Friday, 11 January 2008, soldiers from the Israeli Army displayed their buttocks in a gesture known colloquially as “mooning” to a Palestinian shepherd and two international volunteers from Christian Peacemaker Teams.
The incident occurred immediately after settlers from the Hill 833 settlement outpost, accompanied by Israeli soldiers, pushed the shepherd and his flock off the land. The shepherd from the Palestinian village of Tuba in the South Hebron Hills was grazing his flock in fields several hundred meters south of the outpost when settlers from the outpost approached in a white car. (Settlers from the outpost are well known in the area for their attacks on local Palestinian shepherds, farmers, and schoolchildren.) More settlers arrived, along with Israeli soldiers, causing the shepherd to move back to a safer location. The soldiers informed the international volunteers accompanying the shepherd that the shepherd was not permitted to graze on the land, despite the fact Israeli courts have recognized Palestinian ownership of the land, and the Israeli Army itself had previously issued a demolition order, never carried out, for the Hill 833 outpost.
Even after the shepherd moved farther down the valley, the soldiers and a settler security guard followed him. Not content at having pushed the shepherd back, before leaving, two soldiers dropped their pants and displayed their buttocks to the shepherd and the international volunteers in a lewd, insulting manner.
1 comment:
How I wish this were the worst that soldiers did everywhere in the world.
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