17/08/2010 After causing a media storm over her images, a former Israeli occupation army soldier told Army Radio on Tuesday that there was nothing wrong with the pictures she has uploaded to Facebook.
Photographs uploaded by Eden Abergil from Ashdod and labeled "The army – the best time of my life," and made public earlier in the week depicted her smiling next to Palestinian detainees with their hands bound and their eyes covered.
A comment attached to one of the photos of the soldier smiling in front of two blindfold men and posted by one of Abergil's friends read "That looks really sexy for you," with Abergil's response reading: "I wonder if he is on Facebook too – I'll have to tag him in the photo."
Because Abergil was discharged a year ago, the army has no power to prevent her from publicizing the photographs.
One photo shows Abergil crouching in front of three seated detainees - one with white hair, another with a greying beard and a skullcap and a third, a younger man with black hair who is hanging his head. Another one shows her sitting close to the younger man, twisting her head towards him.
The pictures have since been removed from the site - but not before being duplicated across the web by a variety of bloggers and news sites.
"I still don't understand what's wrong," Abergil told Army Radio on Thursday, saying that the "pictures were taken in good will, there was no statement in them."
The former Israeli occupation soldier said the pictures, which she said were of Gazans who had been arrested while attempting to crossover into the occupied territories, were meant to depict a "military experience".
During the Army Radio interview, Abergil repeatedly said that it had never occurred to her that "the picture would be problematic," asking interviewer Ilana Dayan whether the media asked for detainees permission when they film them.
Referring to the possibility that the images could injure Israel's image in the international arena, Abergil said: "We will always be attacked. Whatever we do, we will always be attacked."
The images drew a sharp response from Israel's army, which slammed them as "shameful behavior" and claimed officials would be looking into the actions of the woman who left the military last year.
They were also denounced by the Palestinian Authority, which said the photos showed how the occupation was corrupting Israelis. "This shows the mentality of the occupier, to be proud of humiliating Palestinians," said a statement from the office of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
"There is nothing in the world that can justify this humiliation that is part of the Israeli occupation practices on daily basis."
The Breaking the Silence organization published Tuesday more photographs of Israeli soldiers posing next to bound and cuffed Palestinian detainees.
Some of the images show troops posing with the bodies of killed Palestinians. In some cases, soldiers smile to the camera as the picture is shot.
The group published the photos as part of a new Facebook campaign dubbed "the norm denied by Avi Benayahu," countering the Israeli occupation army spokesman's claim that such photographs are unusual.
"The new campaign came into being in the wake of the publication of (soldier) Eden Abergil's photos, in order to show the prevalence of this phenomenon among IDF ranks," Breaking the Silence said. "The photographs that had been published are merely the tip of the iceberg. Many people possess thousands of photos, but only a small part is being published…we turned Eden into a scapegoat, while the norm is what needs to be targeted."
"This norm is wide-ranging and was created as result of the occupation and the daily control over the civilian population, one of the group's founders, Yehuda Shaul, told Ynet.
"Every soldier becomes used to seeing cuffed and blindfolded Palestinians as a matter of routine, and by seeing it so often, these troops become blind to the fact these are human beings."
The amazement expressed by the Israeli public following the photos' publication attests to "the immense gap between our self-image as a society and our image s reflected in the mirror and in the photographs," Shaul said.
"We think the time has come to put an end to the silence, which facilitates the culture of denial," he said.
Images of soldiers posing alongside bound detainees are widely considered as taboo, largely in the wake of the atrocities exposed at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq following publication of a series of horrific photographs.
The images, which came to light in 2004, showed US occupation soldiers standing proudly next to bloody and battered prisoners, many of whom were naked and hooded.
Israeli conscript posts photos ridiculing abducted Palestinians[ 17/08/2010 - 10:25 AM ]
NAZARETH, (PIC)-- An ex-Israeli soldier posted pictures she took of cuffed and blindfolded Palestinian detainees and posted them on the Facebook social networking website along with mocking comments.
According to the Hebrew e-paper Yediot Ahronot, ex-soldier Eden of Ashdod wrote on a picture of her next to a detainee: “I wonder if he's on Facebook! I have to tag him in the photo! Ha ha.”
The ex-soldier created a photo album on Facebook titled “Army…the best time of my life” of her pictures posing with Palestinians, which drew heavy attention early August, and sparked a massive uproar among supporters and opponents in Israel.
The newspaper pointed out that visitors to Eden’s website commented on the photos with mixed remarks. She replied posting: “What a day that was, see how he completes my picture, I wonder if he's on Facebook!”
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Comment:
What a Zionist Angle ??
She kept him alive
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Flashback:
Israeli soldier shot blindfolded Palestinian with rubber bullet
Attack claim: A still from a video made available by Israeli human rights group B'Tselem which apparently shows an Israeli soldier shooting a rubber bullet at a handcuffed Palestinian
This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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