IDF poser: “gladly kill Arabs – even slaughter them” 19, August 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.Tags: Eden Abergil, Eden Abergil photos, Guardian photo album IDF photos, IDF photos, IDF pictures, MERIA article on Guardian
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The IDF soldier whose photos posed with humiliated, bound Palestinians caused international outrage and criticism from the IDF itself, has allegedly posted numerous hateful statements about Arabs and Palestinians on her Facebook page.
Haaretz reports that she apparently wrote, only last Thursday, that she would
gladly kill Arabs – even slaughter them
because
in war there are no rules.
forgetting, somewhat conveniently, that in fact there are a cornucopia of rules governing war. Moreover, if, as Israel, one of your prime complaints is the illegality of the tactics used against you, surely you’d want to stick to the letter of the law to highlight the opposition’s transgressions? (Obviously this doesn’t work…)
Also, she is not what one might call contricious.
I can’t allow Arab lovers to ruin the perfect life I lead. I am not sorry and I don’t regret it.
Yes, heaven forfend that your perfect life might be impinged by gross human rights violations. Imagine the Israeli outrage if this were the other way around…
When asked about how this might harm Israel’s image abroad she said that
We will always be attacked. Whatever we do, we will always be attacked.
Well, yes you and your country will indeed be tarred if you continue to ignore the most basic of human rights, as seemingly evidenced in these photos.
Hitting the nail squarely on the head, Ishai Menuchin, the head of the Public Committee Against Torture commented that
these terrible photographs reflect a norm in the way Palestinians are viewed, as an object and not as humans. It is an attitude that ignores their feelings as humans and their individual rights.
The Guardian helpfully compiled an album of IDF holiday snaps of similarly horrid photos, surely each and every one violating the Geneva Convention not to mention simple standards of decency.
Perhaps not coincidentally, I also read a diatribe against the Guardian in the right-wing MERIA journal on the apparent tinge of rabid, anti-Zionist feelings among commenters. What a shock: people that comment on newspaper stories on the internet are of the lunatic fringe…ground-breaking conclusions there.
The Gulf blog 
Other than shooting off at the mouth later, what did she do that was legally or morally wrong?!?
She was not abusing the detainees physically, there’s no evidence she did it verbally, she was not even touching them, there were no signs of any mistreatment.
Having the photos taken may have been in bad taste and unprofessional (yes on both counts), but it violated nothing and no-one.
The predictable anti-Semitic, masquerading as anti-Zionist, deluge in the wake of the story is another matter.
I’m no legal expert but I believe that taking photographs of captured prisoners is illegal. That is the core legal problem. As for the moral problem, I think that its fairly revolting to be revelling in the fact that there are some miserable, arrested and humiliated men in shot.
Her subsequent words are, I’d suggest, far more than ‘in bad taste’.
These are the reasons that I thought it worth posting. Please don’t call me anti-Semitic for this. If I saw British troops posing for such photos please believe me that I’d post about those too. That would not make me anti-British. Just because someone’s disagreeing with what 1 Israel person did does not mean that they’re anti-Semitic. The term ‘anti-Semitic’ has important historical baggage that must not be worn away by absurd overuse by those trying to deflect criticism.
This is not a normal thing that happens in the IDF. The IDF handles such cases very seriously and the involved are being punished.
Israel has war laws to defend civilians (both Palestinians and Israelis).
Besides, Israel gives humanitarian help to whomever needs it. for example read this:
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=175858
These photos you show aren’t necessarily a proof that this is what always happens, in our world today we can never be sure if the photo tells the true story.
Indeed, I too doubt that this is ‘normal’ behavior for the IDF. However, I think that there are a few too many similar photos floating around for this to be an isolated case.
While you’re right in reminding us that one needs to be somewhat circumspect when it comes to photos…really; what do you think is going on in this photo?
These not only Arabs, but Arab terrorists
So they deserve to die
And die like them all Arab terrorists
So do not confuse the brain on illegal laws
Israel defends itself constantly
Because trash cans
And think about it from all the major Arab states
They pick on such a small country like Israel protects itself.
But when they kill themselves in Syria, Egypt, Iran
So it’s not that problem
So I have one word to say to you
You are sick and really need therapy