PH Quickie: videos of "the most moral army in the world" not living up to its name
IDF soldiers. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)
by Kathryn Shihadah
Ha’aretz article Israeli Army Blamed Palestinians for Arson by Settlers. Then a Video Emerged is just another item in a very large body of proof that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is often an accessory to crimes, not a defender of justice or deterrent of lawlessness.
When Palestinian fields were set on fire last week, the IDF released an official statement declaring that Palestinians had done it themselves.
But you can’t easily get away with such a fabrication in the age of smartphones. A video emerged of settlers starting the fires. Oops. The IDF simply changed the statement.
In another video from the same day, “[f]our soldiers can be seen standing among the settlers and doing nothing to stop them” as they throw stones.
This is nothing new – in fact, it happens all the time. The IDF collaborates with settlers who do violence to Palestinians and their property.
They also invent stories to cover up their hair-trigger brutality.
Just a few months ago, the IDF was caught in an all-out lie, reported by Ha’aretz. on the killing of Mohammad Khossam Khabali. The military claimed that Mohammad Khossam Khabali was involved in “a violent riot…in which dozens of Palestinians hurled rocks.” The statement continues, "Troops responded with riot control methods and later with live fire.”
Awkwardly, CCTV footage later proved that Khabali - who was disabled - was shot in the back as he walked down the street. The army is now “investigating.”
In another incident, this one related in Counterpunch, the IDF explained away a dead man with “a series of false statements, including that he died from tear-gas inhalation, received first-aid treatment and was armed with a knife.”
As CCTV video shows, the victim, Yasin Saradih, 35, was actually shot at point-blank range, then beaten by soldiers, then left to bleed to death.
The Counterpunch piece continues:
Over the past two years, dozens of Palestinians, including women and children, have been shot in similarly suspicious circumstances. Invariably the army concludes that they were killed while attacking soldiers with a knife – Israel even named this period of unrest a “knife intifada”.
Let’s not forget that not only is this rampant, unnecessary violence, it is also rampant cover-up, and it is subsidized by American tax dollars.