Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Israeli soldiers express pain of war


By Colin Hinshelwood
Asia Times

""One day I saw an elderly Palestinian. Really old. With a long white beard, his face all wrinkles, carrying two shopping bags, passing by a small religious Jewish boy, probably a first-grader, six to seven years old, maximum nine. The child came up, looked at the Arab in the eye - mind you, this is a street that both Jews and Arabs are allowed to use - and said to him: 'You filthy Arab!' spat in his face and ran off. Far away, he climbed some roof and threw stones at him. I was shocked."

This is just one excerpt from a catalogue of testimonies from Israeli soldiers who have recently come forward and spoken out for the first time about the mind-numbing situation they find themselves in while on duty in the Palestinian occupied territories. Many of the accounts make for macabre reading.

The soldier in the testimony above goes on to say that when he approached the child's parents to tell them what their son had done, he was rebuked by the parents for siding with a Palestinian and told that their son had acted legitimately. Time and again, the collected testimonies bear witness to crimes of hate and racism carried out by either Israeli soldiers or by the Jewish "settlers" within the occupied territories on unarmed Palestinian civilians, including women and children....... "

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