Paratroopers chief gets censure, but no major penalty regarding complaints

Brig. Gen. Gal Shuhami probed the complaints and found that all of them were either untrue or within the normal spectrum of errors.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB DECEMBER 23, 2024 14:47

Israeli soldiers from the 646 Battalion of the Paratroopers Brigade operating in Al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza, during an Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, January 2, 2023. (photo credit: OREN BEN HAKOON/FLASH90)

IDF Central Commander Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth has decided that Paratroopers Chief Col. Ami Biton will be censured but will not receive any serious penalty for a series of complaints filed against him.

The complaints involved a range of issues, from a soldier who was killed allegedly unnecessarily due to command errors, mistreatment of women, arbitrary favoritism of certain officers over others, failure to set an example, and failure to put himself in the line of fire with his troops.  

Brig. Gen. Gal Shuhami probed the complaints on behalf of Bluth and found that all of them were either untrue or within the normal spectrum of errors that commanders make in complex battlefield situations, other than the arbitrary favoritism of certain officers over others, which he found to be problematic.

That particular issue led Shuhami and Bluth to censure Biton, but it was still a small enough error that he did not believe warranted a larger penalty.

This means that Biton may still be up for promotion in the near future, though the IDF did not deny that the censure could impact his promotion options.

IDF's 55th Paratroopers Reserve Brigade operating inside Khan Yunis on December 28, 2023. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

At the same time, just as Biton was only censured, the IDF said that Biton’s stellar record on three fronts during the war – Lebanon, Gaza, and Syria – could still potentially serve him to gain promotion as a nearly irreplaceable commander of one of the military’s most elite brigades.

The IDF noted that Shuhami was selected to carry out the probe for Bluth because he had never worked with Biton, and having spent most of his career in the Tanks Command, he was viewed as having no reason to favor Biton.

Next, the IDF said that Biton had improved much of his conduct already after his commanding officer, Dan Goldfus, then a brigadier general and commander of Division 98, rebuked him for some of the issues back in May.

IDF says no command errors

Regarding the complaints that were dismissed, the IDF said that there were no command errors in the death of the soldier in question, that one case of Biton kissing a female soldier on the forehead fell short of any punishable offense, that Biton as a colonel was not expected to be on the front lines at all times and had been on the front lines on October 7, 2023, and that while he kept his troops in Gaza without a break for an unusually long time, that this was not punishable given that he was the first soldier in and out of Gaza among his troops.  

Despite all of the above, much of the media has been and is expected to continue to be highly critical of what is viewed as overly lenient treatment of Biton for various errors due to the value that the IDF high command attributes to Biton as a combat commander.