Israel: Army fury at Hebron soldiers' brutality exhibition

[Comadreja]

Israel: Army fury at Hebron soldiers' brutality exhibition : Echoes of Abu Ghraib in photos showing 'banal evil' of occupation http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1245950,00.html

Israeli military police yesterday interrogated five reserve soldiers who put on an exhibition detailing the "banal evil" of their occupation of the Palestinian city of Hebron.
A video of testimonies by 70 soldiers was confiscated, as was an archive of newspaper clippings. An army spokesman said the police were looking for evidence of crimes committed against Palestinian residents of Hebron. The soldiers who put on the exhibition could not be contacted yesterday, but previously they had accused the army of trying to harass them with an investigation.

"We would be quite happy if they were going to investigate the crimes committed against Palestinians. But this is just an attempt to keep us quiet. The problem is not with what the soldiers say they have seen, it is with the army as a whole," said Yonathan Boumfeld, one of the organisers. The exhibition, Breaking the Silence, features photos taken by around 80 soldiers who served in Hebron, and their videotaped testimonies.

They describe a day-to-day routine of humiliating Palestinians, and their dismay at the behaviour of the 600 Jewish settlers they protect. Some tell of harassing a Palestinian bride and groom, others of throwing stun grenades at children for fun. The soldiers behind the exhibition say they want to show Israel how its young soldiers, as well as the Palestinians, become brutalised by the mundane reality of occupation.

One soldier testified: "What I understood finally, after six months, was that we were guarding the Palestinians from the Jews; we weren't there to guard and protect the Jews. The Jews are the ones who threaten the Palestinians more in this area."

[Rhiannon12866]

1. Wow. This is some article. Thanks.

The parallels of another occupied land and the Abu Ghraib atrocities are stunning.

The big difference, however, that it was this group of brave soldiers, themselves, who sought to expose this.

You can always count on "The Guardian" to print stories that other publications won't touch.