There’s a new and shocking booklet of testimonies out from Breaking the Silence, this one from anonymous female soldiers who served in the Occupied Territories and routinely abused the "Arabs" or "illegal aliens." Because they could, or needed to. Ynet has published many of the testimonies, and they’re horrifying/nightmarish, all about the kind of warped psychological/gender power abuse that people talk about in David Hare plays or in Eastern European memoirs. What if these stories of sexualized humiliation were published in the U.S.? (Noam Sheizaf asks). Don’t worry, they won’t be. And they won’t be acted out in Jewish Community Centers, not for another ten years, till the kids take over.
What did you do mom when this was happening?
Well honey we didn’t know anything about it.
But that guy in the play says it was all over the internet, on Ynet, and Promised Land–
Well I know, but you know, well, there was a lot of anti-Semitism then, and Israel-bashing. And your father and I– well, we used to read– [Mom breaks down]
What, mom, what did you used to read?
The New York Times–.
Totally inappropriate. Sorry. A few excerpts.
[1] A female Seam Line Border Guard spoke of the chase after illegal aliens: "In half an hour you can catch 30 people without any effort." Then comes the question of what should be done with those who were caught – including women, children, and elderly. "They would have them stand, and there’s the well-known Border Guard song (in Arabic): ‘One hummus, one bean, I love the Border Guard’ – they would make them sing this. Sing, and jump. Just like they do with recruits… The same thing only much worse. And if one of them would laugh, or if they would decide someone was laughing, they would punch him. Why did you laugh? Smack… It could go on for hours, depending on how bored they are. A shift is eight hours long, the times must be passed somehow."…
[2] Was there also abuse of women?
"Yes" [a different] soldier replied. "Slaps, that kind of thing. Mainly slaps."
From men?
"Also. From whoever. It was mainly the female combat soldiers who beat people. There were two who really liked to beat people up. But also men, they had no problem slapping a woman around. If she screamed, they’d say, ‘Shut it,’ with another slap. A routine of violence. There were also those who didn’t take part, but everyone knew it happened."
[3] A female Border Guard officer in Jenin spoke of an incident in which a nine-year-old Palestinian, who tried to climb the fence, failed, and fled – was shot to death: "They fired… when he was already in the territories and posed no danger. The hit was in the abdomen area, they claimed he was on a bicycle and so they were unable to hit him in the legs." But the soldier was most bewildered by what happened next between the four soldiers present: "They immediately got their stories straight… An investigation was carried out, at first they said it was an unjustified killing… In the end they claimed that he was checking out escape routes for terrorists or something… and they closed the case."…
[4] They really just started to laugh at me. The commander looks at me and tells me, ‘What? Are you going to let that slide? Look how he’s laughing at you’.
"And you, as someone who has to salvage your self-respect… I told them to sit down and I told him to come…I told him to come close, I really approached him, as if I was about to kiss him. I told him, ‘Come, come, what are you afraid of? Come to me!’ And I hit him in the balls. I told him, ‘Why aren’t you laughing?’ He was in shock, and then he realized that… not to laugh. It shouldn’t reach such a situation."
You hit him with your knee?
"I hit him in the balls. I took my foot, with my military shoe, and hit him in the balls. I don’t know if you’ve ever been hit in the balls, but it looks like it hurts. He stopped laughing in my face because it hurt him. We then took him to a police station and I said to myself, ‘Wow, I’m really going to get in trouble now.’ He could complain about me and I could receive a complaint at the Military police’s criminal investigation division.
"He didn’t say a word. I was afraid and I said. I was afraid about myself, not about him. But he didn’t say a word. ‘What should I say, that a girl hit me?’ And he could have said, but thank God, three years later I didn’t get anything and no one knows about it."
What did it feel like that moment?
"Power, strength that I should not have achieved this way. But I didn’t brag about it. That’s why I did it that way, one on one. I told them to sit on the side, I saw that he wasn’t looking. I said to myself that it doesn’t make sense that as a girl who gives above and beyond and is worth more than some boys – they should laugh at me like that because I am a girl. Because you think I can’t do it…"
Today, when you look at it three years later, would you have done things differently?
"I would change the system. It’s seriously defective."
Noam Sheizaf writes:
[T]o me this set of testimonies is even more important than the one Breaking the Silence published regarding operation Cast Lead in Gaza – or at least just as important – because it reveals something of the real nature of the occupation that many people don’t get. Israel’s occupation is not the most murderous regime today, certainly not in history. It’s the daily pressure on the entire population and the humiliations all Palestinians go through that’s unprecedented, at least today. We are talking about millions of civilians, in roadblocks, on the streets and even in their houses, at the hands 18 years old kids, with no one to appeal to and no law to guard them – and that’s before the settlers come into the picture. In this reality, and with a popular uprising against the occupation in the background, acts like those described in the Breaking the Silence report are almost inevitable.
“I would change the system. It’s seriously defective.”
Given the hollow meaning the word “peace” has taken on in many quarters in Israel, I wonder what he meant by “seriously defective”.
Perhaps he’s interested in seeing the institutionalized apartheid system streamlined, made more convenient for soldiers.
By the way, Phil, these kinds of publications are certainly not new, as you most likely are aware. The problem in Israeli society today, is the willful ignorance. The rationale is, if the brutality and violations of human rights are hidden away behind a wall over There, I don’t have to concern myself with it.
But, should a Palestinian dare to drive a front loader into oncoming traffic in Jerusalem, suddenly Israelis become indignant, as if to say, “how dare you disrupt our rush hour commute as we are about to head home to see our families and children?”
Totally inappropriate. Sorry. A few excerpts.
I actually like it and find it rather illustrative.
So, Phil, how many years till “the new generation” takes over?
Mooser there won’t be a ‘new generation’ of any kind. You have to think of every kid who has been inducted into the IDF, and brainwashed with attitudes towards ‘nigger’ Palestinians.
And these are not just a few kids, but every Israeli kid.
Richard,
The numbers are small, but there are Israeli kids who are rebelling against the militarism of Israeli society and against the immorality of the IDF and the occupation. Shministim is one example. New Profile is another one. If there is any hope for Israeli society, it lies with groups like these.
Calling up the New Profile website reminded me that they have a very informative report on <a href="Child Recruitment in Israel. (PDF file )
Oopa, screwed up the link . Try this Child Recruitment in Israel
There are very, very many decent Israelis, and they would be as shocked by these reports as we are, but the incidents happen Over There, beyond the Wall.
Sometimes we forget the very small area we are discussing. The distance between, say Nablus, and Tel Aviv, is only 30 miles. It used to be possible, pre-1967 to drive from Amman to Jerusalem for lunch.
Israel is living within its own concentration camp.
Avigail Abarbenal, on the dehumanizing impact of IDF service:
link to avigailabarbanel.me.uk
There were very many decent Germans under the Nazi regime who claimed that they would have been as shocked by the death camps as the rest of the world was, but they never knew. And you know what? The rest of the world didn’t believe them. The rest of the world said they had an obligation to know these what was happening, to ask what was happening, and not to hide their heads in wilfull ignorance.
If Israelis don’t know what is going on 30 miles away, it is solely due to willful ignorance. They don’t want to know. They don’t care. The news isn’t hidden away. Anyone can pick up a copy of Ha’aretz and see for themselves what is going on. Their excuses won’t wash.
I do not think so this is all about ‘racial prejudice’, ‘niggers’, ‘laughing at’, etc. of the IDF. This is mainly about a mental mixture of inexplicable nervousness, confusion (a war the soldiers do not fully understood the moral grounds), and most of all the feeling and exercise of ‘unrestrained power’ in the battle front. This is a psychological reality of being fully armed, ‘licensed to kill’, and in a war frontline.
Some are even committing rape because the emotion of sexual urges confuses with the extreme excitement to pursue own’s survival and live intact. The smell of gunpowder and the sound of gun burst even aggravates the incomprehensible individual tension. If you are a soldier of the same ‘disposition’ most likely you will also think and behave like that.
This is why I personally do not agree to the boot camp training of the soldiers such as the marines during the WW2. This kind of ‘savagery simulation’ training which releases, humiliates, subjected to trainers idiosyncrasies, and damages one’s dignity makes every soldier a potential savage and sadistic. Under such military ‘hardening’ training circumstances, what can you expect from these draftees? human right lawyers? Usually you are producing soldiers that are as ‘fools and idiots’, ‘Blind’ irrational fighters prone to suicidal and mentally deranged tendencies, and worst – easier to kill by their better ‘psychologically prepared’ enemies.
Yeah, that defense didn’t really fly at Nuremberg.
Andrea Dworkin, noted anti-zionist Jewish feminist, saw this sexualized violence in Israel way before anyone else.
In a totally militarised society, where both sexes have equal rights and equal military obligations (but not if they are male and religious) this kind of young female behaviour (wanting to keep up with the boys) is bound to occur.The casualness of the evil is most striking.
I see exactly this kind of attitude in young Israeli surfers who come here, after military service, who act as if they own the place. They’ve been quietly banned from my town; very excusable anti-semitism. Local native-born surfers have formed a loose grouping that makes sure they never, ever get a wave, or quietly beats them up if they are too provocative. Local native deference to such foreigners has long gone.
No need to wonder what kinds of racialist anti-Palestinian attitudes become innured in whole future generations, for ever. No need to wonder how 94% of Israelis approved of Operation Cast Lead.
What is truly amazing is the stoicism of Palestinians undergoing such casual daily treatment.
Apartheid is quite definitely there, but it’s mostly out of everyday sight.
Israeli tourists are anathema worldwide, but especially the pre and post-IDF youth.
I thought this was interesting:
la times blog on avatar
Lynn, I’m surprised Mondo hasn’t picked this up. Watching “Avatar,” I thought it was a spot-on parable for Palestinians. What “Inglourious Basterds” were to militarized Zionists, “Avatar” is to terrorized Palestinians.
Always anonymous stories from anonymous people. Therefore they must be true.
Thanks for the input, Jules.
Obviously, Julian, you have never been a grunt in any Army, female or male. A ground pounder has no power at all as a soldier. His or her life can be made totally miserable at the drop of a hat by anyone one rank above.
some of Breaking the silent groups already told stories and give their names: link to news.bbc.co.uk
Strange that the only free democracy in the Middle East should classify its own as minors until they are 18, but Palestinian niggers only until they are 16
This BBC News item from aparisian is quite shocking:
link to news.bbc.co.uk
Gerard Horton is an international lawyer for DCI. He said Mohammad’s Ballasi’s story is a familiar one.
”We see these stories again and again. Israel is a signatory to the UN convention against torture. It’s also a signatory to the UN convention on the rights of the child – and under customary international law, it’s not permissible to mistreat and torture, particularly children, who are obviously more vulnerable than adults.”
He told me that Israel arrested 9,000 Palestinians last year. Seven hundred of those were children.
9,000? 700? And these in areas which are supposed to be under self-rule?
700 children arrested? That is under-16s by Israeli definition.
On one side you have 18 year old drafted IDF soldier kids dressed up to the nines in Martian battle suits, armed with tear gas grenades and so-called “rubber bullets” and, on the other, angry kids with 2000 year old sling shots.
Anyone who puts these two categories in direct opposition is quite mad. But it happens regularly, a few miles away from Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, so it doesn’t matter too much.
Your ignorance of the way the Israeli Army works is very impressive Julian. If you had even an inkling of the way things work in the field, at unit, brigade and district command level, not to mention the Investigative Branch of the Military Police (or Israel Police, in the case of the Border Police), the Judge Advocate General’s unit, the Spokesman’s Unit – you would realize that specific complaints to the “proper authorities” screw individual soldiers on many different levels, while accomplishing absolutely nothing.
That is the message the military and civilian authorities wish to convey to individual soldiers, and that is why those who feel burdened by the things they’ve witnessed and done will talk to an organisation like Breaking the Silence – on condition of anonymity – rather than to superior officers or the MPs. The situation could be different (if the military and civilian authorities wanted it to be) but it’s not. The only time there is any real follow-up, if at all, is when an incident happens to be filmed and “gets out”.
There is no reason in the world any soldier would make this stuff up. On the contrary it is extremely difficult to get up the guts to tell anyone about it. Furthermore, there is so much evidence documenting precisely these types of abuses, and so many Israelis have witnessed them and know the atmosphere within units in the OT, that they ring absolutely true. Decent people are thus shocked by what are obviously true accounts, while hasbara hacks latch on to a perceived technicality, chalking up another glorious victory against the anti-semitic hordes. I am underwhelmed by your concern for the real Palestinians and soldiers involved.
From the “Shovrot Shtika” report cited above, available in full, in Hebrew at link to shovrimshtika.org
Nice one, lyn117 I haven’t seen Avatar, and probably never will since the nearest cinema is 200 miles away, but I can find out enough about it to appreciate Juliano Mer-Khamis’ feelings.
The romantic blue people are fighting white imperial exploiters come from afar. Simple tale.
Let’s do something unusual and not get blinded by the hi-tek imagery. You have your historical choice who the blue people really are. The enemy remains the same. I imagine a Palestinian might pick a different group.
Perhaps Julian should understand why reports from IDF soldiers are anonymous. Attaching a real name to any such confession could lead to a lifetime’s persecution in Israel’s ‘free, democratic society’.
You guys who have memories that go back longer then a week could maybe remind Julian how the soldiers who came out with name and all were treated.
I wonder how many average Germans, who all know about how evil their everyday ancestors were; and of which they still get reminded of even after they leave public school whenever the Nazi witch hunters
dig up another 90 year old former German guard and put him on trial, might have a dim light bulb go off in their head about the reality of life for the average German ancestor
back in the day? And, just as some Jews look to the young generation of Israelis for more updated justice for the Palestinians, maybe some young generation Germans will join them? I wonder where LeaNder is on this? Haven’t heard from LeaNder in quite a while here on this blog.
I was shocked by the depravity described in the following testimony:
Another female Sachlav soldier told the story of the time an eight-year-old settler girl in Hebron decided to bash a stone into the head of a Palestinian adult crossing her passing by her in the street. “Boom! She jumped on him, and gave it to him right here in the head… then she started screaming ‘Yuck, yuck, his blood is on me’”.
The soldier said the Palestinian then turned in the girl’s direction – a move that was interpreted as a threat by one of the soldiers in the area, who added a punch of his own: “And I stood there horrified… an innocent little girl in her Shabbat dress… the Arab covered the wound with his hand and ran.”
The f***ing antisemitic Arab adult! Doesn’t he know that contact with blood makes people impure in Judaism? And on the Shabbat, of all days!
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The “innocent” little girl will be carrying a gun ten years from now.
The ‘innocent little girl’ is nothing of the sort. She has been taught, by a very real and genuine hate movement, to despise and attack the Palestinian [expletive deleted by webmaster] she lives amongst
Last year when I was in Kiryat Arba visiting my niece, I was walking toward Hebron on a beautiful warm afternoon. Walking on the path toward me was a Palestinian family, a man, his wife and three children all of who looked less than 10. Two settler youths who looked to be no more than 16 intercepted them and the one carrying an assault rifle ordered the man to his knees pointing his gun at his head. First in Hebrew and then in broken arabic he ordered the man to walk around on his hands and knees barking like a dog. These are the kind of humiliations designed to break the Palestinians in order to encourage emigration.
I was appauled and immediately went to an IDF jeep parked about 30 feet away with 4 soldiers laughing hysterically at the scene. I demanded that they put a stop to this travesty but all they did was to tell me to F/off and get lost. When I complained about the abuse to my IDF nephew, Captain, Golani, he told me to shut up and not make an issue of it or I could get arrested.
In my 50 years of going back and forth to Israel I have seen literally hundreds of these despicable and humiliating episodes. Israel is losing it’s Jewish soul and the country will soon follow unless a fundemental change in it’s approach to Palestinians comes soon.
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