Interesting account by Israeli journalist Yossi Abadi seeking to verify Israel Defense Force’s claims that charges of unnecessary force against protestors at Bil’in are untrue. What he concludes is that The IDF Refuses to Explain Itself when a more obvious explanation is that the IDF has no evidence to turn over:
To be honest, even if this represents a completely subjective opinion, I was rather convinced of the IDF’s innocence. “The protestors bring the soldiers to the boiling point, provoke them into responding, don’t follow instructions, ignore the law and do whatever they please, intending to plunge everyone into violence.” This was the explanation provided by one of the officers in charge of local IDF activity in the area. And really, we believe him. Only his claims are not documented, leaving his position devoid of meaning.
Having been to two of the weekly protests against the separation barrier dividing Bil’in villagers from much of their land, it seems to me the journalist should consider another possibility: the IDF is lying. In this posting, I described in some detail one large protest.
Abadi’s effort to find photos from the army’s position failed:
A day passed, two, three, four, five, a week, a whole ten days – and still no response from the IDF. Officers explained to me there are “difficulties in finding the material” and they have “approached various units to collect the existing data.” Thus the IDF, an entire military system, a “well-oiled information machine,” was unable to find the information it supposedly had already in its possession.
Since the IDF constantly photographs the protestors, the argument that the material is hard to come by seems ludicrous. This is from last October:
This from December:
The IDF could probably come up with photos showing young rock throwers, but as described in my earlier piece this expected component of the weekly drama typically comes very late, long after the IDF has started tear-gassing nonviolent activists. If the IDF had to release all the footage they take, the conclusion would be that the army’s claims just can’t be sustained.
I have more photos from both Bil’in protests in my galleries.
Its interesting that nobody classifies the (illegal) gassing of peaceful demonstrations as “unnecessary force”. It has become truily sadistic and completely without any strategic purpose.
it totally has strategic purpose, and a fairly effective one: make the act of protesting physically unbearable for demonstrators so that they’ll stop showing up at demonstrations. if protesting means a high likelihood of getting sick from tear gas, or getting shot with a “less lethal weapon,” then chances are you will reduce the number of demonstrators over all. if there are no physical repercussions against the demonstrators, then everyone would turn out to protest.
I understand why the IDF uses these tactics, though I think the effect as not as clearcut as they intend. It no doubt keeps down numbers, but it also strengthens the resolve of the activist Israeli and ISM core who keep returning every week, as well as of visiting activists, at least as long as the risk of death is low and most people are not permanently injured. The level of IDF violence is also apparently not enough to deter the local Palestinian kids who engage in weekly tit-for-tat with the soldiers, despite their greater risk. So given this ineffectiveness, I wonder if the IDF is simply responding by rote to lash out at the people on the spot rather than because they’ve thought through the consequences.
The issue in the article I was responding to wasn’t whether the IDF uses force but why the IDF won’t release the photographic evidence it clearly has. I also wonder, and Mobius maybe you know the answer to this, why I’ve never seen photos by Israeli journalists taken from the IDF side. I suppose they’re not allowed close to the action?