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IDF reform: Ground troops will include translators
The IDF has opened a special course for arabic translators and investigators.
It is a means to both increase troops effectiveness and to prevent misunderstandings and smoothen the relationships between Palestinian civilians and IDF troops.
Sometimes, during raids on suspect's houses, misundertandings or lack of language knowledge would lead to unintended conflicts and even accidents, if troops accidentally shouted "get in the house" instead of "get out of the house" and then opened fire when people ran to the house.
Also, this will allow for better on-the-spot questioning and intelligence gathering. The linguists will be able to get the remarks suspects can exchange between themselves. They will also be able to explain their goals and understand better the civilian needs.
The linguists will be chosen ground troops with language abilities, who will undergo several weeks of training in spoken arabic, and a short course in psychology and body language to pick up non-verbal hints, and learn palestinian customs better.
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I think it's a great move and I'm surprised this hasn't happenned before.
According to the article in Maariv, IDF used to take intelligence troops and embed them into teams and platoons, but that worked poorly and was too rare.
It is a means to both increase troops effectiveness and to prevent misunderstandings and smoothen the relationships between Palestinian civilians and IDF troops.
Sometimes, during raids on suspect's houses, misundertandings or lack of language knowledge would lead to unintended conflicts and even accidents, if troops accidentally shouted "get in the house" instead of "get out of the house" and then opened fire when people ran to the house.
Also, this will allow for better on-the-spot questioning and intelligence gathering. The linguists will be able to get the remarks suspects can exchange between themselves. They will also be able to explain their goals and understand better the civilian needs.
The linguists will be chosen ground troops with language abilities, who will undergo several weeks of training in spoken arabic, and a short course in psychology and body language to pick up non-verbal hints, and learn palestinian customs better.
--
I think it's a great move and I'm surprised this hasn't happenned before.
According to the article in Maariv, IDF used to take intelligence troops and embed them into teams and platoons, but that worked poorly and was too rare.
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