By Polly Johnson
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
JERUSALEM, Israel – A former Israeli soldier who posted photos of herself posing with blindfolded Palestinian prisoners to her Facebook account is defending her actions.
Eden Abergil, twenty-six years old, claims that she did nothing wrong and was surprised at the controversy surrounding the pictures.
The pictures show Abergil posing in provocative positions near the blindfolded prisoners. They were part of an album she posted entitled, “Army – the best time of my life.” The pictures were discovered by a blogger who circulated them around the Internet. The images prompted comments from many users, and her Facebook account quickly became blocked to outside users.
In one of the photos, in which Abergil is shown smiling in front of blindfolded prisoners, a friend of hers posted about the photo, “That looks really sexy for you.” Abergil posted a response – “I wonder if he is on Facebook too – I’ll have to tag him in the photo,” referring to one of the prisoners in the background.
Abergil says that she did not intend to make a political statement or spark such outrage. In an interview with Israeli Army Radio, Abergil claimed that the images had no “political significance.”
“There was no violence in the pictures, there was no disrespect,” she said. “I did it out of excitement, to remember the experience.”
Yet both Palestinian and Israeli groups have attacked her actions. The incident highlights a pattern of claims of alleged abuse of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
“This shows the mentality of the occupier, to be proud of humiliating Palestinians,” Ghassan Khatib, Palestinian Authority spokesman, told the Associated Press. “All aspects of occupation are humiliating. We call on the international organisations, starting with the UN, to work hard to end the occupation, because it is the source of humiliation for Palestinians and a source of corruption for the Israelis,” Khatib said.
The Israeli army has attempted to distance itself from the controversy. IDF spokesman Barak Raz said that the pictures did not “reflect the spirit of the IDF, our ethical standard to which we all aspire.”
Because Abergil was discharged from the army last year, future legal action is still unclear.
Yet Jawad Amawi, director of legal affairs for the Palestinian government’s prisoners ministry, told CNN, “She did this act while she was in military service, so in retrospect the Israeli occupation is responsible for her acts. This is a breach of international law, clearly a breach of human rights.”
For more information, please see:
Al Jazeera – Storm over Israeli ‘abuse’ photos – 17 August 2010
BBC – Israeli woman soldier denies Facebook photos wrongdoing – 17 August 2010
CNN – Israeli in Facebook incident dismisses criticism – 17 August 2010
Haaretz – ‘Facebook photos of soldiers posing with bound Palestinians are the norm’ – 17 August 2010
New York Times – Ex-Israeli Soldier’s Photos Condemned – 16 August 2010
