The photos were posted by Eden Abergil, a young Israeli woman who finished her military service over a year ago. They show the uniformed officer smiling and posing next to bound and blindfolded Palestinian men.
The pictures have raised a huge storm on the Internet after being picked up by the Israeli blog Sachim. The comments on Facebook published below the picture sparked extra outrage: "Eden, he’s got a hard-on for you...lol!" wrote one of her girlfriends, while Eden joked that she wondered if the prisoner "has Facebook" so she could "tag" him.
The Israeli army issued a statement calling Abergil’s behaviour "ugly and callous", adding that "details of the incident have been forwarded up the chain of command".
All Israeli citizens aged 18 and over must complete an 18-month-long military service. Only married, pregnant, religious, or disabled women are exempted.
Contributors
"I tried to contact Eden Abergil on Facebook, but she answered that she ‘doesn’t talk to leftists'"
Lisa Goldman is a blogger and freelance journalist in Tel Aviv.
The incident has sparked a huge wave of outrage since the photos were published on Sicham. Twitter users here are speaking of nothing but Eden. We don’t have details on where the photos were taken, all we know is that the men are Palestinian soldiers and the scene takes place in the West Bank. I tried to contact Eden Abergil on Facebook, but she just responded that "she doesn’t talk to leftists".
This woman’s attitude is simply disgusting. I wouldn’t say her behaviour is the norm, but there have been precedents in the Israeli army. Some people have absolutely no discipline. To make matters worse, Eden Abergil was an officer. If she had posted the photos during her military service, she would now be in big trouble with the IDF. But now that she’s been discharged, she’s just an ordinary citizen. The army can’t do anything. Eden didn’t even take the photos off her Facebook page after the scandal broke out, she just changed her privacy settings. But there’s going to be a lot of noise around this story".
The incident has sparked a huge wave of outrage since the photos were published on Sicham. Twitter users here are speaking of nothing but Eden. We don’t have details on where the photos were taken, all we know is that the men are Palestinian soldiers and the scene takes place in the West Bank. I tried to contact Eden Abergil on Facebook, but she just responded that "she doesn’t talk to leftists". "She was an officer"
This woman’s attitude is simply disgusting. I wouldn’t say her behaviour is the norm, but there have been precedents in the Israeli army. Some people have absolutely no discipline. To make matters worse, Eden Abergil was an officer. If she had posted the photos during her military service, she would now be in big trouble with the IDF. But now that she’s been discharged, she’s just an ordinary citizen. The army can’t do anything. Eden didn’t even take the photos off her Facebook page after the scandal broke out, she just changed her privacy settings. But there’s going to be a lot of noise around this story".
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