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Storm over Israeli 'Abuse' Photos
The photographs show Eden Abergil positioned provocatively with the men, prompting lurid comments from other users of the popular social networking site.
Ex-Israeli soldier 'Eden', whose Facebook photo features Palestinian prisoners. The pictures, which were uploaded into a folder
entitled "Army - the best time of my life," and associated comments were
discovered by bloggers, who circulated them on the internet on Monday.
Palestinians have long claimed that they are subject to humiliating and degrading treatment while held in Israeli custody, but Israeli authorities have always rejected such allegations.
The Israeli military has sought to distance itself from the controversy, saying Abergil is no longer a serving member of the country's army.
"This is shameless behaviour by the soldier," a military spokesman told Al Jazeera.
"In
light of the fact that she was discharged last year, all of the details
have been turned over to the commanders for further attention."
Humiliating treatment
Abergil was discharged from the military a year ago, meaning
authorities had no power to prevent her from posting the pictures on the
internet.
The photographs were removed from the website late on Monday.
But Ghassan Khatib, the Palestinian Authority spokesman, said that the images typified the treatment meted out to Palestinians by Israeli troops.
"This is an example of life under occupation," he said.
"All
aspects of occupation are humiliating. We call on the international
organisations, starting with the UN, to work hard to end the occupation,
because it is the source of humiliation for Palestinians and a
source of corruption for the Israelis."
Sami Ershied, a lawyer based in Jerusalem, told Al Jazeera that the pictures show illegal activity.
"It's illegal to humiliate prisoners in this way," he said.
"It's illegal to publish these pictures in public showing this soldier making fun of these prisoners."
Special unit
It is not the first time that the Israeli military has been embarrassed by material posted on the internet.
In
March, officers were forced to call off a raid in the West Bank after a
soldier posted details, including the time and place, of the operation
on Facebook before it took place.
Earlier this year, the Israeli military set up a special unit to monitor information posted online.
Members of the unit scan websites including Facebook, Twitter and MySpace looking for sensitive or embarrassing material.
Israeli authorities have issued strict instructions to soldiers regarding the type of information and photographs that they may post online about themselves and their military service.
Comments
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119 Comments so far
Show AllThe woman is a pig.
The pig is an intelligent and noble animal... why insult it so?
Non Serviam - I will not serve.
Jill, not 'womanly', but a woman attempting to be manly. Very macho society. And military is always macho.
Haven't you noticed the S and M overlay throughout our media in the past ten years. It is everywhere. This is seen as the western version of 'hot'. Rumsfeld got off on watching the Abu Ghraib videos. Believe it. Americans watch reality shows where people are being humiliated all the time.
Funny... The usual Zionist apologizers are nowhere to be found on this one. Guess I'll have to substitute for them... But.... But... But... If they would just give in ( "be reasonable" )and except they are inferior humans and give up all their land and live in tent cities...as long as they are on worthless land with no resources... than the Israelis would let them clean their toliets as long as they pledged loyalty to the "Jewish" state.
Besides what Britain gave to the Israelis in 47/48 the Israelis have stolen an additional(approx.)80% more of Palestinian land
The whole world should be held accountable for allowing
Israeli Zionist the freedom to do all their evil deeds,without
repercussions from anyone,else they must deal with the US, and it's shameful,that we are their bodyguards,even a part of
our government AIPAC i'm sure this is not the will of the majority of Americans, the same as it is not the will of the Israeli people,as to how their Zionist Government,governs.
What else is new? The Mossad were probably behind the events of 9/11.
No, they weren't. Usama Bin Laden and Khalid Sheik Muhammad were.
Whats your proof?
As for the Mossad, go google "dancing israelis" and than get back to us...
Derick... un huh.. been watching TV eh?
Heavyrunner.... you've got that right
There is a special unit that scans the web in search of damming evidence...
Yep! It's all about image!
Shades of Lynndie England et al!
I appreciate that some fervently argue that soldiers at the bottom of the chain of command are as much victims of a lethally vicious terrorist-Imperium as anyone, and thus are more to be pitied than censured.
But I believe that they're to be pitied AND censured.
____________________________
Note to CD editors: I wish you would coordinate published stories to avoid duplicates. This one is now both Abby Zimet's lead "further..." item as well as the top headline. This results in comments threads that are either too duplicative or too diffuse. It's frustrating.
At the risk of venturing a sexist metaphor, it's like two women showing up at a formal gathering wearing the same dress. ;)
She's not leading a naked man around on a leash, and she's not cutting off anyone's head. Nevertheless, posing for the photos was wrong, and posting them was wrong.
The occupation is bad for Israelis and bad for Palestinians, and I'd like to see it end, but not so that Hamas can start firing rockets into central Israel. That would lead to bad things, including the likely death of thousands of Palestinians.
Oh, right, Hamas must stop firing rockets onto stolen Palestinian land that the Israeli's turned into a permanent home for themselves through brutal force.
Israel wants them to shut up and take it. Nobody is allowed to defend themselves with any type of weapons except Israel. Palestinians gotta sit still and take it.
Just for kicks, sometimes the IDF drops a few phosphorus bombs on all of them, targeting Hamas not necessary at all. Collective Palestinain massacres is sheer comedy to the IDF. A generation of sadists. The photo here was good for some giggles, eh?
Israel is an illegal state that doesn't give a crap about the rest of humanity.
..and a beast rises up out of the earth...
In 1948 700,000 Palestinians were dislodged so the fake state of Israel could be created.
Since then the world has had to put up with one crime against humanity after another. This Facebook outrage is not news and is insignificant compared to so many Israeli atrocities.
Israel has been outdoing the Nazis. Time to stop.
Not that I don't trust Al-Jazeera to be 100% unbiased, but I'd kinda like a bit more information-- like Al-Jazeera's definition of what constitutes "humiliation"... All I saw was a picture of a pixilated female soldier posing in front of some detainees... She wasn't making derogatory gestures or smirking or flaunting any body parts... Can "humiliation" be as simple as just seeing the face or hair of a woman not your wife?
And, just for background information's sake, why were the captured men being detained? Had they been caught spitting on the sidewalk? Or were they without proper papers? Or, perhaps, they'd been firing rockets into civilian areas? Or were entering a bus or pizza parlor loaded down with explosives?
The rule seems to be: When we are in your country you should treat us as respected guests and allow us to dress and behave according to our own customs and traditions; but when you are in our country we have the right to treat you as disrespectful outsiders who we can require to dress and act in accordance with OUR traditions.
Is that the stance of journalistic behemoth Al-Jazeera, too?
Posting pictures of people who are tied up and calling it the 'best years of my life'. This report is the tip of this particular iceburg.
Tell me you don't think it would be acceptable for a us soldier to pose for pictures with a tied up prisoner. Lie if you have to.
The thing is, the photo above is just a sample, but it's also evidence of the claims made by Palestinians that they are subject to torture and humiliation when they're in isreali custody.
To Jill:
Prisoners by AMERICAN law and by the laws of so-called civilized countries are supposed to be treated with dignity and respect-- a position sometimes, alas, observed only in the breach....
I still haven't seen all the photos that have the Israel-haters in an uproar (the only one I've seen is the rather benign one that accompanied the Al-Jazeera article)-- but isn't some of the outrage because more is expected of countries with open societies and rules of law? Do you think Israeli prisoners are treated with respect and dignity when captured by Palestinians? (Of course, we don't know, do we, because theirs is a closed controlled society.) Where are the newspapers and blogs from within that criticize Arab/Muslim leaders and their own countries? Where are the Palestinian voices (there must be one or two) demanding a more conciliatory approach to Israel and toward a peace process? Where is the internal criticism of videos showing Arab/Muslim children being taught to demonize and hate Jews? Or being strapped with explosives in preparation for terrorist martyrdom?
I'm not trying to justify any of Israel's egregious behavior, but isn't it hypocrisy (or bias) to only criticize Israel's actions while denying, ignoring, or justifying similar actions of others?
RE: "I still haven't seen all the photos that have the Israel-haters in an uproar" - alandjune
SEE - http://mondoweiss.net/2010/08/israeli-soldier-mocks-palestinian-prisoners-in-facebook-photos.html
P.S. You might find Pamela Gellar's "Atlas Shrugs" more to your liking, alandjune. If that's not right-wing enough for you, there's always www.americannaziparty.com!
As a point of correction, if you are thinking of the famous "Atlas Shrugs", the author is the well known, Ayn Rand.
You are completely delusional if you think your arguments will convince anyone outside the zionist choir.
It's also obvious that you would support, excuse and rationalize any Isreali atrocity. You are in effect an accomplice to murder and crimes against humanity.
Geez, I just read all the previous comments and am loathe to notice the many, many uninformed Israel-haters out there... I don't doubt there's misleading propaganda on both sides, but Jews in America and Israeli citizens and Israel's news organizations at least ask questions of their leaders, and are quite often critical of their leaders-- but you guys just swallow it whole, don't you?
A recent op-ed piece (Frida Ghitis for McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) pointed out that the Palestinians have no friends, zero, zip, none whatsoever... It's kind of understandable that Israel doesn't particularly love them, but where are the other Arab countries, the other Muslim-controlled countries? The Palestinians are being used by these states to control their own masses... Hatred of Jews and Israel is one of the mainstays in binding these countries together-- otherwise they'd be at each other's throats even more than they are now....
If the Palestinians were to eschew violence and make peace with Israel, I believe they would finally find a friend, a mid-east country that would offer help.
It's been said: "If the Arabs lay down their arms, there'd be no more killing; if Israel laid down its arms, there'd be no more Israel."
The dishonesty and stupidity in your post know no bounds.
The Palestinians have no friends? Why is it then that the whole world is against the genocide against them perpetrated by Israel?
Why doesn't Israel return the land they stole in 1948 and Jew return to where they came from? Peace would certainly return to the Middle East.
Israel has not committed genocide against the Palestinians.
I don't see "the Jews"--which I presume is what you meant by "Jew"--returning to Poland, Iraq, Yemen, or Ukraine, any more than I can see the population of the US returning to England, Ireland, Germany, etc.
And the earth is square and the moon is triangle and.....you buffoon.
Ahhh, Delia,
yes, ad hominem attacks-- the last refuge (or first choice?) of the ill-informed... Read the article I've recommended a few times, and think... The Palestinians have no friends... Your supposed refutation of this fact only offers that Israel does indeed have many, many enemies.
You guys like to believe all this started in 1948 (when the nascent State of Israel was attacked by seven Arab league nations)... Why not go back to the end of WWI and the British occupation? Or to the multi-hundreds of years of oppression under Turkey? Or further back, way back, waaay back to when the land was Judea, homeland to, ta-da, the Jews-- you know, like "where they came from"....
Your evident bias, bigotry, and anti-semitism (in the I-hate-Jews sense) is appalling.
And your own bias does not count? This is not about who has no friends or not, Israel is running pretty short of friends themselves and that is not anti semitism on any level just facts, they kinda ruined some of their friendship lately by their actions on the flotilla whereby 8 Turkish citizens and 1 American citizen lost their lives in International Waters on their way to breaking an illegal blockade.....I suggest it is YOU that is ill informed, Israel creates their own enemies.....
Here it is in a nut shell. I am beginning to wonder if there really is such a thing as a (good Jew). For their sake I'm going to imagine that there is. Now saying that, DO SOMETHING ABOUT ZIONISM or suffer the consiquences of your non-action. Muslems are not perfect, Arabs are not perfect, people are not perfect. Israelis show themselves as evil, (zionists excuse me). Good Jews (pause) fix it!!!
People like myself and readytotransform DO try to fix it but, if you haven't noticed, the game is rigged in the Zionsts favor. Has been at least since 1948.
Look at what happened to J Street. The Zionists managed to get the media to portray them as a nest of self-hating Jews because they had the temerity to challange AIPAC and the Zionist line. On the other hand the Anti-Zionists assume that the fact that they call themselves 'Pro-Israel' means, of course, that they are just the second coming of the same old settler sympathyizers.
Hi there James,
Well, i must add my two cents here.....
First of all, I think J street is AIPAC light. The political equivalent of Michael Lerner. If you want more info. i will be happy to discuss this with you.
I have said that Jack Abramhoff was running JStreet from prison. My own little attempt at wit. And don't get me started on zionist Lerner. Another personal story involved there.
And.....thank you for including me in this post. Although anyone who thinks or posts that there are 'no good jews' is not worth responding to, in my opinion. People like that aren't 'progressives'. And i doubt this guy has even done CD or been on an anti war march in the past ten years.
rita
Come to think of it that does sound like AIPAC to create an organization just to whip it.
No problem about including you. I was actually wondered if I threw you under the bus. I feel it's okay to says your peace and let people like 76 think what they may. It's not my job to change their mind but I feel a responibility to tell them they're wrong.
76 water.....
Hope you have been on the streets at least during the past ten years, or i will wonder if there is anything you have been doing to fix .................Oh, let's start with abu ghraib and end with afghanistan. Guess what, i have. Did we run into each other doing civil disobedience?
Hope so, or else you aint fixing nothing, dear 76.
Get on it before its too late. Or you will be suffering the consequences.
peace.
"Your evident bias, bigotry, and anti-semitism (in the I-hate-Jews sense) is appalling."
Anti-semitism? As a Jew I feel that there IS anti-semitism in the world. But I fear much of it is caused by the place I'm supposed to call "home" aka Israel.
How much anti-semitism is caused by a backlash to Israel's policies? We're not supposed to think about that. We're suposed to keep this siege mentality alive.
Why? Because when we feel this siege mentality, we then feel justified in lashing out which in turn soothes our guilty conscience. Israeli soldiers shot a 10 year old child then we say "BUT IT'S BECAUSE WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!!!!"
It's like this whole "Museum of Tolerance" thing. Israel claims that the graves at Mamilla were fake but they don't produce even a single photograph showing a clear area where these graves 'sprouted up'. The press, of course, runs with it like it's the gospel truth.
Yet suprise, surprise when Israel wants to build on a piece of disputed land there appears, as if by a miracle, some artifact. Nevermind that archeologists have been over the site dozens of times and found nothing all of a sudden POOF! there is a ancient coin or lamp. Of course it's pish-posh that the land has been in some poor Palestinians family since Ottoman times or even further back. That's only a myth, right?
Israelis dig up innocent Palestinian's graves, uproot innocent Palestinian's olive trees, bulldoze innocent Palestinian's homes, starve innocent Palestinian children and it's all done in the name of the Jews. We Jews shouldn't wonder, then, why there is so much anit-semitism in the world today.
Judaism does NOT equal Zionism.
bravissimo!
Truth_forward, as i've said so many times on CD, i am an activist antizionist jew.
Good post. My belief is that israel is intentionally creating antisemitism. They want to bring it on. I think it is obvious. And i have been onto this for over ten years. They are psychopaths. Plain and simple.
It is simply the way things transform. It has devolved into idolotry. Not that other organized religions are any better. Never should have had a 'state', which in itself is an outdated entity - for the world.
It will self destruct in the not too distant future, in my opinion.
Judaism Does Not Equal Israel...a book by marc ellis. Have you read it?
Peace.
No I have not read that book but thanks for turning me on to it.
It's nice to see that someone shares the view that Israel stokes the fires of anti-semitism. This means they can keep the siege mentality alive and therefore build a zombie army of unquestioning support.
You're right it will implode but I fear it will try to take the world down with it.
It's truly sad to see the disease of Zionism infect Reform Judaism.
Yes, regarding bringing the world down with it..."The Samson Option". Are you familiar?
I do think that we as a human race need to get beyond organized religions. Although i am not an atheist. I am a spiritual/humanist. I may have coined that. ;-)
rita
I am not practicing and haven't seen the inside of a synagogue in over 2 years. I still have my faith but it gets so hard to practice it when it has become so inextricably linked to an ideology and a racist one at that.
Rita, if that is your name, it's a pleasure to meet you!
James
Yes, it is rita. The feeling is mutual.
I boycotted so many times on High Holidays over the years, because of wanting to make a statement. I was never really into it as an organized religion, since, as i said, i have never felt connected in that way.
Religious affiliation, i think i said somewhere else, was for me, like Vonnegut's 'Granfalloons' from Cat's Cradle.
I have always felt myself to be a 'universalist'. Uh oh. I just realized that may make me a Catholic! ;-)
One of many pieces i have written that is online. "When Do We Stop Sitting Shiva for the Holocaust?" It was inteded for a jewish audience and i wanted it out for Yom Kippur that year. It ended up in many places, one of which is Electronic Intifada.
Rita, I would have thought being a "universalist" meant being a Unitarian-Universalist, UU, although catholic does mean or imply universal. Many UUs are from Jewish backgrounds and many others from Catholic backgrounds.
Hi Elmwood,
Actually, i have been to the Unitarian Church. I gave a talk in one. It probably depends upon the location, though. The people i met were pretty hard core atheists, which i am not.
Don't get me wrong. I am not an atheist the way Einstein wasn't one. I find the genius of the natural world, as just one reason. But i think many atheists are just reacting to organized religions with their irrational stories that haven't helped the planet too much, as we can witness for ourselves.
Anyway, at this particular Unitarian church, it seemed they lacked a sense of humor. But maybe they didn't like the fact that i spoke about the importance of confronting our emotions. ;-)
rita
actually it has been documented that israeli intelligence successfully committed false flag anti-semitic actions -blowing up synagogues etc., to scare the ancient thousand year old iraqi jewish community so that they would emigrate to israel...
Guernica, i am not at all surprised. And that says a mouthful. Can you find any links?
Thanks for the info.
rita
no, the documentation was on my old-no longer functioning computer,..but its out there somewhere..
bligh4
Hey Truth! You must be the one good Jew that 76 is pondering over whether they exist!
It's possible that a history lesson is needed here. The vast majority of the Jews who live in 'Israel' are not of Semitic origin. The Jews that migrated from Europe to the Middle East, Israel, were/are actually Khazars of the Northern Caucasus along the Caspian Sea region (7th -10th century) and they have no connection whatever to Palestine. Khazars were Eastern Europeans who converted to Judaism several hundred years after the fact. Prior to this they had been pagans. The book THIRTEENTH TRIBE by Arthur Koestler (Israeli) is a good place to start.
We are all of us wading in an immense delusion. Most Jews thus are not Semitic and have no ancestral ties to the land of Palestine at all. None. And the actual Semites, if you can believe this, are the Palestinians, whose ancestors were the 'Jews' of historic lore, who via centuries of their own conversion are now Muslim. This is information that everyone should know. Everyone.
And I don't think that people hate Jews. I think that many people hate the things that Israel does (chronic provocations, lies, international assassinations, torture, apartheid practices against the Palestinians, incessant human rights violations, etc) as a Zionist state, occupier and war criminal. Judge Goldstone was the perfect man to bring forth the light. The Gaza War was the lit match. Mavi Mamara was the powder keg.
I hope for Israel's benefit that it wake up from this 'paranoid-schizophrenic episode' and smell the coffee. Peace, safety and a future will only come for Israelis and Palestinians with the advent of a one state solution. Apartheid, social, religious and economic are little more than the festering carcasses of a previous era.
No PR song and dance is going to work this time. And a war? A war will literally blow up in all (neocons, zionist, their various henchmen and woman) of their faces, because no one can predict the outcome of a war. And an immoral war...
Peace or better yet 'Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness' is the motto and the way things will need to be, if we wish to be moved back from the brink. A brink Israel appears to be egging on. I pray that it wake up soon from its 'paranoid-schizophrenic dream. I pray that it's handler's not wish death for us all.
Cheers,
True to form Israel has proverbially "bitch slapped" Justice Goldstone, a Jew himself, for not towing the Zionist line.
Also true to form, the US government goes right along with it. There is talk apparently of trying to get Goldstone excluded from the US.
Israel wants Jews to come "home" except when they have the cojones to speak the truth. If the "petulant" outspoken Jew is already in Israel then they will make his life a living hell (Mordechai Vanunu).
Excellent post. I think Helen Thomas was 100% right. They should go back to where they came from.