Recently, Eden Abergil, an Israeli and former IDF soldier (discharged last year) posted some “controversial†photos of herself and Palestinians on her facebook page. In an album labeled, “IDF- the most beautiful time of my life,†Abergil, in IDF uniform, is posing with Palestinian prisoners while they are blindfolded and handcuffed. The comment under the picture, posted by a friend, reads, “That looks really sexy for youâ€, while Abergil  jokes back that she should find the prisoner on Facebook and tag him.  (This is one of the topics in Tuesday’s Reading List)
I am questioning whether these photos are controversial because Abergil herself denies that there’s any controversy in them. In an interview with Army Radio last Thursday, Abergil claims she still doesn’t understand what’s wrong with the pictures because they were taken in good will–only to depict her military experience.
The first time I saw the photos, I was flabbergasted and shocked. It’s disguising the way that these Palestinians, prisoners or not, are being used as mere objects. A soldier’s duty in taking prisoners should be one of the more difficult tasks of being in the army. Having to handcuff and blindfold another human being shouldn’t be categorized as the “best time of your life.” And so it shocks and abhors me even more that Abergil never saw anything wrong with these photos, posted them on facebook and joked about them. This kind of attitude, point of view and behavior have obviously become normalized within Israel. I have been told that the IDF is the most moral army in the world; yet, I can’t cover up this action as something that fits my idea of morality.
To Israeli teens, the army is their life come age 18. While American teenagers pack off for college for the “time of their life,†Israelis are handed guns and uniforms for “the time of their life.â€Â There are great things that the army does for Israelis: it adds years of maturity, exposes them to experiences and understanding of the other, offers them camaraderie and friendship unlike anything outside the army, and it allows them to do service for their country– todefend, stand up for and love Israel. But at the same time, it’s still the army. At the end of the day the fact that Israel still needs a standing army isn’t a good thing. I pray that by the time I have children, there won’t be compulsory service: peace is the song of all our hearts. Yes, there are advantages to needing an army, but we all know that war is bad, and soldiers are used for war.  But when did this kind of conduct become normalized in Israeli society? Today it was Abergil that posted the pictures, but her friends commented jokingly and I’m sure she is not the only person doing such things. Her denial of guilt that her actions are justified rather than seeing them as “base and crudeâ€, as an IDF spokesman was quoted saying, really do reveal a societal normalization, which frankly scares me.
Before she posted the picture, did she ask herself who this man was who was handcuffed beside her? We know he was a Gazan attempting to escape into Israel. We don’t know who he is- sure, he could be a bloodthirsty terrorist, but he could also be a man attempting to escape the bad conditions of life in Gaza in search of something (or someone, a family member) in Israel. In the picture he’s a prisoner; an object, not a man. His humiliation in the photograph of a girl depicting the “best time of her life†is rude, stupid and immoral. Not the reflection of the most “moral army in the world;” yet this only reveals how much of those morals filter down to the 18, 19 and 20 year olds who are actually in the army- and what has become normalized in their lives.
Incredible insight, Hailey; very well said. Yes, this is an appalling act, and it’s reflective of what happens when you have what Joel Chasnoff calls “an army run by 20-year olds” (which is true). That doesn’t justify this kind of behavior, but we do need to understand the condition of a society where 18-year olds all go to the army–and what it does to them.
What’s troubling is that this is not an isolated incident and that the leaders of “the most moral army” have done nothing but issue a public statement about what a nasty thing Abergil did. I suspect we will see little action from them in curbing this behavior in current soldiers.
I’m astonished to see this kind of article on a student website. It’s predictable that old fogies like me will pontificate and moralize about the stupidity of youth, but good heavens, this is a student website! Are you going to tell me that you haven’t seen acts of insensitivity and short sightedness amongst your own peers? You haven’t seen Facebook photographs of some of your friends that are silly and offensive? That you don’t know people who objectify others?
The difference between your friends and Eden Abergil is that her silliness, insensitivity, willingness to objectify etc. can cause significant harm to those she has authority over as well as those who depend on her. That’s why she (and other soldiers) are under military discipline and why acts that would be innocuous (or even endearing, like the dancing NAHA”L squad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoieZVapUww) in civilian life can get you into a lot of trouble in the military.
She has exhibited regretfully normal failings and will be punished for them. (On a much graver level are the minor acts of pillage allegedly carried out by other soldiers on the personal effects of participants in the attempted blockade busting flotilla) .
But when all is said and done this young woman’s act of silliness will be punished in Israel. While the world is tut-tuting at her sophomoric photographs they will be ignoring the Egyptian soldiers who routinely shoot dead African refugees trying to cross Israel’s southern border. Eden Abergil did something wrong and deserves to be punished, but let’s keep some sense of perspective.
First, it’s really important to look at modern soldiers in the context of history. Although America has always been exceptional in comparison with the rest of the world (just look at the American soldiers in China at the turn of the last century versus the soldiers form the European powers), soldiers have generally only become more and more civilized in their conduct. Which is quite amazing. In order not be scarred from the effects of shooting at human beings, it is a common psychological technique to imagine that your foes are not human or non-human, but just the enemy. This is how it must be in today’s society where when you return from service you are expected to stop being violent.
What bothers me more is the second picture, because of a breakdown in respect for your elders. But Abergil is not dehumanizing her prisoners – she quips about tagging them on Facebook as she would a friend. This is ntohing compared to behavior by American soldiers, who have only been involved in military life for a few years (as opposed to an Israeli who has been surrounded by it her whole life). This is truly a mountain out fo a molehill. I agree with the army that it’s not good; I would never do it, and would have counseled Abergil against it in fairly strong terms, but having this level of conduct be criticized is about as close to ideal as you can get morally. Let us pray to G-d that no Jew ever does what happened in Abu Ghraib (I’m not that naive to think it can’t happen, and it may well have, but I can pray that it never does).
To David A.M.: I’m not sure what about this leads you to say it’s not an isolated incident. The fact that it’s causing waves makes it sound pretty isolated. At least because most ex-soldiers aren’t as dumb as this young lady. Regardless, I don’t know what else you would expect the army to do other than say it was wrong. Unless the pictures are classified, she has broken no laws (and the army only has jurisdiction to prosecute soldiers, regardless). Perhaps the army can ban picture taking (I know I had friends who smuggled film out of Israel to develop it in the States because it contained images from Lebanon, which were illegal). But compare it to other modern armies to see whether that is a fruitful prohibition. Every cell phone has a camera.
As an interesting aside, I remember reading that Israel has the lowest number of rapes for occupying soldiers in the world. That’s an amazing thing. In fact, leftist nutjob Tal Nitzan, thena student at Hebrew U, tried to demonize Israel for this very fact.
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2008/02/13/barbara-kay-on-lack-of-rape-among-israeli-soldiers.aspx
And when I say leftist, I have no idea what I mean, but hopefully you do (it no longer means that you believe in socialism, because even socialists were allowed to defend themselves (see Vietnam, Korea, Cuba, USSR).
But that’s way off point – point is that while I wouldn’t set this girl up on a date with my friend, this doesn’t mean anything about general moral decay in Israel or its military.
DZ: So, if it’s possible for soldiers to behave well, as you note US soldiers are exceptionally good at doing, what’s stopping the IDF from doing it? Especially as they tote around the appellation, “The Most Moral Army in the World.” The argument that lots of other people do something, doesn’t hold a lot water. Everyone used to have empires. Many societies used to have slaves. Everyone used to be bigoted. I’m merely pointing out the context of history, David.
“She quips about tagging them as a friend.” You’re using that to defend her? That’s clearly a cruel joke, not an invitation to her prisoner to become her friend!
What leads me to say that it’s not an isolated incident is that Breaking the Silence has been collecting similar pictures for a long time now, as we mentioned here yesterday in The Reading List: http://blog.newvoices.org/?p=3956
David A.M.:
First, thanks for the link. I’ll take a look at that (probably will be depressing, but it’s important to discover the truith, or at least be informed with what’s out there). And thank you generally for your response (wish there were a way to track responses and see if someone comments after you; hint, hint blogmaster…).
Second, I understand why you’re saying it’s “a cruel joke,” but it means she recognizes them as human – she hasn’t dehumanized them. I am trying to be careful because in no way do I condone what she did. Just trying to see her mindset – young person trying to find humor in everything, even if it is often inappropriate (like many a South Park episode – yes, these are real people). I also don’t know how much of a joke “best time of my life” is. But surely you know that soldiers feel they are fighting for a righteous cause – killing the bad guys. Or in this case, if they don’t actually have to kill them, capturing the bad guys. You may not like that mentality, but it;’s what drives most of the police officers and soldiers in the world. And I happen to think it’s usually a justified sentiment, especially in more recent times where wars have been against aggressor nations supported by their armed forces and terrorist organizations (as opposed to the idiocy of WWI – just taking a undisputedly idiotic war with no good guys or bad guys).
Although we are speaking in generalities (because I work full time I don’t have the luxury of doing the research to back everything I say up – can only glean generally from everything I read over the years), I was saying that Israel is superior to the American armed forces (which I believe is otherwise at the pinnacle of meeting that difficult standard of behaving in a civilized manner while killing people). Israel’s scandals are someone posting pictures on Facebook and making inappropriate jokes. America’s have involved sexual degradation of prisoners (and for no purpose, not that I ever think sexual degradation is allowable, even where some torture might be).
The argument that lots of other people do something is the only way to judge “the most moral army in the world.” Who else are you judging them by? You need to compare them to other soldiers in occupation and long-term combat situations. And from everything I’ve read, heard, and seen, they are superior in that regard, though not necessarily inhumanly so. The point was, though, that I don’t think this story (and perhaps even the others) point to a general moral degradation in Israeli society. I do wish there was more civil equality in terms of government payments, etc., between Arabs and Jews, but as far as military morality goes, aside form individual bad apples, I think they have done a pretty good job.
Wow, you have brought forth many thoughts from many people. Well done.
The way you know this kind of thing is not normalized is that it got reported in the media – the media wants items with shock value. if this was the normal way of things, there would be no shock value. The fact that it was reported means that a significant part of the country does not see such things as normal and acceptable behavior.
Ilana, there may be some truth to what you’re saying. But if I’ve learned anything about the media in recent years, it’s that things can happen over and over again without the media paying attention, and then randomly, they’ll come out of nowhere and make a big deal out of it.