A few hours later this was shown on television in Israel and all the Arab countries. It appears that the beaten man is an Egyptian television reporter, who was on his way to a press conference.
The IDFL (Israel Defense Forces Fiar, an anonymous officer in charge of inventing pretexts for transgressions) provided the usual response: the man had provoked and cursed the soldiers. The soldier got some suspended penalty, probably for slapping people on camera. One may assume that he will be promoted soon.
What is so special about this incident? Only the presence of a foreign TV team, and the amazing chutzpah of the soldier who behaved like this without first making sure that no camera was present. Apart from that, it was a very normal incident. Things like that-and much worse-happen daily at dozens of checkpoints all over the occupied territories. Routine harassment, "in order to relieve the boredom," as a soldier recently explained concerning another incident.
Slaps in the face. Beatings. Compelling people to stand in line for hours in the blazing sun. Compelling people to sit for hours in their cars in the sun with the windows closed. Taking away car keys or identity cards. Puncturing tires. Detaining women in labor on the way to the hospital. Detaining children with cancer on the way to treatment. Detaining kidney patients on the way to dialysis. Stealing money and valuables. So what's so special about slapping an Egyptian journalist? After all, an Arab is an Arab.
Nevertheless, it is worthwhile examining this incident a little further. The soldier (Sergeant? Fieutenant?) did what he did, as do thousands of other soldiers at regular and sporadic checkpoints, because they believe that it is permitted, perhaps even desirable.
If that is true, it shows that the situation is grave. If it is not true, it shows that the situation is even worse.
When thousands of soldiers at the checkpoints behave like this for years, it is clear that the commanders are turning a blind eye. The immediate commander. The battalion commander. The brigade
commander. The front commander. The chief of staff. The minister of defense. The prime minister. It would be enough for one of these people to issue an unequivocal order to stop the practice. It would be enough for the chief of staff to remove a brigade commander under whose command such an incident happened. Or for a brigade commander to remove a battalion chief. Or for the battalion commander to dismiss a company captain. Indeed, it would be enough to send one soldier to prison for 28 days (the penalty usually imposed on soldiers refusing to serve in the occupied territories) for the practice to stop at once.
If this does not happen, one cannot but hold the whole chain of