RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space
Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
 |  Subject: Israhell's soldier posing with wretched blindfolded Palestinian prisoners  Wed Aug 18, 2010 5:16 am | |
| A former Israeli soldier who posted on Facebook controversial photographs of herself posing with blindfolded Palestinian prisoners has said she did nothing wrong.
Eden Abergil, from the Israeli port city of Ashdod, has been the target of withering criticism from both at home and abroad after she uploaded the photos to the website under the title, ''The Army … the Most Beautiful Time of My Life''.
The images were taken while she was serving her compulsory two years in the Israel Defence Forces. Ms Abergil's Facebook friends enthused over the photographs. ''That looks really sexy for you,'' said one friend about a photograph showing Ms Abergil smiling next to two cuffed and blindfolded Palestinians.
Controversial ... Eden Abergil poses with Palestinian prisoners.
''Yeah, I know,'' Ms Abergil responded. ''Laugh out loud, honey. What a day it was. Look how he completes my picture. I wonder if he's got Facebook!''
The IDF immediately condemned the photographs which provoked outrage from Israeli commentators who accused Ms Abergil of damaging Israel's reputation abroad.
''These actions are ugly and callous,'' an IDF spokesman said. ''Details of the incident have been forwarded up the chain of command.''
Because Ms Abergil was discharged a year ago, the army has no power to prevent her from publicising the photographs, which she has since removed from her Facebook site.
Yishai Menuchin, the director of the Israeli advocacy group Public Committee Against Torture, called on the IDF to order soldiers not to engage in such humiliating behaviour.
''The horrible pictures demonstrate a norm of treating Palestinians like objects instead of human beings - treatment that disregards their feelings as humans and their right to privacy,'' Mr Menuchin said.
The images resurrected memories of the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal in which US soldiers took photographs of themselves laughing in front of Iraqi prisoners.
However, in an interview broadcast on Israel Army Radio last night, Ms Abergil angrily rejected the criticism. ''I ask the media: when you transfer bound prisoners and you take pictures of them for television, is this with their permission? Is that okay?'' she said.
''I truly understand what is wrong here and I've already apologised to the people who were offended. The picture was not a political statement. It was simply a matter of an army experience.'' Earlier, Ms Abergil complained to Israel's largest selling newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, that she had taken care of the men depicted in the photographs.
''I received death threats from all over the world on Facebook,'' Ms Abergil said. ''I'm sorry if anyone got offended, I actually took care of the detainees. We always treated the Palestinians well, we always provided them with food and drink and would laugh with them.
''We never cursed, spat on or touched them. The few photos I put on Facebook are part of my military experience. It was innocent. People blew it way out of proportion. I have respect for all human beings … I served the country.'' Told she would be stripped of her army rank and not called for future reserve duty, Ms Abergil said: ''I risked my life, got injured. I was a model soldier, and now I wish I never served in this army.''
Ms Abergil said the IDF's response was motivated by a desire to make ''the soldiers look bad and the country look great so that [US President Barack] Obama won't get pissed off''.
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