The IDF has returned to being the most moral army in the world. Only four days had passed since its soldiers killed American human rights activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, before the intense investigation the army had launched was completed, arriving at the cleansing, purifying conclusion that "the civilian was hit by the unaimed and unintentional fire of an IDF force which had aimed at a key inciter." Unaimed and unintentional fire that was aimed at … Did you get that? I doubt it.
While the IDF spokesman was climbing down a rope in a display showing the tunnel in which six hostages had been executed, to show the world the terrible conditions in which they had been held (when will they take us to the Sde Teiman army base to show us the shocking conditions of handcuffed, kidnapped Palestinians being held there?), soldiers in his own unit were putting together the convoluted explanation for the criminal killing of an innocent woman.
It's redundant to point out that the intense investigation was meant only to placate the Americans, whose president had said he was "troubled" by the killing of a citizen of his country. Don't worry, the contorted announcement by the army is sufficient to assuage presidential concerns. The last thing that bothers the White House is the killing of an activist who identifies with the Palestinians. The ones who should have been troubled by this explanation are those who weren't interested in the whole story to begin with: people in Israel.
The IDF spokesman has declared: death to inciters. Soldiers fired at an inciter to execute him, hitting another instigator by mistake. Such things happen. In other words: a drastic change in the rules of engagement, now officially declared.
If in the past there was a need to prove the presence of danger, it is now sufficient to discern incitement. And who exactly is an inciter? Someone calling for the liberation of the Palestinian people during a demonstration? Someone calling for the dismantling of the reckless outpost of Evyatar? Someone demonstrating for his rights over his land? In other words: When IDF soldiers discern incitement, from now on they will shoot to kill the instigator, on orders.
Members of Palestinian security forces carry the body of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi during a funeral procession in Nablus in the West Bank on Monday.Credit: Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP
How did we put it? The most moral army in the world. It's highly doubtful that the Russian army spokesman would dare admit that his army was shooting to kill any inciters.
"Incitement," for soldiers in spokesman Daniel Hagari's army of propaganda, whatever incitement means, is cause to execute someone. All that remains is the faulty sharpshooting skills of the soldiers, who were aiming at one inciter (the "main" one) but hit another. Nothing is easier than labeling the American tourist an inciter: She was in favor of justice for Palestinians. Procedures will be honed and the soldiers will be sent to the shooting range for further practice. Please check passports before the next execution. It's best not to hit Americans. No one will investigate the killing of a 13-year-old Palestinian girl the same day, in a neighboring village. No one is troubled over that one. Maybe she too was inciting while standing at her window?
A soldier shoots during a demonstration and a demonstrator is killed. What could be more normal than that? But our colleague Jonathan Pollak, who was in the village during the shooting, says that the soldiers shot the activist 20 minutes after the clashes had subsided. If that is the case, it was a cold-blooded killing. This was Aysenur's first and last protest.
But what should really be of concern is the subtext of the IDF spokesman's announcement: Incitement is a cause for execution. But incitement has many faces. If a call for Palestinian freedom is incitement carrying a death sentence, one is galloping down a slippery slope. Why won't the police be permitted to kill inciters at the Kaplan Street demonstrations? And what about the greatest inciters in the government and the media, calling for the "flattening" of Gaza of for "mowing the lawn," believing that the people there all deserve to die. Snipers, open fire. You have been authorized to do so by Hagari.