Rights groups: Controversial photos are 'the norm'
By Liel Kyzer and Anshel PfefferThe photos posted on Facebook and showing Israel Defense Forces soldiers next to handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian detainees represent the norm, not the exception, human rights organization Breaking the Silence said yesterday. The IDF has said the photographs do not reflect common practice.
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Photographs depicting humiliation of Palestinian detainees by soldiers. The photos were published Tuesday by Breaking the Silence. |
| Photo by: Breaking the Silence |
The photographs that Eden Abergil posted on her Facebook page this week, under the title "IDF - the best time of my life," sparked massive public outrage in Israel. The photos show a smiling Abergil sitting next to Palestinian detainees in wrist restraints and blindfolds.
When they realized the potential for damage to the army's image, the IDF posted a video to YouTube in which an officer explains, in English, that they do not reflect the daily lives of IDF soldiers, whose conduct is guided by a code of ethics.
The video showed humanitarian activities carried out by the IDF, such as the aid mission to Haiti after the earthquake in January and the daily passage of 250 supply trucks into the Gaza Strip, which the officer said was the "real face" of the IDF.
Breaking the Silence and B'Tselem yesterday published photographs taken by soldiers that showed them near handcuffed Palestinians and even dead bodies as well as abusing prisoners, in order to emphasize that Abergil's photos did not reflect an unusual situation.
Yehuda Shaul is one of the founders of Breaking the Silence, which was formed by soldiers who chose to speak publicly about the abuses they witnessed during their service. "This may be a small and unimportant incident, but it encapsulates precisely the feeling among soldiers serving in the territories," Shaul said yesterday. "At some point," Shaul continued, "they stop seeing these handcuffed people as human beings."
On the Facebook page, Breaking the Silence described the norms the photos allegedly expose as the "necessary result of long-term military control of a civilian population."
Meanwhile, Abergil says that she does not feel the need to apologize.
"I do not regret anything I have done, I am not apologizing. I did not harm anyone," she told Haaretz. "There is nothing in these photographs that is problematic, there is no violence, no insults, no blows, there is nothing there. Anyone who serves in the territories takes pictures near Palestinian prisoners, so stop taking things out of context," she added.
Abergil said yesterday that she felt she was being victimized. "I don't know how to deal with the comparison [of photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghreib prison], this is terrible and I do not deserve this. Why don't they compare me with Gilad Shalit or Ron Arad?! Why are they comparing me with those American soldiers?"
In a radio interview Abergil said that she had made a mistake in putting the photographs on Facebook, but refused to consider the act as immoral.
"When you show handcuffed prisoners on television, is it with their permission?" she asked interviewer Ilana Dayan on Army Radio yesterday. "I really do not understand what is wrong. There was no political statement in this photograph, just part of the military experience."
Abergil was also critical of the IDF for discharged her from reserve duty immediately after the story broke. "The army's response is terrible, this is not a response for the State of Israel and the IDF."
Mocking the statement Monday by the IDF spokesman, who described what she did as "crude" Abergil said: "Instead of shaking off responsibility and behaving like preachers, they should give proper backing to their soldiers who are serving and receiving NIS 300 per month."
"After your response, I would not bother to come serve in the reserves," she said.
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Ever since the camera was invented, soldiers have been taking pictures of the enemy, alive and dead. If this can be defined as a "norm" it certainly is not military policy. By no stretch of common sense, can the claim be made that the prisoners rights have been denied, anymore than taking a picture of an accused subject in court, be considered a violation of his rights. The declaration of Ms Abergil, that this was "The Best Time of My Life" is akin to an aspiring porno star submitting her performance to a porno site for all to see. Young lady, you have a real problem:take care of it.
This crazy self important chick with the huge chip on her soldier sounds like a typical israeli "soldier" to me.
Many in the Muslim world will be upset by this soldier posing for a picture next to the terrorist; however, where was the Arab/Muslim outrage when Daniel Pearl was photographed in captivity and murdered for being a Jew?
the main story on Yahoo ,an Israeli soldier pictured with Palestnian prisoners ( yea wrong )BUT!!!! when at the same time and day 60 arabs die by a suicide Bomber and over 100 wounded doesnt even make the headlines .... alittle anti semitism here !!
What a creepy chick!
We are forgetting that this pictures are photos of enemy, a defeated one. There is nothing wrong with taking a photo of your defeated enemy when he is lying beneath your feet. Such photos should be published in numbers and distributed in enemy's villages and cities - to let them taste the consequences of fighting with us. The enemy should know its cause is failing and will always fail. This is the best way to demoralise the enemy and thus to win the war. Good job Abergil !
Defeated enemy? Helpless women and children, elderly, all victims of a cruel unjust colonization that should never have been allowed to happen. These are not equal enemies of war, and even if they were- to take photos of of a defeated enemy and publish them is not the action of any humane or balanced human being.
One small problem with your line of reasoning. Triumphalism doesn't play well in the information age. Far from demoralizing the enemy, such become propaganda for the other side. If nothing else, this is self-defeatingly stupid.
Where did you see women and children on the Abergil photos ? The enemy on the photos are all male , in their prime years. Those guys may be very dangerous if they let to run loose. Still, they are defeated and should be shown to the world as defeated loosers. As for the triumphalism and the information age - we have a lot of people concerning how this and that would look in the eyes of the world. Nobody thinks how the same photos would influence the enemy which is much more important. Our war is not with "the wolrd", not even with the arab nation, our war is with palestinians who must and will be defeated again and again. And in this war we must destoy their very will to fight. Their cause is hopless and long lost. This should be the main goal of our propaganda efforts - to break the enemy , and not to please some Internet surfers in Europe.
My grandfather was very proud of those pictures as he captured the prisoners by himself. I'm very proud of him as well. So what is the difference here ? 65 years ago it were german facist nazis, now it's islamo-facist nazis. Both wated to kill jews, germans were mosre effective and successful with this, that's all the difference. Both accused jews for stealing their land/jobs/money etc which they saw a good excuse to kill the jews. At the end we will destroy them just like we destroyed them 65 years ago. And later we will show the photos to our grandchildren to teach them that nazism is always destroyed at the end.
Wow. Don't ever wonder why most of the world has lost faith in your religious police state.
As a German those fotos remind me to some Pics of German soldiers stationed in Afghanistan in 2006. Those soldiers made photos of themselves together with skulls they found in the desert. They even painted their cars with symbols of the 3rd-Reich-Wehrmacht! In this way they wanted to show the "adventures" during their mission: http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,445356,00.html I think, this could happen to every army in the world thats fighting in some kind of war. Soldiers need some kind of distance to the enemy, otherways it wouldn't work. But some soldiers are going too far and use enemies as objects, like big game hunters in Africa take pics of their animals they shot. If this happens, a democratic society should have a closer look on whats going on and condemn those Fotos. Some leftists over here in Germany may see those pics as an evidence for the "Inhuman IDF". I even think, some of them (leftist anti-semits) will now compare the IDF with the Nazi-Wehrmacht. But thats not the case. I think the IDF is still a human army, controlled by a democratic Isreal public. It's good that the army generals acted, it's good that theres a discussion in Israel. I'm quite sure, there wouldn't be such a discussion in the arab world if arab taliban would take those kind of pics of their "western/jewish" enemies.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Various photographs much worse than this have been published over the years. I have one in my collection of two IDF soldiers standing with a foot each on a dead Arab, like big game hunters with a wildebeest. I believe that the reason the IDF responded so harshly to her is that they are annoyed at her opening this particular can of worms. It is not as though this sort of attitude has ever been discouraged. If the IDF inculcates a belief in the sub-humanity of the Palestinians in order to better create soldiers capable of the nastiness they practice, then this sort of result is predictable.
In Israel's new relatively short history.ALL the spies & traitors came from the Left. See the book by:Yossi Melman & Eitan Haber (The spies) Yidioth Ahronoth,2002. Even today you'll find some of the worst enemies of Israel in the academia wearing the mantle of professors etc. & continuing their hate campaign against Israel by other means. Sometimes the criticism against these groups is so strong that the light that shines into their eyes so great that,more often than not our posts are not printed...... A pity !..
Still better than Islamic Suicide Bombers.
something is always better than another thing, comparing it doesn't excuse it from being wrong in the first place. all things wrong should be corrected, some are more wrong than others but they are all wrong.
When pictures of suicide bombings are published, nobody (you included, I'm assuming) is calling for war crimes trials for the perpetrators. Yet when these pictures come out, the phony "human rights" supporters all scream for IDF blood.
It is only through truth that people or nations can heal. Israelis need to hear and see the truth.
This is a pro-Palestinian lobby group that has nothing to do with human rights. Ha'aretz certainly wouldn't describe the Yesha Council as a human rights group even though it does promote and defend human rights of its constituents. Why does the media (especially Ha'artez) describe anti-Israel lobby groups as being "human rights" oriented when their actions and activities show that they are political action oriented?
What is the complaint?
I guess you are quite ignorant of matters like this, but it is illegal to publish pictures of prisoners like this. That's why Israel's buddies were embarrassed by the photos from Abu Ghraib. It is a war crime, in fct, and ms Abergil should be tried for it.
It is amazing to read about comments made by Abergil. There is clear indication about how this individual become de-sensitized to such acts. Beyond belief... Is this an isolated incident? It doesn't appear to be so. However, timing of the insensitivity shown by Abergil is appauling. When Israel and IDF are in so much pressure in recent months, the attention something like this brings upon them was surely not something desired.
I mean lets face it, this could be worse(or it already is and we don't see other pics). with Israel this is not bad, Palestinians are lucky if this happens to them.
If Hamas had released the same sort of photos with the abducted Israeli soldier i bet the response would have been so much different! finally we see the truth.
Your parents and grandparents were persucuted and murdered. Jews of the world made great Scapegoats. A politican spreading the lie that all that ill`s society is the jew. It becomes a reality. The jew waits on God but has no other defense. Of course they were perfect victims, they had no means to resisit. This self hating jewish author has forgotten what Israel is. Ir is a jewish state that has a fierce military that holds her enemys at bay. Because of these new generations of authors that have grown up in a democracy they have seemed to forget, or not even care. You have freedom of the press that is a cornerstone of your freedoms. But you are doing more harm then god with an extreme liberal agenda. Remember it is the extreme liberals who are looking to destroy you.Bibi is not a warm and fuzzy leader, but he understands what is at stake and this makes him a great leader.
IDF Code of Ethics? Ha.
Funny, Keith, but I don't recall that they have a code, other than to kill as many civilians as possible. Does that also rate a "ha" from you, or do you admire them for their total lack of ethics?
Who cares....I don't see the issue here...move along.
How stupid can you be, Ms. Abergil? Is this the level to which Israel has sunk? I do not understand why my country (the U.S.A.) throws its money and prestige out the window to keep supporting your regime.
.Putting the jews among the muslims & stealing their land to do it, was bound to cause trouble. Well done USA! Just like you stole America from the Indians & Australia from the Aborigines & we stole all the countries for our empire to grab all the resources. We are thieving murdering people with so much blood on our hands that we choose to forget as it's in the past. No wonder you are so hated.
First, The Jewish people's native land of origin is Israel/Judea so none "put us there",Second we do have friends for example a woman Native American tribal chief Richards is her name essentially told Israel to keep fighting so those that wish to take its land will be thwarted. Stop telling Jews that everyone hates us and worry about examining how you personally feel about the Jews? Are you unbaised?
Guess the camera just caught you on a totally unusual day, right?
Should the Israelis be apologetic about capturing terrorists? About hurting the terrorists' feelings? Let's get real and put things in perspective! In less tolerant nations they take prisoners and drag their bodies through the streets, take the benevolent society of Lebanon for example.