By now you've surely heard about this, the shooting with a rubber bullet of a Palestinian in custody apparently without provocation. Here's the video:
And from the BBC:
Israel's defence minister has condemned an incident caught on film in which a soldier seems to shoot a rubber bullet at a bound and blindfolded Palestinian.
Ehud Barak said the case was "grave and wrong" and that the military would exact the full extent of the law.
Footage released by human rights group B'Tselem on Sunday shows the detainee being held by one soldier as another fires at his legs at close range.
The Palestinian man has said the rubber bullet hit his left big toe.
A 14-year-old girl reportedly filmed the incident on 7 July from the window of her home in the town of Nilin, which has been the scene of violent protests against the West Bank barrier.
Immediately afterwards, an inquiry was conducted by the brigade commander responsible, but no action was taken, reports say.
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A quick look at the comments there show why it's impossible to discuss anything like this rationally.
oh god Greg, I'm so glad you included the quote after the clip.
I hadn't heard about this as I've been busy, and thought I just witnessed videotape of a murder.
It's still horrific, but damn that freaked me out.
I think it would be pretty difficult to discuss anything like this rationally. On the surface, the actions of the Israeli Soldiers seems pretty irrational.
My brother is totally pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian (he is an example of why people shouldn't watch too much Fox News) and he would tell us:
1. Israel has a right to exist.
2. Palestinians are terrorists.
If it helps keep the Palestinians in line, well, sometimes you have to break a few eggs.
Mike, as someone who is pretty pro-Israeli (or at least that's what people tell me. I really dislike the pro/anti classifications which massively oversimplify a complicated, non-zero sum situation) let me say that I agree that this sort of behavior is completely unacceptable. Barak did absolutely the right thing in condemning this act.
@Joel,
I meant the whole Israel/Palestine dealy, it always gets ruined by screaming racists.
There isn't much to discuss about this specific incident. A soldier shot a guy w/ rubber bullets who was bound and blindfolded and nothing happened until a tape came out, it's fucked up.
Note that "rubber bullet" is a bowdlerism. They are steel bullets with a rubber case - just enough that they don't break the skin.
I've been seeing and hearing this stuff for years, and it's about time that it became very public.
I've written about these things for a bit, but got a little disillusioned:
http://levantnotes.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2007-09-18T13%3A41%3…
because there was no response at all.
Americans ARE exceptional. They're the super-duper people, chock-full of things like Liberty, Democracy, Freedom, etc, and they spend 10 times as much on their military as anyone else on earth.
But they're still subjects of a shitty little settler colony in the Eastern Mediterranean.
I'm very glad that Greg is beginning to notice this, and that he is featuring it.
When anthropologists (?) notice what's happened, and the rest of you Americans wake up, we might get some sense.
best regards
Richard Parker
Siargao Island, Philippines
http://smallislandnotes.blogspot.com/
www.coconutstudio.com
http://austronesiancounting.wordpress.com/
These so-called 'rubber bullets' can kill. For this fact they are illegal for civilians to possess, otherwise soldiers and cops could be killed by them.
There is also a 'beanbag' round, which they pretend opens up into a flat disk that somehow flies through the air while remaining flat, while it is actually something from centuries ago -- bagshot. From close range a 'beanbag' round will pierce the skull, thorax, or belly.
This might be more about cops than it is about states.
"I think it would be pretty difficult to discuss anything like this rationally."
Why? What is irrational about a whole country founded on the idea that "a million Arab lives are not worth one Jewish fingernail?" What is irrational about Israeli fascism? What is irrational about Israeli arrogance and racism?
Jesus, next thing you will tell me is that the so-called Jews are religious wackoes,merely another styrain of terrorist, or that Jews were more than mere financiers in American slavery, or that we...ahem...they actively worked with Nazi's to foment the current trend in South America toward so-called "indigenous supremacy"...
eff the jews, eff the palestines, eff the canaanites
BRING BACK THE NEANDERTHALS
nuff said.