Muhammad Siddeeq profiles Eyal Zamir, the new Arabic-speaking Israeli Army Chief accused of widespread crimes during his long career in the IDF.
Last week General Eyal Zamir was appointed as the new Israeli Army Chief. As his name suggests, General Zamir is of Arab ancestry. A grandson of Jewish immigrants from Syria and Yemen, Zamir was born and raised in Eilat.
His appointment has been welcomed by some members of Netanyahu’s far-right cabinet. He will now lead all military operations of the Zionist regime, including in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.
General Zamir’s appointment comes at a time when the military leadership of the Zionist State is facing widespread allegations and recriminations of mass failings in intelligence and the poor military response to halt the mass break-out of Palestinian fighters from Gaza.
Early on in their careers, Arabic-speaking officers like Zamir were valuable to the Zionist military as they are often used for interpreting, propaganda activities and the infiltration of resistance groups in occupied Palestine.
Although they have little to no experience of fighting a real army, Israeli officers possess considerable experience of using brute force to suppress protests and uprisings by women and children in the occupied Palestinian territories.
First conscripted into the IDF in 1984, an 18 year old Eyal joined the Armored Corps. He soon became a Tank Commander and a Platoon Commander, serving in both the Israeli 500th Brigade and the 460th Brigade. As a Major, he served as an Operations Officer of the 7th Armored Brigade in 1992 – 1994. As a Lieutenant Colonel, he served as the Commander of the 75th Battalion of the 7th Brigade during the years 1994 to 1996. In 1997, he went on to study tank warfare at the French “Ecole Militaire” in Paris.
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The 59 year old General has previously served in several important positions within the Zionist military, including that of Director General of the Israeli MOD, Deputy Chief of Staff and as the Military Secretary to the Israeli PM.
A close associate of Benjamin Netanyahu, General Zamir has been considered for the top job twice before. And although he left the military as a Major-General in 2021, he was finally rewarded with the top post by Netanyahu and his Defence Minister last month.
A war criminal
The very nature of service in the military of the Zionist State means that your day-to-day missions will involve using brute force against civilians to enforce the occupation of Palestinian lands, violating numerous laws of war and resolutions of the UN.
On his CV, General Eyal Zamir boasts having taken part in the suppression of the First Palestinian Intifada, the Second Intifada (also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada), The 2006 Lebanon War, the First Gaza War in 2009 (also known as The Gaza Massacre), Operation Protective Edge (also known as the 2014 Gaza War) and Operation Guardian of the Walls (also known as The Unity Intifada of 2021).
For three years (from 2015 to 2018) General Zamir served as the Commander of the Southern Command. During this time, Zamir’s troops “confronted” Palestinians from Gaza who were taking part in the “Great March of Return,’ killing more than 150 protestors and wounding 10,000 others.
The casualties caused by troops under Zamir’s command included 1,849 children, 424 women, 115 paramedics and 115 journalists. When asked why his troops had killed 16 Palestinian protestors in a single day, General Zamir stated that his soldiers were simply “identifying attempts to carry out terror attacks under the camouflage of riots.”
Collective punishment of people is illegal under international law. However, in 2007, Zamir is reported to have written a piece defending the practice of “collective punishment.” His views are known to align closely with his former boss Benjamin Netanyahu, and he has often stressed the need to confront Iran and “other enemies of Israel.”
After retiring from the military in 2021, General Zamir left Israel for the United States and moved around openly, where he worked as a visiting research fellow at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy. He returned to Israel after two years when he was appointed as the Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Defence.
He has received military honours from Tel Aviv for “outstanding service” during the 2006 Second Lebanon War and the 2014 Gaza War. He is the founder of the right-wing think tank, the Israel Defence and Security Forum.
