Vile Video… Rotten Responses

Always have I been a faithful supporter of our Israeli military forces, praising them for their courage and bravery under fire while defending us from the hands of enemy terrorists who seek our destruction.

However, a recent Breaking News item from the TIMES OF ISRAEL has disturbed me beyond words. I do not know how many of our readers watched the video photographed by IDF soldiers with commanders present.  It was truly sickening.

It showed our Israeli young soldiers wildly cheering the deadly shooting of an unarmed young Gazan man. He was not very close to the border fence and therefore was not an immediate threat to our soldiers. He had no weapons and therefore made no attempt to cause harm. He was only one of many thousands of Gazans who joined a protest march.

But in the video, we can see and hear our soldiers loudly cheering the one who pulled the trigger and fatefully shot the young man in his head.

Cries of “Whoa! What a video. YES! Son of a bitch. What a video!” were shouted from the ranks while commanders were present and joined in the cheering.

In a response, the army suggested that it was fabricated and “occurred a number of months ago”.

What a shameful lie. The footage shows the killing during the very recent protest march in Gazan territory. The video cannot lie. It is evidence that the IDF would prefer not be seen or heard.

For once, I can agree with an Arab member of our Knesset, Ayman Odeh of the Joint Arab List, when he stated: “A video that horrifies the mind. Calls of joy at taking a life and what appears to be the execution of someone who did not threaten anyone”.

I agree. The video indeed horrifies the mind and the shooting was indeed an execution. Shame on the IDF  for covering up the facts!

The military spokesperson, Brigadier General Ronen Manelis, ridiculously offered a rotten response to the vile video. “Videos may be fabricated. It is possible that mistakes may have been made”.

Nonsense! There was no mistake. The shooting and killing of an unarmed youth was intentional as one could hear from the audio sound of the video. And if Manelis thinks that the video was fabricated or that the killing may have “occurred a number of months ago”, why was there no condemnation at that “alleged” time? Why did the IDF wait several months to “investigate” the killing of an unarmed civilian?

It is a series of lies intended to retract blame from our soldiers. But in the presence of their commanders they gave comrades instructions of where to aim their weapons, when was the best moment to shoot, and loud cheers of “success” in the killing, while the commanders saw, heard and did not do or say anything to  stop the cheering shouts of our soldiers who were bent upon taking an Arab life.

Manelis admits that “it is possible that mistakes may have been made”.  May have been made? What a disgraceful and callous, rotten response.

Earlier, a Palestinian journalist wearing a PRESS vest while photographing scenes of the protest crowds was shot and killed by Israeli gunfire. Was that also a mistake?

Journalists wear clearly bright identifications and since they are not combatants they should not be harmed. But this one Press photographer was deliberately shot and killed.  Again, “a mistake” ?

Watching and listening to the very vile video, my mind wandered back to the pit at the ravine of the Ukrainian Babi Yar where, when hundreds of Jews were shot dead by the German Nazis and fell into the depths of the pit, while hundreds of Ukrainians could be heard shouting and cheering the execution of Jews.

Was it very different from this week’s mis-adventure?

Protestors have the right to protest under democratic systems if they are unarmed and have no intention of carrying anything except their protest posters.  If the Gazans did not cross the border fence but merely approached it without violence, the deaths and wounded could have been much lower than present figures indicate.

The video, as Ayman Oudeh correctly said is “a video that horrifies the mind”. It is a vile video.

And the rotten responses of our military spokesperson are no less disturbing.

May God protect our IDF personnel and guide them, as my late wife used to say, “to do the right thing the right way”.