band annie's Weblog

Max Blumenthal

Eden Abergil during “the most beautiful time” of her life

Is there anything shocking about the Facebook photos showing the Israeli female soldier Eden Abergil posing in mocking positions next to bound and blindfolded Palestinian men? While her conduct was abominable, I did not find it especially distinct from the documented behavior of Israeli soldiers and Border Police in the Occupied Territories.

Below is a photo I took in Hebron in June before soldiers demanded that I stop shooting (I will release video from Hebron as soon as I get the chance). Scenes like these can be witnessed on any given day in the West Bank. Not only do they show the dehumanization that the Palestinian Morlocks are subjected to on an hourly basis, they depict the world where Abergil spent what she called “the most beautiful time of [her] life.” It is easy to see how young Israelis (or anyone) would be sapped of their humanity in such an environment.

In July, I waited inside the cafeteria of Israel’s Guantanamo-like Ofer Prison after watching Ibrahim Amira, a leader of the Ni’ilin popular committee, be sentenced by a kangaroo court to six months in prison for the trumped-up charge of “incitement” (he was accused of paying kids to throw rocks at the Israeli soldiers who invade their village at least every week, as if they needed encouragement). While I stood at the counter to order a coffee, I watched four female jailers gather around a laptop to check their Facebook pages. I wondered what their status updates looked like. If they wrote anything relating to their work, would their Facebook pages look different than Abergil’s? Of course not. Just take a trip to Eyal Niv’s blog and look at some of the photos other young Israelis are posting.

I took this photo in Hebron in June before soldiers ordered me to stop shooting. A Palestinian man was being near the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron.

You don’t have to go to the West Bank or into an Israeli prison to recognize that Abergil is a typical product of Israel’s comprehensively militarized society. Just watch the documentary, “To See When I’m Smiling.” In the film, which tells the soul-crushing stories of four young women conscripted into the Israeli Army, one of the characters recounts posing for a photo beside a dead Palestinian man who had an erection. She was smiling from ear to ear in the photo. However, at the end of the film, when she is compelled to look at the picture for the first time in two years, she does not recognize the monster who bears her image. Her contorted facial expression seems to ask, “Who was I?”

“To See When I’m Smiling” was produced by Breaking The Silence, a human rights group formed by ex-Israeli soldiers who collect testimonies from their peers. Incidentally, Breaking The Silence has published a 132-page booklet of testimonies by female soldiers (PDF here) who participated in acts at least as hideous as those depicted on Abergil’s Facebook page.

Here is Testimony 63, by a female sergeant from the Nahal Unit who served in Mevo Dotan:

I recall once, this was after we moved to Mevo Dotan, to the base there, some Palestinian was sitting on a chair and I passed by several times. Once I thought: Okay, why is he sitting here for an hour? I feel like spitting at him, at this Arab. And they tell me: Go one, spit at him. I don’t recall whether anyone did this before I did, but I remember spitting at him and feeling really, like at first I felt, wow, good for me, I just spat at some terrorist, that’s how I’d call them. And then I recall that afterwards I felt some thing here was not right.

Why?

Not too human. I mean, it sounds cool and all, but no, it’s not right.

You thought about later, or during the act?

Later. At the time you felt real cool.

Even when everyone was watching, you felt real cool.

Yes, and then sometimes you get to thinking, especially say on Holocaust Memorial Day, suddenly you’re thinking, hey, these thing were done to us, it’s a human being after all. Eventually as things turned out he was no terrorist anyway, it was a kid who’d hung around too long near the base, so he was caught or something.

A child?

An adolescent.

Slaps?

Yes.

Blindfolded and all?

Yes. I think that at some point no one even stood watch over him.

The female sergeant recalled the Holocaust when she reflected on her actions. If you are raised in a Jewish home, it is difficult not to see the ravages of the occupation in the light of the Holocaust, regardless of whether you know that the Israeli army’s violence bears little comparison to the exterminationism of the Nazis. Just as when I watched “To See When I’m Smiling,” Abergil’s photos made me think of Costa Gavras’ haunting Holocaust film, “Music Box.” If you have seen it, you will understand my reference. If not, rent it.

I also thought of the first stanza of “Vision,” a poem by the Palestinian writer Muhammad al-Qaisi. The poem reminded me not only of the Abergil’s public unmasking, but also of the many Israelis who told me about their experiences in the army as though they were describing some morally debased person they had never met:

I see the faces change their complexion

peel off their outer skin

I see the faces divested

of makeup and masks

and I see an empty stage

the spectators denying their own images

in the third act.

:: Article nr. 68902 sent on 17-aug-2010 11:18 ECT

www.uruknet.info?p=68902

Aseel Bseiso August 15, 2010 at 9:59am

Ninety-two people from the Palestinian village of Hmayyir, in the al-Farisiya area of the occupied West Bank, have had their homes demolished as the Israeli authorities continue with large-scale destruction there. On 5 August, 27 tents that people were living in and 10 other properties used for agricultural purposes were demolished. People are at risk across the West Bank.

Israel military officials returned to Hmayyir at around 7.30am on 5 August, using two bulldozers to flatten the area. The 27 tents destroyed were newly erected tents and had been donated to families by the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Local Government as an emergency measure, after the Israeli army destroyed 74 properties, including family homes, on 19 July, affecting over 100 people, including 52 children. The destruction yesterday displaced a further 22 people, of whom 11 are children.

According to the latest figures from the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, 135 people in total were affected by the demolitions on 19 July and 5 August.

Hmayyir lies within the 60 per cent of the West Bank designated as “Area C”, which is completely under Israeli control; Palestinians living there face destruction of their property and severe restrictions on building .

The latest demolitions reflect an extremely worrying trend in the Israeli government’s apparent policy to increase the destruction of property. According to OCHA, 550 Palestinians have lost their homes or sources of livelihood in recent weeks. More than two thirds of demolitions carried out in 2010 occurred in July alone.

Between the beginning of the year and end of July, according to UN statistics, 230 structures were demolished, affecting 1,122 people, of whom 410 are children. Only two days ago, the Israeli army demolished two brick structures used for livestock in ‘Azzun ‘Atma, in Qalqiliya, on grounds the family did not have permission to build.

On 29 July, the UN Human Rights Committee expressed concern at Israel’s “frequent administrative demolition of property, homes, as well as schools in the West Bank and East Jerusalem…” and called on Israel to “review its housing policy and issuance of construction permits with a view to implementing the principle of non-discrimination regarding minorities, in particular Palestinians…”

PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in Hebrew, English or your own language:
Calling on the authorities to place an immediate moratorium on house demolitions and forced evictions in the West Bank and to “review its housing policy and issuance of construction permits” in accordance with the UN Human Rights Committee’s recommendations;

Condemning the demolition of the homes in al-Farisiya and urging them to cease further destruction;

Calling for responsibility for planning and building regulations in the Jordan Valley to be placed solely with the local Palestinian communities.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 10 SEPTEMBER 2010 TO:

Minister of Defence
Ehud Barak
37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya
Tel Aviv 61909, Israel
Fax: +972 3 691 6940/696 2757
Email: minister@mod.gov.il

Salutation: Dear Minister

Military Judge Advocate General
Brigadier General Avihai Mandelblit
6 David Elazar Street
Hakirya, Tel Aviv, Israel
Fax: +972 3 569 4526/608 0366
Email: avimn@idf.gov.il

Salutation: Judge Advocate General