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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Kill, Then Shoot |
Current rating: 0 |
by Uri Blau
(No verified email address) |
05 Oct 2001
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Israeli army soldiers take pride photos of themselves next to Hizb'allah fighters they kill. A Lieutenant Colonel in the Giv'ati unit shows off, in combat-heritage classes, with a photo of a body he personally killed. Rank soldiers post defaced body photos next to nude pin-ups. Some photos have now made it into class albums, and some are published on the web, in a site that gets army collaboration... |
IDF Snuff Culture: soldiers distribute photographs of killed enemy bodies
Uri Blau,
Kol Ha'ir Magazine
[translation and web publication: http://oznik.com]
5 Oct. 2001,
Jerusalem Israeli army soldiers take pride photos of themselves next to Hizb'allah fighters they kill. A Lieutenant Colonel in the Giv'ati unit shows off, in combat-heritage classes, with a photo of a body he personally killed. Rank soldiers post defaced body photos next to nude pin-ups. Some photos have now made it into class albums, and some are published on the web, in a site that gets army collaboration. Former head of IDF's Behavioral Sciences Department says "It's a way of coping." Psychiatrist Dr. Ruhama Marton says "It's a part of Israeli culture that makes death, enjoys death, and is entertained by death."
On September 12, 1997, soldiers from Egoz unit, part of the Golani infantry brigade, assassinated Hadi Nasrallah, son of Hizb’allah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Soldiers use this celebrated occasion to have their pictures taken next to the defaced body, the one they have just killed. Until the body was transported to Israel, while it remained on the site, and kept by the IDF, more soldiers use the rare photo opportunity next to a celebrity enemy fighter. Only a week earlier, Israel was outraged by the death of 12 navy commandos in a failed attack on Ansaryiah, Lebanon. The defaced body of one soldier, Itamar Ilya, was returned to Israel in June 1998, as part of an exchange deal. This was nine months later. Ilya's body was returned in exchange for, among others, the body of Nasrallah's son.
Vanity photos published in Lebanon following that failed attack, and broadcast by TV stations in Europe, showed body parts, uniforms, and military gear. The reprisal was similar, as if that was the deal: horror pics of Hadi Nasrallah's and smiling soldiers beside it. A corpse for a corpse, a photo for a photo.
"I used to carry a disposable camera with me over a long time, to catch a photo of a killed guerrilla fighter, but never got one," says Avi (real name kept by Kol Ha'ir), a combat soldier from Giv'ati brigade. Since he's about to complete his army service in a few days it seems like he'd missed his chance. But many other soldiers did carry a camera in their jacket pouch at the critical moment, and they used it.
The Company Album, And The Web
On the cover of a company album, published recently to celebrate the completion of training by company B, in the 51st regiment of Golani brigade, class of August 2000, is a photo of a dead Palestinian, shot by the unit's soldiers in the Ghaza strip. The caption reads: "Thus shall we do to the man who messes with company B." The book was produced by the company soldiers and was approved by the regiment's commanders.
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See also:
http://oznik.com/kolhair07_indy.html
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