Checkpoints - Conscience and good sense

07/28/2004

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Original text copyright by the author and MidEastWeb for Coexistence, RA. Posted at MidEastWeb Middle East Web Log at http://www.mideastweb.org/log/archives/00000286.htm where your intelligent and constructive comments are welcome. Distributed by MEW Newslist. Subscribe by e-mail to mew-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Please forward by email with this notice and link to and cite this article. Other uses by permission.

by Moderator @ 04:23 PM CST [Link]

Replies: 6 comments

The phenomenom described may be a general human failing.The brutality of checkpoint IDF soldiers is reflected in the atrocious treatment of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers in Iraq. IS THIS A NATURAL CONSEQUENCE WHEN YOU GIVE SOMEONE TOTAL CONTROL OVER ANOTHER HUMAN BEING?

In either event, strict control over the activities of personnel charged with police functions must be instituted by the powers that be, be they USA or Israeli.

Posted by Elchanan @ 07/29/2004 12:01 AM CST

Israeli's should be ashamed of themselves,they have forgotten how their fore-father's were slaves to the pharoh and now they are doing the same thing to the palestinians.
God is Great

Posted by daghalodi @ 07/29/2004 05:04 PM CST

From my own experience I can say that the situation for the soldier is a de-humanising one. The soldier, regardless of nationality, has to deal with a situation for which his combat training and his equipment does not equip him. Further in his enclosed military environment his primary perspective is that the civilians he is dealing with may be his military enemy or individuals who actively or passively support his enemy. He will see them on other occassions waving banners and marching, and shouting obscenities and he is denied the opportunity to respond. He will be ordered to look out for apparent civilians who are carrying weapons etc. and who pose a material threat to him and to his nation.
It is likely that the soldier does not have sophisticated outlook on the world. He is unlikely to appreciate the nuances of politics and international laws. He will only fully understand the civilians - "them" - the other - as enemies. He cannot afford to regard them as humans with personalities because that would impede his ability to respond to a threat arising from them. Doubt or confusion can easily kill him.
Most of all he doesn't want to be there. He will resent the civilians because they compel him to be there and so he vents his anger against them.
Sometimes the soldier will become "drunk" on the power he can wield in this situation, and it will be different to his life elsewhere where he has no power. Because he has almost absolute power in this situation, it corrupts him absolutely.
Beating the civilian may be his act of revenge for something entirely unconnected to the individual civilian.
I often hear the angry statements condemning the soldiers. Yet so often the person making these statements denies the soldier the same humanity that the soldier denies the civilian. And thus these angry commentators become as bad as the soldier.

Posted by RD @ 07/30/2004 10:55 PM CST

as always, not a word about what made the checkpoints necessary. there were none until Arafart declared war on Israel. hundreds of thousands of Arabs moved freely into and out of Israel, to work, shop, play.
frankly, i would be much more sympathetic if i saw the palestinians fighting against those who commit terror attacks against Israel, if i saw them jailing killers in non-revolving door jails, destroying terror organizations, etc.
the checkposts will disappear when the Arabs stop murdering us.

Posted by mike levine @ 07/31/2004 09:15 AM CST

Dalghodi's comments are interesting insofar as there is an assumption that the Israels / Jews as a collective should behave in a more exemplary manner because their forefathers have been subject to oppression and abuse. However if we consider how what we expect of abused individuals, we do not express astonishment if they subsequently abuse those over whom they have power. The abused child often grows up to be the abusive adult.
I suggest that this expectation that Israelis / Jews should somehow be "different" it merely an extension of the abuse they have collectively experienced over the last 2000+ years. Also that the opprobrium often attached to this demand of exemplary behaviour is merely a technique by which the accuser avoids culpability for the abuse to which Jews were subjected.

Posted by RD @ 08/16/2004 11:05 AM CST

I enjoy this web site as a place where people can learn about this crisis in an even handed manner as possible. Unfortunatly some of the posters don't seem interested in this goal. The blame the victim comments posted here are shameful. Are we back to the days of the rape victim asking for it?

Posted by robert @ 09/22/2004 05:56 PM CST

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