Anger over Israel soldier's prisoner Facebook images

[Devil Soul]

17 August 2010 Last updated at 00:39 GMT
Anger over Israel soldier's prisoner Facebook images
A former Israeli soldier has been sharply criticised for posting images of herself on Facebook posing next to Palestinian prisoners.

Eden Aberjil had put the images in an album on the site entitled "The army: the best days of my life".

Army officials have condemned her behaviour as "shameful" and said they would investigate the matter further.

Palestinian groups said the images were humiliating and revealed the "mentality of the occupier".

The controversial images were among 26 photographs Ms Aberjil posted on her Facebook page.

In one, she is shown smiling next to three bound and blindfolded prisoners and in the second, she is sitting with her face turned towards a prisoner.

Ms Aberjil had already been discharged from the army having completed her mandatory military service, and it was unclear whether she could face disciplinary action.

But a military spokesman said all the details had been passed to her commanders for "further attention".

"This is shameful behaviour by the soldier," the spokesman said in a statement.

Palestinians are routinely blindfolded and handcuffed when arrested by Israeli troops, to prevent them trying to escape.

While the photographs do not depict overt abuse, the Palestinian Authority said they did show "the mentality of the occupier to be proud of humiliating Palestinians".

"The occupation is unjust, immoral and, as these pictures show, corrupting," said spokesman Ghassan Khatib.

Yishai Menuchim, head of the Israeli Committee Against Torture, also criticised the images, saying the incident "reflects an attitude which has become the norm and consists in treating Palestinians like objects, not like human beings".

Last month, six Israeli soldiers were widely criticised for posting a video of themselves performing a dance routine while on duty in the West Bank town of Hebron.

The soldiers escaped disciplinary action after the army said no harm had been done.

Palestinian groups said the images showed the Israeli occupation was "corrupting"
BBC News - Anger over Israel soldier's prisoner Facebook images

 

[Devil Soul]

 

[Patriot]

Soldier in any disciplined military would be court martial and punished for doing stuff like this.This is the stark difference between Gangs with Weapons and Armies with Weapons - Otherwise there is no difference.

 

[QADRI]

this shows the true reality of israel... if still people are in favour of isreali occupation, then they must be ashamed of themselves.

 

[humanfirst]

this shows the true reality of israel... if still people are in favour of isreali occupation, then they must be ashamed of themselves.

It is indeed a shameful incident but it's not right to judge an entire country/community by actions of a few.

 

[GUNNER]

Israel Facebook Row

JERUSALEM, Aug 18, 2010 - Israeli media carried new pictures on Wednesday of troops posing with handcuffed Palestinian prisoners, two days after a former soldier caused uproar for posting such images on Facebook.

"It has become the norm for soldiers to take such pictures," not the exception, Yehuda Shaul, of the rights group Breaking the Silence which initially distributed the controversial pictures, told AFP.

On Monday Israeli public television broadcast pictures of ex-soldier Eden Abargil, which she had posted on the social networking site Facebook, posing smirking next to three blindfolded and handcuffed Palestinian soldiers.

The army denounced the pictures as "shameful," while the Palestinian Authority expressed outrage, describing them as humiliating.

One of the latest pictures, also posted on Facebook, shows a group of soldiers surrounding a young, kneeling female prisoner while another shows a soldier posing next to a wounded Palestinian.

A third picture show a soldier posing next to a blindfolded and cuffed prisoner.
"It is amazing that these pictures shocked people in Israel itself, where many worse things happen" during the arrest and interrogation of prisoners, said Shaul.

For years his organisation has been collecting testimony from soldiers who have served in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, as part of its anti-occupation campaign.

 

[True_Pakistan_Zindabad]

The world is outraged at the pics, not at the fact that Palestinians are treated like prisoners since 1948.

 

[Old School]

Soldier in any disciplined military would be court martial and punished for doing stuff like this.This is the stark difference between Gangs with Weapons and Armies with Weapons - Otherwise there is no difference.

I agree. We have many shocking pictures at our disposal too but we can never publish them like this. There is something called professional ethics and military adheres to that ethics very much as well.

 

[Imran Khan]

wait sir slomon the great is coming for defend it.hhaahahaah

 

[True_Pakistan_Zindabad]

With a conscript army you will get unprofessionalism. Many Israeli soldiers are trigger happy teens. If you haven't been through an Israeli checkpoint you haven't witnessed hell on earth.