what can one possibly say?
An Israeli army officer who repeatedly shot a 13-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza dismissed a warning from another soldier that she was a child by saying he would have killed her even if she was three years old.
The officer, identified by the army only as Captain R, was charged this week with illegal use of his weapon, conduct unbecoming an officer and other relatively minor infractions after emptying all 10 bullets from his gun's magazine into Iman al-Hams when she walked into a "security area" on the edge of Rafah refugee camp last month.
the citizens and taxpayers of the United States of America forfeit their humanity when they enable this behavior.
A tape recording of radio exchanges between soldiers involved in the incident, played on Israeli television, contradicts the army's account of the events and appears to show that the captain shot the girl in cold blood.
Chris Hedges comes to mind: "War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning."
What vacuum inhabits a soul that it can find meaning is by pumping 17 bullets in a child's body?
the tape shows that the soldiers swiftly identified her as a "girl of about 10" who was "scared to death".
The tape also reveals that the soldiers said Iman was headed eastwards, away from the army post and back into the refugee camp, when she was shot.
At that point, Captain R took the unusual decision to leave the post in pursuit of the girl. He shot her dead and then "confirmed the kill" by emptying his magazine into her body.
The tape recording is of a three-way conversation between the army watchtower, the army post's operations room and the captain, who was a company commander.
a leader.
Witnesses described how the captain shot Iman twice in the head, walked away, turned back and fired a stream of bullets into her body. Doctors at Rafah's hospital said she had been shot at least 17 times.
On the tape, the company commander then "clarifies" why he killed Iman: "This is commander. Anything that's mobile, that moves in the zone, even if it's a three-year-old, needs to be killed. Over."
Let's be fair.
Maybe the commander was having a bad day.
Maybe his lunchtime humus wasn't up to snuff.
Maybe the laundry put too much starch in his shorts.
Maybe he's bucking for a raise and needed to impress a superior.
The army's original account of the killing said that the soldiers only identified Iman as a child after she was first shot. But the tape shows that they were aware just how young the small, slight girl was before any shots were fired.
Well gosh o gee, this is war, after all. Bad things happen. This ain't beanbag. Collateral damage. Mistakes were made. Coulda happened to anyone.
And it's just one guy -- just a rogue IDF commander. Not a system-wide thing.
The case came to light after soldiers under the command of Captain R went to an Israeli newspaper to accuse the army of covering up the circumstances of the killing.
A subsequent investigation by the officer responsible for the Gaza strip, Major General Dan Harel, concluded that the captain had "not acted unethically".
However, the military police launched an investigation, which resulted in charges against the unit commander.
Iman's parents have accused the army of whitewashing the affair by filing minor charges against Captain R. They want him prosecuted for murder.
Americans have their own Abu Ghraib to account for and atone for. Past time for the United States to cut Israel loose. Israel has got to conform to the norms of civilized behavior, or pay its own way. No more paying for Israeli war crimes with American tax dollars. No more. Never again.
UPDATE: skip the tips. Save 'em for fifty 7's diary: VIDEO from Gaza. See that fifty 7's diary gets broadcast far and wide. America & Israel apparently need shock therapy to reclaim their souls.
UPDATE: The originally posted information and link referred to an incident that occurred 4 years ago.
The overall point of this diary is that violence corrupts and corrodes the soul.
Here is more contemporaneous account of how violence corrodes the soul. The original diary reference focused on the actions of one, individual soldier. But a soldier does not function in a vacuum; he is empowered by the civilians who pay for his actions and by the leaders who formulate policy that the soldier executes. The second, more recent, article suggests how each element of that 'chain of command' -- soldier, citizen, policymaker -- has been corrupted by militarized violence.