Oct 15 2001 – The Israeli Army is investigating reports that its soldiers are circulating “trophy” photographs of themselves posing next to dead and sometimes mutilated Palestinians.
The revelation was followed by the discovery yesterday of a member of the militant Islamic group Hamas shot dead at his home in the West Bank town of Qalqilya in what Palestinian security sources said was an Israeli assassination.
They said Abdel Rahman Hamad, 35, had been found with bullet wounds to his head and was killed by Israeli forces as he stood on the roof of his house.
Israel Radio, citing Palestinian sources, said Mr Hamad was a member of the military wing of Hamas and may have been killed by snipers.
Also at the weekend, Israel announced it would ease a year-long blockade on Palestinian areas, and Washington pressed both sides to end their conflict so it could bolster Muslim and Arab support for its anti-terror war.
Israeli authorities said the decision to start lifting the blockade, allowing thousands of Palestinian workers into Israel, was the result of a “decrease” in violence, though sporadic gun battles have erupted in the West Bank and Gaza.
The Israeli Defence Force said it was investigating the report of soldiers taking photographs of Palestinians, but dismissed suggestions that “the phenomenon” was widespread.
“The IDF is aware of only a few singular incidents that were the initiative of individual soldiers,” it said in a statement. “The IDF educates its soldiers and commanders according to the IDF spirit and in the keeping of human dignity. This is not acceptable, and has to be dealt with by punishment and through education.”
The revelation, made by a group of Israeli soldiers this month, has heightened fears that young army recruits are inured to the violence they face routinely as the Palestinian uprising drags on into its second year.
The group told a Jerusalem weekly newspaper that they and their fellow soldiers often took pocket cameras on military missions and posed for pictures next to corpses of Palestinians.
It is not the first time that soldiers have taken pictures of their dead opponents. United States troops photographed the bodies of enemy soldiers during the Vietnam War. The Israeli soldiers said many of the photographs were widely distributed in military units, and appearing in such pictures had become a ritualistic “badge of honour”.
A unit of the Golani brigade, serving in the Gaza Strip, privately printed a book with stories about its soldiers. The front cover showed the body of a Palestinian, killed five months ago after he infiltrated a Jewish settlement. The caption read: “Thus shall we do to the man who messes with Company B.”
In another incident in the Gaza Strip, soldiers photographed a Palestinian who had infiltrated a settlement and was shot dead. A post-mortem examination showed his body had been shot at close range after death.
Yoram, 20, an armoured corps soldier, said he had seen 40 to 50 photographs of soldiers posing next to dead Palestinians.
“I remember one terrible photo of the soldiers smiling like children as they stood on the bodies with their boots, really enjoying the moment.”