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Israel shocked by image of soldiers forcing violinist to play at roadblock
The Guardian ^ | 11/29/04 | Chris McGreal

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."


TOPICS: News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: israel; palestinian; soldiers; terrorists; violinist
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To: LibWhacker
"Nazi" as a concept is defined by tactic - not choice of victim.

Sounds like SS filth to me:

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.

121 posted on 11/29/2004 6:43:23 AM PST by GOPJ (M.Dowd...hits..like a bucket of vomit with Body Shop potpourri sprinked across the surface--Goldberg)
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To: rdcorso
"Nazi" is defined by tactic - not the choice of victim. Sounds like SS filth to me:

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.

122 posted on 11/29/2004 6:44:02 AM PST by GOPJ (M.Dowd...hits..like a bucket of vomit with Body Shop potpourri sprinked across the surface--Goldberg)
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To: freedumb2003
Someone on a dup thread pointed out (before it was pulled) that it makes sense to have him play to prove the violin is not concealing anything and to ensure he is really a musician.

Good point made. I was wondering if the guards were looking for security info or just wanting to be entertained. I've been asked to turn on my phone to prove it wasn't a fake. I've been asked to take a sip from my coffee cup to prove that I was carrying a potable drink instead of some other liquid. I wish I could play the violin.

123 posted on 11/29/2004 6:50:11 AM PST by jimfree (Your heros say something about your view of heroism.)
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To: LibWhacker

I am shocked too, that the the left leaning 'Guardian' does not run a joint 'news gathering' operation with Al-Jazeera relating to Israel issues. They can try out spinning each other.


124 posted on 11/29/2004 6:53:46 AM PST by M. Espinola (Freedom is never free)
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To: M. Espinola
I am shocked too, that the the left leaning 'Guardian' does not run a joint 'news gathering' operation with Al-Jazeera relating to Israel issues.

They don't?

125 posted on 11/29/2004 6:58:17 AM PST by Slings and Arrows (Am Yisrael Chai!)
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To: Happy2BMe
Thoughts?

They made two mistakes. The second was making him play the violin, reasonable imo, but shouldn't laugh. The first

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.

hopefully won't be repeated.

126 posted on 11/29/2004 7:03:21 AM PST by SJackson ( Bush is as free as a bird, He is only accountable to history and God, Ra'anan Gissin)
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To: LibWhacker

127 posted on 11/29/2004 7:03:57 AM PST by Slings and Arrows (Am Yisrael Chai!)
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To: LibWhacker

I'm from Chicago, I know what a violin case is used for.


128 posted on 11/29/2004 7:10:40 AM PST by reg45
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Yehuda; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; ...
If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.
129 posted on 11/29/2004 7:18:25 AM PST by SJackson ( Bush is as free as a bird, He is only accountable to history and God, Ra'anan Gissin)
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To: JasonC

Yep!


130 posted on 11/29/2004 7:33:55 AM PST by SirLurkedalot (Happy Holidays!)
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To: JasonC

Yep!


131 posted on 11/29/2004 7:33:58 AM PST by SirLurkedalot (Happy Holidays!)
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To: bassoonmoo

ping :)


132 posted on 11/29/2004 7:44:51 AM PST by lupie
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To: West Coast Conservative

bttt


133 posted on 11/29/2004 7:48:30 AM PST by ConservativeMan55 (DON'T FIRE UNTIL YOU SEE THE WHITES OF THE CURTAINS THEY ARE WEARING ON THEIR HEADS !)
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To: Grenada
--------------All good comrades read the Guardian!--------------
134 posted on 11/29/2004 10:01:06 AM PST by M. Espinola (Freedom is never free)
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To: West Coast Conservative

A far wiser policy, perhaps, for Israel in the wake of Arafat's death, would have been a conscientious moratorium on anything as unseemly as the behavior described in the article. The far more disturbing thing was the killing of the 13 year old girl. As the Palestinians scramble for new
"leadership" you don't want to give them any reason to be obliged to pick a new Arafat. Interestingly, though, Arafat's death is not mentioned in this piece.


135 posted on 11/29/2004 10:11:38 AM PST by willyboyishere
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To: FairOpinion

Oh, the torture and the taunting!

Doesn't even look like they are paying attention to the violin player! Geez, they just had to make sure he really was learning to play. It was the responsible thing to do.

But, I am upset by the other stories about the girl and the head on a pole. Not good. Not good.


136 posted on 11/29/2004 10:42:25 AM PST by tuckrdout (Give Thanks to God for our Liberty.)
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To: American in Israel
Equivalence? You got the wrong guy. This happened to be the ONLY story to pop up over the last few years that seemed to have a situation where you had an unarmed Pali kid killed by an IDF officer, and the kid wasn't carryng a bomb, etc., etc.

You remember the Pali/AlJazeera story about two years ago where the machinegun shot the kid in front of his father up against a wall behind a balustrade?

If you go back and review the postings you will discover that I am the first Freeper to point out that when watching the film it was possible, by counting rounds, and watching what was happening, to determine that the firing came from BEHIND the photographer.

The IDF post was off to the right and actually out of sight of the shooting situation.

IDF was about ready to let those guys hang. Then stuff got rolling here, on FR, and with Congressional friends and next thing you know authoritative sources proved, without a doubt, that the IDF guys couldn't have shot that kid. A Pali did it, or an AlJazeera camera crew guy? We killed the propaganda value.

Now, again, why is IDF higher levels harrassing this guy?

Efendi, all things are possible in the Orient, of course.

137 posted on 11/29/2004 11:24:01 AM PST by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah

Fair enough. They are harassing this guy because he is not politicaly correct. Israel is a like a liberal mafia. They jailed a kid for making his own tee shirt that said lo arabi, lo pigium or no arabs, no terrorism.

A bit politicaly incorrect, however correct in real life it may be, but jail?!

Sorry, I took you wrong. Blessings.


138 posted on 11/29/2004 12:10:21 PM PST by American in Israel (A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)
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To: pete anderson
I am sure Iraqi Insurgents have pictures of this incident in their camps and they see no difference between the Americans and Israelis.

Somehow, I don't think we will think this incident is so funny when an Iraqi insurgent does the same thing to one of our boys.

If the Iraqi "insurgent" --- as, in apparent approval of the left-wing media, you kindly called him --- does not see the difference, that is his problem.

But why is it that YOU do not see the difference between a checkpoint in Israel and kidnappings in Iraq? These checkpoints have seen children with bomb-belts, ambulances loaded with rockets, UN-marked vehicles with explosives. They asked the guy to play the violin to prove he is a musician precisely because Arabs lie without shame and limit. So, they LAUGHED at the enemy --- since when it that a crime or even an immoral act.

Now, how is that even related to capturing a soldier an humiliating him before the beheading?

You seem to be a victim of moral relativism.

139 posted on 11/29/2004 3:37:15 PM PST by TopQuark
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To: rpage3
In this place, violence begets violence,

Not really: only insufficient violence begets violence.

When fundamentalist rose in Syria two decades ago, then-president Asad killed 11,000-14,000 people in under two weeks and turned the town where the insurgence occured into one large parking lot. There is no Islamist movement in Syria. None. Having withstood five wars aiming at annihilating Israel, which countries did Israel invade as escalation of violence? None. It invaded only Lebanon in 1982 in response to years of being shelled by Arabs. Just ask, how long would we tolerate bombings of Detroit from Canadian territory? So, where is begetting of violence by violence? I guess, you follow closely the left-wing press and absorb its wisdom.

As for Palestinians --- no, there are no Palestinian people, Mr. Conservative --- they are the only case in modern history of losers not being kicked out. Had Israelis liked them out into Jordan, everybody would've forgotten about this today.

There were Germans living in Western Poland before the WWII. They did not start WWII. Yet they were kicked out of Poland after the war --- merely for being German by blood. All 1.3 million of them. Is any one outraged? Was anyone outraged, ever? Have you even heard of this (until, perhaps, recently when they started to say they want to be compensated for loss of property)?

Now compare. Arabs did start the war against Israel. Palestinian Arabs actively supported the invaders and were URGED by them to leave homes because the war was supposed to be over in a matter of days (that's how they became refugees). What's the difference? If any, Israelis would be even more justified then Poles in the case of Germans.

140 posted on 11/29/2004 3:51:45 PM PST by TopQuark
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