A Palestinian Tied Up With Zip Ties, Cables and a Pole in Gaza
What brings a young Israeli, someone serving in a combat unit, to torture a man by tying him to a pole? Did he wrong them somehow? He's their age, after all. Did they think about his life or his dreams? About his past, present and future?
He is lying in his underwear, almost naked, on his stomach. His eyes are covered with a rag. His face is pressed against a cot on which his kidnappers have placed him. His hands are behind his back, tied with plastic zip ties, tightly and painfully. His torso is tied to the bed with cords. On his leg, there are two red bruises.
So far, a routine picture of a detained Palestinian, but this time, the abuse also includes an original accessory: a wooden pole, the top of which is covered in iron for unclear reasons. It's tied across the length of his body, looking like an African spear. One might guess that its purpose is to prevent the victim from bending, even for a moment.
For a moment, I thought it was an artistic protest installation, perhaps an AI-generated picture reflecting despair in light of all the horrors in Gaza. But it wasn't. The IDF announced that "the incident in question has been located," that "it is being investigated at the command level" and that "those involved would be dealt with in accordance with the results of the investigation."t
There's no need to waste words on how it would be expected to be "dealt" with. On a really good day, the abusive soldiers would be suspended from duty for two hours. This, after all, is the "significant service" in Gaza that they had dreamed of.
There have been more horrific photos than this, but they weren't horrific in the way that this one is. There's no blood in it, no detached limbs, ostensibly no violence or shattered bodies. A man is tied to a pole. We don't know who this man is.
This is so dehumanizing and terrorizing. An israeli terr*rist battalion named “Netzah Yehuda Battalion” has just posted this photo of a Palestinian they took hostage recently in Gaza.
Israeli media outlets have already been quick to label him a terrorist, as they label every Palestinian in Gaza, without having a clue as to what or who he is. But his identity and sins, if there were any, are totally irrelevant. No one deserves such abuse. We also have no idea how long he lay there. An hour? A month? What's important is what passed through the minds of the soldiers there.
What brings a young Israeli, someone serving in a combat unit, to torture a man by tying him to a pole? Did he wrong them somehow? He's their age, after all. Did they think about his life or his dreams? About his past, present and future? Is he even a human being to them or is he a suspicious object?
It's obvious that not only are they not ashamed of what they are doing. They're proud enough of what they're doing to take photos and post them on social media. Look at us. We're the people's heroes.
They know that they're Israel's current heroes. And where did they get the pole? Maybe it's the same one that was used by those revered Force 100 "combatants" from Sde Teiman, the victims of Channel 12 journalist Guy Peleg's "blood libel"?
So how was it done? Did someone bring the pole, another seeing to covering its top in iron, with another suggesting: Let's tie him to the pole. That'll be great to post online. And some of them carried it out.
They tied their helpless victim tightly, tying him as you would tie an Amazon package, then adding the pole as decoration. It probably cracked them up laughing. Maybe they posted it on FaceTime for their girlfriends. They'd love it. Maybe also for their parents, who would see how patriotic and brave they are.
What will the victim carry for the rest of his life? Will he tell his kids and grandkids about it one day? Will he survive the torture camp to which he was abducted, along with tens of thousands of other human beings, many of whom are innocent; all of them incarcerated without trial?
Longing for another era: On February 26, 1988, a CBS News team headed by the legendary Bob Simon and Israeli photographer Moshe Alpert photographed four IDF soldiers beating two young Palestinians with a rock, breaking their arms on a stony hill near Nablus. They were photographed from 300 meters (1,000 feet) away and it raised an international outcry.
Never mind the world – Israel was in an uproar. Would you believe it? Almost 40 years have passed. A thousand dead babies in Gaza didn't evoke the same furor as the breaking of bones on a bare mountain near Nablus.
The photo of the man tied to a pole evoked almost no reaction here. And that's the short version of the history of despair.
I'm longing for another era, for 1988 and the reaction in Israel when a CBS News team photographed four IDF soldiers beating two young Palestinians.