from “Il Manifesto” 20/11/2004

Link with original article (italian)
 http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/20-Novembre-2004/art66.html

The Israeli beheaders.

Israel under shock after photos were published yesterday on Yediot Aharonot that show havoc made of palestinians dead bodies. But they don’t seem to be isolated cases. More are reported. Military authority have opened an enquiry.

S.D.Q. / TEL AVIV

Now, weren’t the barbarians the Iraqis islamic fundamentalists, the beheaders who sent around videos? Israel is under shock, we are told, after pictures of Israeli ‘elite’ soldiers slaughtering Palestinians deadbodies were published on the conservative daily paper Yediot Aharonot. Cut off heads, with sigarettes put in the mouth in affront and so as to take a snap to be shown as a war trophy or to be sold for a public that, obviously, asks for them and appreciate.

The Supreme Chief of the Israeli Army, Gen. Moshe Yaalon, yesterday ordered the military police to open an inquiry into the abuses committed by Israeli soldiers in the Occupied Territories as witnessed by the photos published on the newspaper. “If proven, they will be prosecuted” a military spokesman asserted. Yaalon commented upon “The ethical strenght of the Israeli army is not less important than its military strenght” .
The first case of slaughter was in the Jordan valley and its main characters are the soldiers of Nahal Haharedi battalion. They ruthlessly and with enjoyment deal with the remains of a palestinian kamikaze who blew himself at Hamra checkpoint. The soldiers put a cut off head on a concrete wall and then put a sigarette in its mounth. Then, they all pose for a snap.

More photos show Tshal heroes pointing their rifles at the deadbody of a murdered Palestinian. A soldier told about one more little game: passing by soldiers who riddle another Palestinian dead body.

Yet those reported by Yediot don’t seem to be isolated cases. Similar ones are pointed out in the Jordan valley, in Gaza, Hebron and Jenin. In Gaza, sometime ago, the body of a murdered Palestinian cop has been shown off as a war trophy. A Palestinian civilian who had been mown down by a tank because it was suspect – later it was found to be unarmed – was hoisted on the same tank and taken to the Israeli base so that soldiers could “play” a bit with it.

Only a few weeks ago an officer serving in the Givati brigade fired a whole charger on the injured body of a 13 year old palestinian girl. Student Imam-a-Ams made the mistake to put her school rucksack on the ground: too suspect, mown and shot. She might have survived but the officer dealt with it, firing more than 20 shots at her body. It doesn’t seem that the usual investigation “promptly set up” charged him with anything. It’s one of those things. Rumors say that from 200 to 2004 the military police has set up more than 500 inquiries for “un-ethical” behaviour of soldiers employed in Palestine, and that 80-ish ended up with an “exemplary judgement”. We’ll see what this inquiry will end up with, and whether the “possible” guilty will be sent to prison like most of the refusniks who refused to fight an “occupation war” in territories that are not Israelis.
Moreover, it seems that most of these bavures are the work of elite detachments, often made of ultra-religious volunteers. The good side of it is that the photos have been given to the newspaper by some fellow soldiers of the “beheaders” who were disgasted by such an havoc. A few labour MPs have asked for an immediate Knesset session.

And yesterday, just to keep practising, an Israeli tank has killed a Palestinian in Gaza.