New York:
Israeli bloggers moved quickly on Monday to make copies of a pair of controversial images posted on Facebook by a former Israeli soldier -- showing her posing next to blindfolded Palestinian prisoners -- before she blocked access to her photographs, which were shown and discussed on Israeli television before the day was out.
As my colleague Ethan Bronner reports, the soldier, Eden Abergil, who completed her military service last year, posted two images of herself in a Facebook album she called "The Army... the most beautiful time of my life :)."
The images were quickly duplicated and posted on the Israeli Tumblr blog Sachim, which, according to the Israeli blogger Dimi Reider, "tracks the character of the young, pseudo-liberal Israeli mainstream."
The photographs, which evoke some of those taken at Abu Ghraib of the American soldier Lynndie England with blindfolded Iraqi prisoners, are not as overtly sexual as those notorious images, but Mr. Reider reports that Ms. Abergil's banter on Facebook with her friends about the images did include jokes about one prisoner's genitals.
Mr. Reider wrote:
Theses pictures really do speak for themselves; of course, Abergil is no better or worse than thousands of other Israeli soldiers, and I'd like to hope a few years from now she'll be appalled, rather than amused by the memories. We may and should cut slack to the effect of conflict on a young person's sensitivity and moral standards - Abergil by no means should be scapegoated for all excesses of the IDF - and remember efforts by separate individuals, even in uniform, to make an intolerable situation more bearable.
But we should always remember that this, only this and nothing else, with its ignorance, naive bigotry, and blunt power-play - is the real face of our occupation of the West Bank.
To put the images in context, Mr. Reider also posted this screenshot of Ms. Abergil's album of snapshots from her military service:
In two late updates to his post, Mr. Reider noted that Ms. Abergil had not responded to his request for comment but did tell another blogger, Dan-ya Shwartz, "I don't understand why it's any of your business to go prying through people's Facebooks and always find the bad. [Go] deal with more important matters."
She later refused to discuss the matter with Lisa Goldman, an Israeli-Canadian blogger, telling her: "I don't speak to leftists."
Another Israeli blogger who wrote about the images on Monday, Yossi Gurvitz, wrote that the images were captioned with the word "Gaza" on Facebook by the photographer, suggesting that they were taken in or near the Palestinian territory.
As my colleague Ethan Bronner reports, the soldier, Eden Abergil, who completed her military service last year, posted two images of herself in a Facebook album she called "The Army... the most beautiful time of my life :)."
The images were quickly duplicated and posted on the Israeli Tumblr blog Sachim, which, according to the Israeli blogger Dimi Reider, "tracks the character of the young, pseudo-liberal Israeli mainstream."
The photographs, which evoke some of those taken at Abu Ghraib of the American soldier Lynndie England with blindfolded Iraqi prisoners, are not as overtly sexual as those notorious images, but Mr. Reider reports that Ms. Abergil's banter on Facebook with her friends about the images did include jokes about one prisoner's genitals.
Mr. Reider wrote:
Theses pictures really do speak for themselves; of course, Abergil is no better or worse than thousands of other Israeli soldiers, and I'd like to hope a few years from now she'll be appalled, rather than amused by the memories. We may and should cut slack to the effect of conflict on a young person's sensitivity and moral standards - Abergil by no means should be scapegoated for all excesses of the IDF - and remember efforts by separate individuals, even in uniform, to make an intolerable situation more bearable.
But we should always remember that this, only this and nothing else, with its ignorance, naive bigotry, and blunt power-play - is the real face of our occupation of the West Bank.
To put the images in context, Mr. Reider also posted this screenshot of Ms. Abergil's album of snapshots from her military service:
In two late updates to his post, Mr. Reider noted that Ms. Abergil had not responded to his request for comment but did tell another blogger, Dan-ya Shwartz, "I don't understand why it's any of your business to go prying through people's Facebooks and always find the bad. [Go] deal with more important matters."
She later refused to discuss the matter with Lisa Goldman, an Israeli-Canadian blogger, telling her: "I don't speak to leftists."
Another Israeli blogger who wrote about the images on Monday, Yossi Gurvitz, wrote that the images were captioned with the word "Gaza" on Facebook by the photographer, suggesting that they were taken in or near the Palestinian territory.
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
