact, we are a corrupted 
bunch.
"This is a terrible injustice. I am a very friendly guy, and in this job you mix with people 
you inspect. But bribery? Me?
I am in debt for hundreds of thousands of Shekels long before all this story. Had I 
taken bribes, I would have money, but I couldn't even pay the lawyer. Since then I am 
suspended. My wife was fired as well, and I have four children to keep.
"This was not the first blow. A few months earlier, I was injured badly in my back, my 
wife was fired, and my son got run over and had to be operated to save his leg.
Today he is OK, but his big dream, and mine, that he will once be a player in the 
Beitar Jerusalem team, this dream is probably gone forever. Pity. He was really 
talented. I have already promised him to get him into the children's Beitar team.
, "we are all being recruited to do reserve service, but you are not called."
"Truth is, that I understood my commanders. Hey, I've been doing my reserves duty for 
16 years now, and I was useless. I did nothing but make trouble.

 card table, open a bottle. If any officer would dare send me to guard duty, I would 
send him first. Kurdi always did his thing.
If I felt like going to a Beitar football match, or going home, no one could stop me. I 
would just start the car and go.
"Truth is, they didn't even know me. When I am given responsibility, I can act 
differently, In the "Versailles" disaster3 I was in charge of all the inspection team on 
location.  When I was seen by one of the guys of my military unit, he was shocked.
He said: "In the army you can't tie your shoelaces, and here you are a big chief!"
omise to work", I pleaded with the battalion commander. Finally, he agreed to give me 
a chance.
"I said to myself: "Kurdi, you can't let them down. No more running wild!".


The speaker is Moshe Nissim, AKA  "Moshe Nissim Beitar Jerusalem".
In the Jenin refugee camp, he was called, over the military radio: "Kurdi Bear".
Kurdi, because this is the name he insisted on. Bear, after the D-9 he was driving, 
demolishing house after house.
There was not one soldier in Jenin that did not hear this name. Kurdi Bear was 
considered the most devoted, brave and probably the most destructive operator.
A man, that the Jenin camp inquiry committee, would want very much to have a word 
with.
For 75 hours, with no break, he sat on the huge bulldozer, charges exploding around 
him, and erased house after house. 
His story, which he tells openly and with no inhibitions, is far from being a regular war 
myth. Medals, so it seems, will not be awarded for it. (Actually, his company was later 
awarded a citation for outstanding service.)

The experience
"The funny bit is, I didn't even know how to operate the D-9. I have never been an 
operator. But I begged them to give me a chance to learn.
Before we went into Shekhem (Nablus), I asked some of the guys to teach me. They 
sat with me for two hours. They taught me how to drive forwards and make a flat 
surface.
"I took it on with no problem and told them: 'That's it. Move aside and let me work.'.
This is what happened in Jenin as well. I have never demolished a house before, or 
even a wall. I got into the D-9 with a friend of mine, a Yemenite. I let him work for an 
hour, and then told him, 'OK. I got the idea.'
"But the real thing started the day 13 of our soldiers were killed up that alley in the 
Jenin refugee camp. 
 started going mad: 'Get back,' he shouted, 'we have no escort!', but I had to get to 
know the place better, to find an exit, just in case we needed one. I was not afraid to 
die. At least I was insured. This would have helped my family.

The Flag
y and the kids: 'you will see my tractor on television. When you see the Beitar flag, 
that will be me'. And this is exactly what happened. 
 I am. I always go to the Beitar matches, in a Beitar colored Galabia (an Arab man's 
dress), and a big drum of the Kurds from the Castel. Once, after our first national 
championship, I took a ride on the roof of a car, carrying the drum, all the way to 
Jerusalem.
 better than to talk to me if Beitar lost a match. 
aeli army) officer I worked with to let me go up there and hang it, but he refused. He 
said I would be shot if I tried. Pity. 
 here. Don't you worry.'.
"On the radio, they wanted to call me 'Moshe-Bear', but I insisted on Kurdi. I told the 
Golanis, I am Kurdi, and I won't answer if you call me by any other name.' That is how 
'Kurdi Bear' was born. This is my name, and I am stubborn. 
"In the reserves, they already got used to my signature: 'Moshe Nissim Beitar 
Jerusalem'.For a while they asked me to stop it, but finally they just gave up.

Going in
ere let into the camp earlier, with all our might, twenty-four soldiers would not have 
been killed in this camp.
"The moment I went into the camp, for the first time, I just thought of how to help these 
soldiers. These fighters. Children the age of my son. I couldn't grasp how they worked 
there, were a charge blows up on you, with every step you take.
"With the first mission I was given, to open a track inside the camp, I understood what 
kind of hell this was. 
ey would not have to take even one step outside their shelter. One step was enough in 
order to lose an arm or a leg.
ds. They just planted charges everywhere. 
"For me, in the D-9, it was nothing. I didn't mind. You would just hear the explosions.
y thing that mattered was that these soldiers must not risk themselves just to eat or 
drink something."
"I fell in love with those children. I was willing to do with my tractor anything they would 
ask for. I begged for work: 'Let me finish another house, open another track.' 
They, in return, protected me. I would leave the tractor without weapons, nothing. Just 
walked in. They told me I am mad, but I said: 'Leave me alone. Anyhow, the armored 
vest will not save me.' This is how I worked. Even without a shirt. Half naked.
 whisky and something to munch on.
me of them."



The purity of our weapons
 soldiers. I worked where our soldiers were slaughtered. They didn't tell all the truth 
about what happened. they drilled holes in the walls, holes for gun barrels. Anyone 
who escaped the charges, was shot through these holes.
idn't give a damn about demolishing all the houses I've demolished - and I have 
demolished plenty. By the end, I built the 'Teddy' football stadium there.  
emolish, waving white flags. We screwed just those who wanted to fight.
, because if they had returned to their homes, they would blow up.
ouses, would understand they were in a death trap. I thought about saving them. I 
didn't give a damn about the Palestinians, but I didn't just ruin with no reason. It was all 
under orders. 
enerations. If I am sorry for anything, it is for not tearing the whole camp down.

Satisfaction 
r guys inside, and they forgot to tell me.
rd, we would ask for a tank shell.
ecause the army didn't want the cameras and press to see us working. I was really upset, because I 
had plans to knock down the big sign at the entrance of Jenin - three poles with a picture of Arafa
t. But on Sunday, they pulled us away before I had time to do it.
I got back there. The battalion-commander was in shock when he saw me. The other operators all crac
ked up and needed rest, but I refused to leave. I wanted more.
 have buried all those Palestinians alive.
ook care of them, of the children. The soldiers gave them candy. But I had no mercy for the parents
 of these children. 
I remembered the picture on television, of the mother who said she will bear children so that they 
will explode in Tel Aviv. I asked the Palestinian women I saw there: 'Aren't you ashamed?'
vitation. 
'Do you want the entire company to come over to your house?'
I told him: 'As far as I am concerned, bring the whole battalion.'
I phoned my mother, from the D-9, and told her that the whole battalion was coming. She said: 'no s
weat'. I am waiting for them". 

Politics

ad more fun. That is, If they would let me tear the whole camp down. I have no mercy.
 the camp. And yes, it was justified. They mowed our soldiers down. They had a 
chance to surrender. 
tball stadium, so they can play. This was our gift to the camp. Better than killing them. 
They will sit quietly. Jenin will not return to what it use to be."

Epilog
Two days after getting out of Jenin, 'Kurdi Bear' was admitted into hospital, suffering 
from pneumonia. As it turned out, the 75 straight hours in the D-9 took their toll. Some 
days after he had returned home, a phone call woke him up in the middle of the night. 
"I got home one night, and for some reason, I couldn't sleep. I was uncomfortable. 
Till 4 AM I just wandered about, suddenly the phone rings: 'Are you Nati's father?' 
I sked what happened. 'Get over here, to the hospital.' 'Tell me the truth' I told her.
. 
led us back to the hospital. They were in shock: The kid just tore the respiration tubes 
off. He woke up."

freezes for a second, and tries to get his son back into reality. "Nati", he says softly, 
"I've already told you, Beitar has lost." 
g ten years back or even more, but forgets within minutes who he is talking with. "Why 
am I here?" he asks his parents again and again, and bows his head with 
embarrassment when an acquaintance reminds him of a conversation they had just the 
day before.
s for his battered Subaru that tries to make the journey from the Castel neighborhood 
to the hospital. Kurdi wants to build himself a tent in front of the hospital. For the time 
being, he sleeps in the car.
"Jenin has strengthened me," he says. "It helped me forget my troubles. I had hoped it 
would be some turning point, until this hit me. But what happened to Nati taught me 
what really is important. I am living now for my son. The rest is really not important."
The friends from his reserves unit are helping him. 
y him."
Yeffet Damti, his tractor partner from Jenin, says that one thing is certain: "On the 
next mission, I am only going with Kurdi".
Kurdi, for his part, thanks his commanders that gave him the chance. 
For the time being, they are wrapping him with attention and sympathy. They came 
here, to the hospital, just to be with him. Just so he won't be lonely. They are talking 
about raising funds to help him. When they meet him next to his son's bed, back 
come the memories from those 75 hours. 
The chats around the son's bed continue till the management of the hospital called and 
begged them to stop bragging about destroying Jenin. There are Arab therapists who 
might be hurt, and one of the Arab patients has already complained.

	----
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