Girls gone wilding

This collection of testimonies from Israeli women who've served in the West Bank and Gaza is worth reading to see what your tax dollars are paying for, like this:

"[I]t's boring, so we'd create some action. We'd get on the radio, and say they threw stones at us, then someone would be arrested, they'd start investigating him… There was a policewoman, she was bored, so okay, she said they threw stones at her. They asked her who threw them. 'I don't know, two in grey shirts, I didn't manage to see them.' They catch two guys with grey shirts… beat them. Is it them? 'No, I don't think so.' Okay, a whole incident, people get beaten up. Nothing happened that day."

Or this:

A female Border Guard detailed to protocol she called "dismantling rubber" – the dismantling of rubber bullets from clusters of three to single bullets, and peeling the rubber off of them. She also said that, despite the clear orders to fire in the air or at the demonstrators' feet, it was common procedure to fire at the abdomen.

(Keep that in mind the next time you read about the Israelis using "rubber bullets" on Palestinians.)

A female Border Guard officer in Jenin spoke of an incident in which a nine-year-old Palestinian, who tried to climb the fence, failed, and fled – was shot to death: "They fired… when he was already in the territories and posed no danger. The hit was in the abdomen area, they claimed he was on a bicycle and so they were unable to hit him in the legs."

But the soldier was most bewildered by what happened next between the four soldiers present: "They immediately got their stories straight… An investigation was carried out, at first they said it was an unjustified killing… In the end they claimed that he was checking out escape routes for terrorists or something… and they closed the case."

I've always said the easiest way for a Palestinian to get a gun is to be killed by Israelis, but I didn't realize they could get a bicycle that way as well.

The full report is here (PDF).

Comments

[MC Squared]

Just bad apples I'm sure.

[Donald Johnson]

This link belongs in the other comment section, but I'll put it here in the more recent post--it's Jerome Slater's piece on Bronner--

link

If you're interested in the I/P conflict, Slater is one of the best writers around, so it's nice that he does (sporadic) blog posts on the subject.

[Rojo]

And what, exactly, does the gender of the Zionist brutalizers have to do with anything?

Other than your ability to have a semi-titillating title to the post?

Or perhaps it's your commentary in support of ending "Don't Ask Don't Tell", slyly noting that gender/sexual identity does not undermine the ability to train subjugaters to treat the subjugated as animals?

I'd sincerely like to know.

[Rojo]

On a moment's reflection, I think I maybe overreacted. If the purpose was to steer readers to these testimonies, than it was clearly laudable.

My apologies. I do, however, think a better title for the post could have been chosen.

[John Caruso]

And what, exactly, does the gender of the Zionist brutalizers have to do with anything?

Apology accepted, but in answer to your question, the point of the Breaking the Silence report (and the article summarizing it) was specifically to relay the testimonies and experiences of female Israeli soldiers.