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Let’s see some ID! Soldier keeps top IDF general from entering base

Head of IDF’s southern command refused entry to Israel Air Force base when two of his soldiers fail to produce proper ID.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

The head of the IDF southern command, General Herzi Halevi, was refused entry on Wednesday to an air base where a helicopter was waiting for him after a soldier guarding the gate to the base stuck to procedure when two of the soldiers accompanying the general failed to produce their ID.

Halevi, his driver and two senior officers on his staff arrived at the Hatzerim Air Force base in southern Israel to be flown by chopper to a military exercise in the Golan Heights, Channel 12 News reported. Instead, they were confronted by the base emergency response combat team.

As the helicopter waited for Halevi, the general and his driver showed their ID, but the other two officers reportedly did not have their army IDs on them.

The soldier on guard followed procedure and refused to allow them into the highly guarded base, and when the general finally did get in he and his men were confronted by the base’s rapid response team who had been alerted by the soldier on guard to a possible infiltration of the base.

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Apparently, a phone call by the officer on duty did not help and it took additional time to defuse the situation and confirm the identities of the two officers with Halevi.

“The entry of the commander of the Southern Command into the Hatzerim base on his way to a flight for an exercise in the Golan Heights was coordinated and approved in advance,” the IDF Spokesperson’s office said in a statement, noting that although Halevi properly identified himself “there were other officers in the vehicle with him, some of whom did not carry ID cards.”

“Last night, the commander of the Hatzerim base presented the investigation … and the necessary lessons were learned,” the IDF statement concluded.