Posted on 11/28/2004 6:19:02 PM PST by LibWhacker
Edited on 11/28/2004 6:23:13 PM PST by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
Of all the revelations that have rocked the Israeli army over the past week, perhaps none disturbed the public so much as the video footage of soldiers forcing a Palestinian man to play his violin.
The incident was not as shocking as the recording of an Israeli officer pumping the body of a 13-year-old girl full of bullets and then saying he would have shot her even if she had been three years old.
Nor was it as nauseating as the pictures in an Israeli newspaper of ultra-orthodox soldiers mocking Palestinian corpses by impaling a man's head on a pole and sticking a cigarette in his mouth.
But the matter of the violin touched on something deeper about the way Israelis see themselves, and their conflict with the Palestinians.
The violinist, Wissam Tayem, was on his way to a music lesson near Nablus when he said an Israeli officer ordered him to "play something sad" while soldiers made fun of him. After several minutes, he was told he could pass.
It may be that the soldiers wanted Mr Tayem to prove he was indeed a musician walking to a lesson because, as a man under 30, he would not normally have been permitted through the checkpoint.
But after the incident was videotaped by Jewish women peace activists, it prompted revulsion among Israelis not normally perturbed about the treatment of Arabs.
The rightwing Army Radio commentator Uri Orbach found the incident disturbingly reminiscent of Jewish musicians forced to provide background music to mass murder. "What about Majdanek?" he asked, referring to the Nazi extermination camp.
The critics were not drawing a parallel between an Israeli roadblock and a Nazi camp. Their concern was that Jewish suffering had been diminished by the humiliation of Mr Tayem.
Yoram Kaniuk, author of a book about a Jewish violinist forced to play for a concentration camp commander, wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that the soldiers responsible should be put on trial "not for abusing Arabs but for disgracing the Holocaust".
"Of all the terrible things done at the roadblocks, this story is one which negates the very possibility of the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. If [the military] does not put these soldiers on trial we will have no moral right to speak of ourselves as a state that rose from the Holocaust," he wrote.
"If we allow Jewish soldiers to put an Arab violinist at a roadblock and laugh at him, we have succeeded in arriving at the lowest moral point possible. Our entire existence in this Arab region was justified, and is still justified, by our suffering; by Jewish violinists in the camps."
Others took a broader view by drawing a link between the routine dehumanising treatment of Palestinians at checkpoints, the desecration of dead bodies and what looks very much like the murder of a terrified 13-year-old Palestinian girl by an army officer in Gaza.
Israelis put great store in a belief that their army is "the most moral in the world" because it says it adheres to a code of "the purity of arms". There is rarely much public questioning of the army's routine explanation that Palestinian civilians who have been killed had been "caught in crossfire", or that children are shot because they are used as cover by fighters.
But the public's confidence has been shaken by the revelations of the past week. The audio recording of the shooting of the 13-year-old, Iman al-Hams, prompted much soul searching, although the revulsion appears to be as much at the Israeli officer firing a stream of bullets into her lifeless body as the killing itself. Some soldiers told Israeli papers that their mothers had sought assurances that they did not do that kind of thing.
One Israeli peace group, the Arik Institute, took out large newspaper adverts to plead for "Jewish patriots" to "open your eyes and look around" at the suffering of Palestinians.
The incidents prompted the army to call in all commanders from the rank of lieutenant-colonel to emphasise the importance of maintaining the "purity of arms" code.
The army's critics say the real problem is not the behaviour of soldiers on the ground but the climate of impunity that emanates from the top.
While the officer responsible for killing Iman al-Hams has been charged with relatively minor offences, and the soldiers who forced the violinist to play were ticked off for being "insensitive", the only troops who were swiftly punished for violating regulations last week were some who posed naked in the snow for a photograph. They were dismissed from their unit.
Last week the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem criticised what it described as a "culture of impunity" within the army. The group says at least 1,656 Palestinian non-combatants have been killed during the intifada, including 529 children.
"To date, one soldier has been convicted of causing the death of a Palestinian," it said.
"The combination of rules of engagement that encourage a trigger-happy attitude among soldiers together with the climate of impunity results in a clear and very troubling message about the value the Israeli military places on Palestinian life."
Scragged? A young Arab runs up from the road and throws a satchel at a soldiers position and gets shot and you say scragged?
You are stupid. Perhaps you would have run out to ask her her birthday and hand her back the stachel? The guy shot her because she was dying, and also because he felt he needed to make an impression on his men. She knew she would be killed, it was why she threw the books. She died for bait, and you just took it, hook line and sinker.
That is why peace activists die fast in war, they are ultimatly gullible. It will also get your fellows killed. He was also judicialy punished as you claim he was not. That is why you can never trust a peace activist, they lie. The ends justify the means and mien kamft and all that stuff.
I was being SARCASTIC!!!!!!!!!
The last time I was at an airport security check they asked me to......to.....choke....sob.....turn my video camera on. ....... It was horrible.
I have seen the embarassment of Arabs at having to be stopped and have their papers checked. I have seen Jews on their knees faces to the dirt wailing with grief because their family was just shredded on a bus.
It makes me want to kick the s*it out of peace activists.
OMGGG rack that comment Alouette LOLOLOLOL!!
Yeah call it PLO idol LOLOLOL!!!
OMG is that Rachel Corrie kinfolks her parents
OH Pleaseeeeee
A "peace activist" would complain that he "desecrated" a Koran by stripping its cover.
Never heard of orthodox and the head on a pike incident. I highly doubt it ever happened, it sounds like a classic propganda spike thrown into the argument.
I have seen a few Arab heads in the streets though, after they have blown themselves up. For some reason it fires the head straight up like a soccer ball.
OH that sucks Alouette
I would mind somebody post that Hamas book cover on FR OH YEAH would show Lurkers lurking on this thread on what Hamas is really about
Asking him to play was the the logical and most senstive way to have dealt with the situation and eliminated doubt about the violin and its player. Likewise, when one goes through a security check point with a camera in Israel and elsewhere, the guard asks you to shoot a photo to make sure the camera is a working camera. There is nothing too small for these effete enemies of capitalism to distort into a cause. It shows how moral Israel really is if her enemies create a hearts and flowers story out of a violinist being asked to play his violin for a minute or two and then being sent along his way.
Are the enemies of Israsel suggesting that it would have been better for the checkpoint staff to have delayed him for a longer time as they figured out a way to scrutinize the innards of his violin and risk getting blown up? There is a long, long track record of mass murdering ruses among the Palestinian Arabs, using this or that central casting costume of peaceful folk. Reporters either wittingly or unwittingly again are turning on the amnesia button about why Israel has no choice but to have check points to prevent terrorists from bringing murder and mayhem into Israel.
LMFAO...Relax....it's totally cool...I know you were.
It's not even in the same league as pink panties. What the heck.
"But after the incident was videotaped by Jewish women peace activists...".
Kinda CONVENIENT for them to be there, don't you think?
And, since when does trying to embarrass your own Government's security efforts equate to peace?
If you have such a story, do us all a favor by posting it.
In the meantime quit acting so pompously. You know very well the IDF did not agree with that particular officer's actions in this situation.
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Nor was it as nauseating as the pictures in an Israeli newspaper of ultra-orthodox soldiers mocking Palestinian corpses by impaling a man's head on a pole and sticking a cigarette in his mouth.
I know very well what the Palis do with kids. We had a neighbor kid visit there several years back (when he was about 8 or 9) and next thing you know they had him carrying a bomb to school with him.
The question is where is an authoritative story (beyond yours) about what happened. Your statement leaves unaddressed the issue of IDF making some minor charges against the officer in the case. If all is as you say, why would they bother?
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