Israeli soldier poses with Palestinian prisoners. Offensive?

A former Israeli soldier found herself at the center of a global Internet storm today after she posted photographs of herself on her Facebook page posing with handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian detainees. Eden Abergil, from the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, titled the sequence of pictures "IDF [Israel Defense Forces] the best time of my life."

The Palestinian Authority was quick to voice their criticism.. Spokesman Ghassan Khatib said, "This shows the mentality of the occupier, to be proud of humiliating Palestinians. The occupation is unjust, immoral and, as these pictures show, corrupting."

In an interview today with Israel Radio, Eden Abergil claims she has received death threats and is now living under virtual siege at her home in Ashdod. "I still don't understand what's wrong," she said, adding that the pictures "were taken in good will; there was no statement in them."

Although an Israeli military spokesman denounced Ms. Abergil’s snapshots as “base and crude” on Monday, Israeli human rights groups agreed with her description of them as far from unusual.

My question to you: Do you think Eden Abergil's photos are offensive, or do you think this kind of thing happens all the time and is no big deal?

full abc, nytimes article

Tags: Israeli, Offensive?, Palestinian, poses, prisoners., soldier, with

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Permalink Reply by isadore pasarow on August 23, 2010 at 4:18pm

How can you say that? Don't forget about the Vietnam War. Go to the war museum in their country and you will see photos of American soldier pushing handcuffed Vietnamese prisoners out of flying helicopters or dragging their bodies behind jeeps.

Sure these new photos are wrong, but they are no where near as bad as previous things that soldiers of many nations have done. The reason that photographic accounts of lapses of ethics during WWII might not be as abundant may have to do with the fact that not everyone had a digital camera and an internet connection back then.

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Permalink Reply by Imran on August 20, 2010 at 9:30am

OFFENSIVE!

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Permalink Reply by Red on August 31, 2010 at 4:02am

I think these pictures are rotten. I tried to consider the mindset the military creates in their soldiers, and even in that context I think these photos are terrible. Okay so you got the enemy. Or who you think is an enemy. Don't look so smug about it. And that's the word- smug. That's exactly how she comes across to me.

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Permalink Reply by James Kay on December 14, 2010 at 9:39pm

The Israel Defense Force (IDF) was, for a long time, the single unifying entity in the State of Israel. During Menachem Begin's tenure, he packed the upper ranks with ultra-religious fanatics who are now supporting the settler movement in an open attempt at 'ethnic cleansing' to drive out the Palestinians.

The State of Israel has lost its soul! It has become a curse on world Jewry! I hang my head in shame.