Monday 21 July 2008

Without comment

I try to avoid blogging on the Middle East - it brings the crazies out to play but this clip from the occupied West Bank should have the widest dissemination possible. Comment is superfluous - but feel free to comment!

I did wonder about putting up something to the effect that some people may find this clip disturbing - but that's exactly why it should be seen.

11 comments:

Verdant Earl said...

Just to be certain of what is going on there...are those Israeli soldiers who shot the blind-folded man? Is there a backstory to this?

Ookami Snow said...

Not to stir up trouble, but there has been a couple of times that fake videos have come out of the area to try to make the other side look bad. I am generally hesitant of videos like this, and especially so from that region.

Frank Partisan said...

I guess the consensus, is wait to see the fallout.

I once did a post on Egypt and the worker's strikes. It was amazing. Egypt could do no wrong, and someone else would attack Israelis, or Palestinians etc. Almost nobody with a big picture.

white rabbit said...

Earl - Yes, those are Israeli soldiers (the guy holding their victim is a lieutenant colonel) and yes there is a backstory. See below...

Ookami - I take the point that caution is in order when dealing with this sort of material but absolutely nobody (including the Israelis) has suggested that this clip is anything other than authentic.

The backstory: the clip was filmed by a 17 year old girl in the West Bank village of Nil'in. She was using a camera supplied by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem (to whom huge kudos). It is part of a project called 'Shooting Back' - as in with cameras. The reason for the project is that Palestinian complaints of brutality - unless corroborated by someone/something else are hopeless. No notice at all is taken. The only point when this sort of stuff shows on the radar is either when the victim is a westerner such as Rachel Corrie (crushed to death by a bulldozer) or Tom Hurndall (shot dead) - or - there is independent material as in this case. The girl got the footage to B'Tselem who went public bigtime on it. Thus busted - the Israeli military - er - promises an investigation.

For the record, the guy (who is handcuffed as well as blindfolded) is shot in the foot at close range with a rubber bullet. He was given medical treatment and released without charge.

white rabbit said...

Oh! Oh! Oh!

The clip is no longer on YouTube -

'This video has been removed due to terms of use violation'.

Wonder what's going on here?

white rabbit said...

At the risk of turning into a man on a mission, the clip is still on the B'Tselem website...

http://www.btselem.org/english/Press_Releases/20080720.asp

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the other link, by the time I got to the YouTube one it was removed. Although it's rare to actually see this kind of thing, I believe it's more commonplace than we think, and not just at Guantanamo and on the West Bank. It's a rough world out there.

Anonymous said...

WR... extraordinary. Downloaded the film from the alternate link provided in comments. Assuming this is not blackops - and I accept your point in the comment above - it is a very serious matter.

British soldiers however, as is now being rehearsed in the press, have also contravened the laws of war and international law in their treatment of unarmed Iraqi prisoners.

The brutalisation of the human spirit through war and the emotion of war is very difficult to control - but control it we must.

One wonders how much of this goes on....

Julie said...

Hope there are no terrible repercussions for the girl or her family - their home is probably easily identifiable to the soldiers in the film.

Memphis said...

I'm afraid the clip is blocked at my work. I'll have to come back around from home.

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