In other news today…

There is so much more to say, or to write, and so little time … These are just a few drops in the bucket:

On Monday, A Jerusalem court held the state responsible in a civil suit backed by Yesh Din for shooting, with a rubber bullet — and killing — a 10-year-old Palestinian girl walking home from school with her sister and two friends after buying sweets in Anata in January 2007.

Haaretz’s Chaim Levenson reported that “the court ruled that border guards had either been negligent or disobeyed orders in shooting Abir Aramin with a rubber bullet, calling the incident ‘totally unjustifiable’. The judge ordered the government to pay damages to the girl’s family, with the exact amount to be determined later”. This is a significant victory, and overturns an earlier Supreme Court ruling. Haaretz noted that “Police opened a criminal investigation but later decided against indicting the border guards who opened fire. Aramin’s family and the human rights organization Yesh Din appealed the decision in the High Court. But judges there ruled that since it was possible the girl was killed by a rock thrown by rioters, there was no basis for a criminal trial. In Monday’s civil ruling, Judge Orit Efal-Gabai dismissed the possibility that Aramin had been struck by an errant stone, determining gunfire as the cause of death. ‘There is no debate over the conclusion that Abir was injured by a rubber bullet shot by border guards, which in turn leads to the conclusion that the shooting of Abir occurred out of negligence, or in violation of the rules of engagement’, Efal-Gabai said. ‘We are not talking about injury by shots fired at a crowd of rioters and rock-throwers, near which a little girl just happened to be standing … Abir and her friends were walking down a street where there were no rock-throwers, therefore there was no reason to shoot in their direction. It is clear that Abir’s death, caused by a rubber bullet shot by border guards, was due to negligence by the defendant’.” This report is posted here.

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Haaretz also reported that photos on former IDF soldier Eden Abergil’s Facebook page, labeled “IDF – the best time of my life,” caused an unusually strong public reaction in Israel over the past couple of days. The photos showed the smiling Abergil next to Palestinian prisoners [seated on concrete blocks with their backs to a concrete wall] with their hands bound and their eyes covered. Haaretz said that “Speaking to Army Radio earlier Tuesday, Abergil, whose Facebook photos caused a worldwide media storm, said she still couldn’t see what was wrong with the images, saying the ‘ pictures were taken in good faith, there was no statement in them’. Referring to the possibility that the images could injure Israel’s image in the international arena, Abergil said: “We will always be attacked. Whatever we do, we will always be attacked’. The same Haaretz article reported that Breaking the Silence, an organization of former IDF soldiers that documents abusive treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank, said that Abergil’s behavior did not only represent “the ugly behavior of just one person”. In a Facebook page containing other photos taken at various times during the past ten years, called “The Norm that IDF Spokesman Avi Benayahu Denies”, containing other photos taken at various times during the past ten years [some of Israeli soldiers standing next to “the bodies of suspected militants”], Breaking the Silence said that this was the “necessary result of a long-term military control of a civilian population”. Breaking the Silence added that “it is a widespread phenomenon, not an aberration caused by a single soldier”.  This is published here.

Rachel Shabi reported more fully in The Guardian on Eden Abergil’s remarks to Israel Army Radio: “I still don’t understand what I did wrong … There’s no violence or intention to humiliate anyone in the pictures. I just had my picture taken with them in the background. I did it out of excitement, to remember the experience. It wasn’t a political statement or any kind of statement. It was about remembering my experiences in the army and that’s it.” Shabi also reported that Yehuda Shaul, one of the founder of Breaking the Silence, said: “This is commonplace. Don’t you take pictures of your everyday life? For these soldiers serving in the occupied territories, this is what they see 24/7 – handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinians … “Being in a place where you cannot see Palestinians as human beings is the default when you are serving in the occupied Palestinian territories”. He said that the photographs of Israeli soldiers standing next to what appear to be dead Palestinian men are “victory souvenirs”. Khalida Jarar, a Palestinian politician and director of Addameer, the Palestinian prisoner support and human rights association, said: “There are many more violations and abuses of Palestinians, without photographs. The soldiers take these pictures to show that they can do anything they want to Palestinians.”  Rachel Shabi’s article can be read in full here.

Capt. Barak Raz of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit issued a statement today about the Abergil photos, which have now been removed from Facebook, saying that “The pictures show the soldier posing inappropriately next to Palestinians who had been arrested.  The behavior displayed by this former soldier is not only disgraceful but in total opposition to the values and ethical code, ‘The Spirit of the IDF’ which is the foundation of the Israel Defense Forces … The “Spirit of the IDF” is emphasized throughout every stage of each IDF soldier’s training periods. Its implementation is overseen and enforced by the officers and commanders in each unit … [Among other things, this code says that] The IDF is subordinate to the directions of the democratic civilian authorities and the laws of the state. The goal of the IDF is to protect the existence of the State of Israel and her independence, and to thwart all enemy efforts to disrupt the normal way of life in Israel.   IDF soldiers are obligated to fight, to dedicate all their strength and even sacrifice their lives in order to protect the State of Israel, her citizens and residents.  IDF and its soldiers are obligated to protect human dignity. Every human being is of value regardless of his or her origin, religion, nationality, gender, status or position … IDF soldiers will not use their weapons and force to harm human beings who are not combatants or prisoners of war, and will do all in their power to avoid causing harm to their lives, bodies, dignity and property”.   The IDF headline for this item called the photos “shameful”.

UPDATE: On 1 September, YNet reported that “Everyone focused on the image of the soldier who violated the dignity of the bound security prisoners, but no one showed any interest in who these prisoners are. At the request of Yedioth Ahronoth, B’Tselem journalists were allowed into the Strip to located the men in the photographs. They are three members of the same family, the Abu Salah family, and live in the al-Amal neighborhood in Beit Hanoun … Asad Abu Salah, 47, is the bearded man Aberjil nicknamed “Osama bin Laden”.  He is married and a father of 10.  Said Abu Salah, 44, is Asad’s brother, and is married to two women and fathers 18 children.  The young man in another picture is Eid Abu Salah, 25, Said’s son. He is unemployed due to a disability, is married and a father of two. The three were arrested along with four other family members on the charge of membership in Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine[!]  March 19, 2008, the date that appears on Aberjil’s pictures, was the eve of Purim. But while in Israel people were preparing for festivities and costumes, the defense establishment was preparing for security incidents. That same weekend, the mourning period for the death of Hezbollah officer Imad Mughniyeh came to an end.  On the night of March 18, 2008, the Abu Salah family’s house was encircled.  ‘At one point, we heard from the loudspeakers that the house was surrounded and that we must turn ourselves in. Father asked us to go down to the house’s ground floor and sit there’, Eid says. ‘Then we heard the sounds of heavy equipment near the house. I looked out the window and saw the Israeli soldiers speaking with my uncle Asad, who lives right next to us. Next we heard a knock at the door and my uncle Asad saying: ‘Open up Said.’ Father opened the door and we saw Asad with a number of soldiers behind him holding his hands back with a gun to his back. We all left the house and the soldiers went in with dogs to search. We went to Asad’s house and sat there. At four in the morning it was decided who would go with the soldiers … After over an hour of driving, in a tank and bus, with their eyes covered and their hands cuffed – according to Eid – they reached Zikim.  ‘The soldiers untied the cuffs in the back and cuffed me in the front. Then they seated us on concrete blocks’,  he says.  ‘Father sat on the block next to me and moaned with pain from the cuffs. I heard a soldiers telling my uncle Asad, “Tell your brother to shut up, or else you’ll be crying over him”.  We sat like that for half an hour’.  During that half hour, a group of female soldiers arrived. One of them was Eden Aberjil … Two-and-a-half years have passed since Aberjil’s photos were taken.  The soldier has already been discharged from the military and moved on with her life.  This is not the case with the Abu Salah family.  Out of the seven family members arrested, only the two brothers, Eid and Muhammad, were released.  Their uncle, Asad Abu Salah, was tried and sentenced to 25 years in prison for security offenses.  His two sons, Fahmi and Salah are being held in the Beersheba prison, awaiting trial over their alleged membership in Hamas.  Said Abu Salah, Muhammad and Eid’s father, is also currently at the Beersheba prison, also awaiting trial along with his other son Ghassan…”  The rest of this report prepared from Gaza by “B’Tselem journalists” [?] is published <a href=”http://www.israeli-occupation.org/2010-09-01/facebook-arabs-speak-out/”>here</a>.

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Meanwhile, Haaretz reported last week that the IDF is taking the “narrowest possible interpretation” of Israel’s Supreme Court ruling to Road 443 to Palestinians: “A new IDF decree bans Israelis from entering Palestinian villages along Route 443, despite these villages being located in Area C, which is under complete Israeli control. The ban was announced yesterday by GOC Central Command Avi Mizrahi. For example, it is setting up much more meticulous checks along entries to the highway than those imposed on vehicles leaving Ramallah to travel on Route 60, the cross-West Bank highway used by Palestinians, settlers and Israelis. The new decree bans Israelis from the villages and from side roads next to the highway – a contrast to the relatively open access to other Area C villages. A Haaretz check found that the ban is already being implemented, with soldiers at the checkpoints not allowing Israelis to pass through. The IDF Spokesman’s Office released the following statement: ‘Following the Supreme Court ruling, the defense establishment has worked to prepare opening Route 443 to Palestinian traffic. As part of these preparations, aimed at implementing the court ruling and answering the security risked entailed in opening the road, a number of entry and exit points were set up for the Palestinian residents. Given the security risk, it was decided to ban Israeli citizens from using them.”  This article is posted here.

And, David Samel wrote this, with great irony, on the Mondoweiss blog, in a post entitled “A kinder, gentler Occupation”:
“For those of you worried that the tone of the so-called Occupation is a bit too confrontational and unpleasant, I have some optimistic news. As reported in Haaretz, a company of reservists is introducing politeness into the everyday checkpoint encounters between Palestinian civilians and the Israeli soldiers who decide if and when workers can go to work, children can go to school, family members can visit each other, and the sick may seek medical attention. Instead of barking out harsh directives, soldiers will now preface their requests for Palestinians to obey orders with ‘min fadlakum‘ [please. in the plural], with an emphasis on the request, according to Eliezer Cohen, the poet and social worker who is the brainchild behind the initiative. Cohen adds that is not ‘just the words. We decided that we would look everyone in the eye and that we would not aim our gun at anyone‘. Of course, if Palestinians stubbornly refuse to comply with these cordial invitations to obey softened by eye contact, guns may indeed have to be pointed … There are two conceivable outcomes. One is that the effort will be a resounding success, thereby diminishing worldwide pressure on Israel to end the ‘occupation’. The other unfortunate possibility is that the Palestinians will not graciously accept the soldiers’ sincere efforts at courtesy, and continue to make unreasonable demands for freedom from foreign military dictatorship.  It will not be the first time that the Palestinians have missed an opportunity for genuine reconciliation”.   This post can be viewed in full here.