Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Un libro da non perdere, se riuscira' a pubblicarlo...

Former Israeli soldier: "we behaved like animals, criminals, thieves"
toward Palestinians
Dec 1, 2003, 01:19
Occupied Jerusalem - A former Israeli soldier who served three years
in the Gaza Strip has described Israeli treatment of Palestinian
civilians as befitting "animals, criminals, and thieves."
Staff Sergeant Liaran Ron Furer has written a book on his experience
as an Israeli soldier manning roadblocks throughout the Gaza Strip.
The book, Titled "Checkpoints-Twilight Zone," contains personal
testimonies and often brash accounts of the daily harassment and
humiliation inflicted by young Israeli soldiers on Palestinian
civilians.
Major publishers in Israel, including the famous Steimatzky bookstore
chain refused to publish the book because, apparently because of its
scathing criticism of Israeli army behavior.
"You can adopt the most hard-line political positions, but no parent
would agree to his son becoming a thief, a criminal or a violent
person. The problem is that it is never presented this way. The boy
himself doesn't portray himself this way to his family when he returns
from the territories. On the contrary, he is received as a hero, as
someone who is doing the important work of being a soldier," says
Furer in his book.
Furer describes several types of sadistic behaviors by Israeli
soldiers including beating Palestinians and then taking souvenir
pictures with them.
" I remember how we humiliated a dwarf who came to the checkpoint
every day on his wagon. They forced him to have his picture taken on
the horse, hit him and degraded for a good half hour."
Among the accounts narrated by Furer are stories of soldiers having
souvenir pictures with Palestinians they had beaten up, soldiers
pissing on the heads of a Palestinian because the man had the nerve to
smile at a soldier and how one soldier, nicknamed Dado, forced a
Palestinian to stand on four legs and bark like a dog.
One of Furer's most chilling confessions related to his abuse of a
16-year old mentally retarded boy.
" I ran toward them and punched an Arab right in the face. I'd never
punched anyone that way. He collapsed on the road. The officers said
that we had to search him for his papers. We pulled his hands behind
his back and I bound them with plastic handcuffs. Then we blindfolded
him so he wouldn't see what was in the Jeep. I picked him up from the
road. Blood was trickling from his lip onto his chin. I led him up
behind the jeep and threw him in, his knees banged against the trunk
and he landed inside. We sat in the back, stepping on the Arab.who was
crying softly to himself.
"His face was right on my flak Jacket and he was bleeding and making a
kind of puddle of blood and Saliva, and it disgusted and angered me,
so I grabbed him by the hair and turned his head to the side. He cried
out loud and to get him to stop, We stepped harder and harder on his
back. That quieted him down for a while and then he started up again.
We concluded that he was either retarded or crazy."
"One of the soldiers went up to him and kicked him in the stomach. The
Arab doubled over and grunted, and we all laughed. It was funny. I
kicked him really hard in the ass and he flew forward just as I'd
expected. They shouted that I was totally crazy, and they laughed.and
I felt happy. Our Arab was just a 16-year-old mentally retarded boy."
Furer stresses that behaviors as such are by no means isolated but
rampant in the Israeli army.
An Israeli army spokesperson refused to comment on the book.
The spokesman said "sorry, I haven't read the book yet."
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/
K

 
Se vuoi ti regalo anche "Dalla Terra alla Luna" di Jules Verne :)  Tanto
il genere e' lo stesso :)
-Stefano