{"id":4460,"date":"2009-03-21T08:52:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-21T06:52:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-03-21T13:43:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T11:43:47","slug":"epalestine-dead-palestinian-babies-and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/2009\/03\/epalestine-dead-palestinian-babies-and\/","title":{"rendered":"[ePalestine] Dead Palestinian babies and bombed mosques &#8211; IDF fashion 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mobile-photo\"><a  href=\"https:\/\/ePalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/1shot2kills-755367-1.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"260\" height=\"299\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/ePalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/1shot2kills-755367-1.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-4461\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Last update &#8211; 22:41 20\/03\/2009&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"4\"> <span style=\" font-size:14pt\"> <strong>Dead Palestinian babies and bombed mosques &#8211; IDF fashion  2009&#160; <\/strong><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> By Uri Blau&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> The office at the Adiv fabric-printing shop in south Tel Aviv handles a constant stream of  customers, many of them soldiers in uniform, who come to order custom clothing featuring  their unit&#8217;s insignia, usually accompanied by a slogan and drawing of their choosing.  Elsewhere on the premises, the sketches are turned into plates used for imprinting the  ordered items, mainly T-shirts and baseball caps, but also hoodies, fleece jackets and pants.  A young Arab man from Jaffa supervises the workers who imprint the words and pictures,  and afterward hands over the finished product.&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Dead babies, mothers weeping on their children&#8217;s graves, a gun aimed at a child and  bombed-out mosques &#8211; these are a few examples of the images Israel Defense Forces  soldiers design these days to print on shirts they order to mark the end of training, or of field  duty. The slogans accompanying the drawings are not exactly anemic either: A T-shirt for  infantry snipers bears the inscription &quot;Better use Durex,&quot; next to a picture of a dead  Palestinian baby, with his weeping mother and a teddy bear beside him. A sharpshooter&#8217;s T- shirt from the Givati Brigade&#8217;s Shaked battalion shows a pregnant Palestinian woman with a  bull&#8217;s-eye superimposed on her belly, with the slogan, in English, &quot;1 shot, 2 kills.&quot; A  &quot;graduation&quot; shirt for those who have completed another snipers course depicts a Palestinian  baby, who grows into a combative boy and then an armed adult, with the inscription, &quot;No  matter how it begins, we&#8217;ll put an end to it.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> There are also plenty of shirts with blatant sexual messages. For example, the Lavi battalion  produced a shirt featuring a drawing of a soldier next to a young woman with bruises, and the  slogan, &quot;Bet you got raped!&quot; A few of the images underscore actions whose existence the  army officially denies &#8211; such as &quot;confirming the kill&quot; (shooting a bullet into an enemy victim&#8217;s  head from close range, to ensure he is dead), or harming religious sites, or female or child  non-combatants.&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> In many cases, the content is submitted for approval to one of the unit&#8217;s commanders. The  latter, however, do not always have control over what gets printed, because the artwork is a  private initiative of soldiers that they never hear about. Drawings or slogans previously  banned in certain units have been approved for distribution elsewhere. For example, shirts  declaring, &quot;We won&#8217;t chill &#8217;til we confirm the kill&quot; were banned in the past (the IDF claims that  the practice doesn&#8217;t exist), yet the Haruv battalion printed some last year.&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> The slogan &quot;Let every Arab mother know that her son&#8217;s fate is in my hands!&quot; had previously  been banned for use on another infantry unit&#8217;s shirt. A Givati soldier said this week, however,  that at the end of last year, his platoon printed up dozens of shirts, fleece jackets and pants  bearing this slogan.&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> &quot;It has a drawing depicting a soldier as the Angel of Death, next to a gun and an Arab town,&quot;  he explains. &quot;The text was very powerful. The funniest part was that when our soldier came  to get the shirts, the man who printed them was an Arab, and the soldier felt so bad that he  told the girl at the counter to bring them to him.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Does the design go to the commanders for approval?&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> The Givati soldier: &quot;Usually the shirts undergo a selection process by some officer, but in this  case, they were approved at the level of platoon sergeant. We ordered shirts for 30 soldiers  and they were really into it, and everyone wanted several items and paid NIS 200 on  average.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> What do you think of the slogan that was printed?&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> &quot;I didn&#8217;t like it so much, but most of the soldiers wanted it.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Many controversial shirts have been ordered by graduates of snipers courses, which bring  together soldiers from various units. In 2006, soldiers from the &quot;Carmon Team&quot; course for  elite-unit marksmen printed a shirt with a drawing of a knife-wielding Palestinian in the  crosshairs of a gun sight, and the slogan, &quot;You&#8217;ve got to run fast, run fast, run fast, before it&#8217;s  all over.&quot; Below is a drawing of Arab women weeping over a grave and the words: &quot;And  afterward they cry, and afterward they cry.&quot; [The inscriptions are riffs on a popular song.]  Another sniper&#8217;s shirt also features an Arab man in the crosshairs, and the announcement,  &quot;Everything is with the best of intentions.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> G., a soldier in an elite unit who has done a snipers course, explained that, &quot;it&#8217;s a type of  bonding process, and also it&#8217;s well known that anyone who is a sniper is messed up in the  head. Our shirts have a lot of double entendres, for example: &#8216;Bad people with good aims.&#8217;  Every group that finishes a course puts out stuff like that.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> When are these shirts worn?&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> G. &quot;These are shirts for around the house, for jogging, in the army. Not for going out.  Sometimes people will ask you what it&#8217;s about.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Of the shirt depicting a bull&#8217;s-eye on a pregnant woman, he said: &quot;There are people who think  it&#8217;s not right, and I think so as well, but it doesn&#8217;t really mean anything. I mean it&#8217;s not like  someone is gonna go and shoot a pregnant woman.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> What is the idea behind the shirt from July 2007, which has an image of a child with the  slogan &quot;Smaller &#8211; harder!&quot;?&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> &quot;It&#8217;s a kid, so you&#8217;ve got a little more of a problem, morally, and also the target is smaller.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Do your superiors approve the shirts before printing?&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> &quot;Yes, although one time they rejected some shirt that was too extreme. I don&#8217;t remember  what was on it.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> These shirts also seem pretty extreme. Why draw crosshairs over a child &#8211; do you shoot  kids?&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> &#8216;We came, we saw&#8217;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> &quot;As a sniper, you get a lot of extreme situations. You suddenly see a small boy who picks up  a weapon and it&#8217;s up to you to decide whether to shoot. These shirts are half-facetious,  bordering on the truth, and they reflect the extreme situations you might encounter. The one  who-honest-to-God sees the target with his own eyes &#8211; that&#8217;s the sniper.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Have you encountered a situation like that?&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> &quot;Fortunately, not involving a kid, but involving a woman &#8211; yes. There was someone who  wasn&#8217;t holding a weapon, but she was near a prohibited area and could have posed a threat.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> What did you do?&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> &quot;I didn&#8217;t take it&quot; (i.e., shoot).&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> You don&#8217;t regret that, I imagine.&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> &quot;No. Whomever I had to shoot, I shot.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> A shirt printed up just this week for soldiers of the Lavi battalion, who spent three years in the  West Bank, reads: &quot;We came, we saw, we destroyed!&quot; &#8211; alongside images of weapons, an  angry soldier and a Palestinian village with a ruined mosque in the center.&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> A shirt printed after Operation Cast Lead in Gaza for Battalion 890 of the Paratroops depicts  a King Kong-like soldier in a city under attack. The slogan is unambiguous: &quot;If you believe it  can be fixed, then believe it can be destroyed!&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Y., a soldier\/yeshiva student, designed the shirt. &quot;You take whoever [in the unit] knows how to  draw and then you give it to the commanders before printing,&quot; he explained.&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> What is the soldier holding in his hand?&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Y. &quot;A mosque. Before I drew the shirt I had some misgivings, because I wanted it to be like  King Kong, but not too monstrous. The one holding the mosque &#8211; I wanted him to have a  more normal-looking face, so it wouldn&#8217;t look like an anti-Semitic cartoon. Some of the people  who saw it told me, &#8216;Is that what you&#8217;ve got to show for the IDF? That it destroys homes?&#8217; I  can understand people who look at this from outside and see it that way, but I was in Gaza  and they kept emphasizing that the object of the operation was to wreak destruction on the  infrastructure, so that the price the Palestinians and the leadership pay will make them  realize that it isn&#8217;t worth it for them to go on shooting. So that&#8217;s the idea of &#8216;we&#8217;re coming to  destroy&#8217; in the drawing.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> According to Y., most of these shirts are worn strictly in an army context, not in civilian life.  &quot;And within the army people look at it differently,&quot; he added. &quot;I don&#8217;t think I would walk down  the street in this shirt, because it would draw fire. Even at my yeshiva I don&#8217;t think people  would like it.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Y. also came up with a design for the shirt his unit printed at the end of basic training. It  shows a clenched fist shattering the symbol of the Paratroops Corps.&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Where does the fist come from?&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> &quot;It&#8217;s reminiscent of [Rabbi Meir] Kahane&#8217;s symbol. I borrowed it from an emblem for  something in Russia, but basically it&#8217;s supposed to look like Kahane&#8217;s symbol, the one from  &#8216;Kahane Was Right&#8217; &#8211; it&#8217;s a sort of joke. Our company commander is kind of gung-ho.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Was the shirt printed?&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> &quot;Yes. It was a company shirt. We printed about 100 like that.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> This past January, the &quot;Night Predators&quot; demolitions platoon from Golani&#8217;s Battalion 13  ordered a T-shirt showing a Golani devil detonating a charge that destroys a mosque. An  inscription above it says, &quot;Only God forgives.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> One of the soldiers in the platoon downplays it: &quot;It doesn&#8217;t mean much, it&#8217;s just a T-shirt from  our platoon. It&#8217;s not a big deal. A friend of mine drew a picture and we made it into a shirt.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> What&#8217;s the idea behind &quot;Only God forgives&quot;?&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> The soldier: &quot;It&#8217;s just a saying.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> No one had a problem with the fact that a mosque gets blown up in the picture?&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> &quot;I don&#8217;t see what you&#8217;re getting at. I don&#8217;t like the way you&#8217;re going with this. Don&#8217;t take this  somewhere you&#8217;re not supposed to, as though we hate Arabs.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> After Operation Cast Lead, soldiers from that battalion printed a T-shirt depicting a vulture  sexually penetrating Hamas&#8217; prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, accompanied by a particularly  graphic slogan. S., a soldier in the platoon that ordered the shirt, said the idea came from a  similar shirt, printed after the Second Lebanon War, that featured Hassan Nasrallah instead  of Haniyeh.&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> &quot;They don&#8217;t okay things like that at the company level. It&#8217;s a shirt we put out just for the  platoon,&quot; S. explained.&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> What&#8217;s the problem with this shirt?&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> S.: &quot;It bothers some people to see these things, from a religious standpoint &#8230;&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> How did people who saw it respond?&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> &quot;We don&#8217;t have that many Orthodox people in the platoon, so it wasn&#8217;t a problem. It&#8217;s just  something the guys want to put out. It&#8217;s more for wearing around the house, and not within  the companies, because it bothers people. The Orthodox mainly. The officers tell us it&#8217;s best  not to wear shirts like this on the base.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> The sketches printed in recent years at the Adiv factory, one of the largest of its kind in the  country, are arranged in drawers according to the names of the units placing the orders:  Paratroops, Golani, air force, sharpshooters and so on. Each drawer contains hundreds of  drawings, filed by year. Many of the prints are cartoons and slogans relating to life in the unit,  or inside jokes that outsiders wouldn&#8217;t get (and might not care to, either), but a handful reflect  particular aggressiveness, violence and vulgarity.&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Print-shop manager Haim Yisrael, who has worked there since the early 1980s, said Adiv  prints around 1,000 different patterns each month, with soldiers accounting for about half.  Yisrael recalled that when he started out, there were hardly any orders from the army.&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> &quot;The first ones to do it were from the Nahal brigade,&quot; he said. &quot;Later on other infantry units  started printing up shirts, and nowadays any course with 15 participants prints up shirts.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> From time to time, officers complain. &quot;Sometimes the soldiers do things that are inside jokes  that only they get, and sometimes they do something foolish that they take to an extreme,&quot;  Yisrael explained. &quot;There have been a few times when commanding officers called and said,  &#8216;How can you print things like that for soldiers?&#8217; For example, with shirts that trashed the  Arabs too much. I told them it&#8217;s a private company, and I&#8217;m not interested in the content. I  can print whatever I like. We&#8217;re neutral. There have always been some more extreme and  some less so. It&#8217;s just that now more people are making shirts.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Race to be unique&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Evyatar Ben-Tzedef, a research associate at the International Policy Institute for Counter- Terrorism and former editor of the IDF publication Maarachot, said the phenomenon of  custom-made T-shirts is a product of &quot;the infantry&#8217;s insane race to be unique. I, for example,  had only one shirt that I received after the Yom Kippur War. It said on it, &#8216;The School for  Officers,&#8217; and that was it. What happened since then is a product of the decision to assign  every unit an emblem and a beret. After all, there used to be very few berets: black, red or  green. This changed in the 1990s. [The shirts] developed because of the fact that for bonding  purposes, each unit created something that was unique to it.&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> &quot;These days the content on shirts is sometimes deplorable,&quot; Ben-Tzedef explained. &quot;It stems  from the fact that profanity is very acceptable and normative in Israel, and that there is a lack  of respect for human beings and their environment, which includes racism aimed in every  direction.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Yossi Kaufman, who moderates the army and defense forum on the Web site Fresh, served  in the Armored Corps from 1996 to 1999. &quot;I also drew shirts, and I remember the first one,&quot;  he said. &quot;It had a small emblem on the front and some inside joke, like, &#8216;When we die, we&#8217;ll  go to heaven, because we&#8217;ve already been through hell.&#8217;&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Kaufman has also been exposed to T-shirts of the sort described here. &quot;I know there are  shirts like these,&quot; he says. &quot;I&#8217;ve heard and also seen a little. These are not shirts that soldiers  can wear in civilian life, because they would get stoned, nor at a battalion get-together,  because the battalion commander would be pissed off. They wear them on very rare  occasions. There&#8217;s all sorts of black humor stuff, mainly from snipers, such as, &#8216;Don&#8217;t bother  running because you&#8217;ll die tired&#8217; &#8211; with a drawing of a Palestinian boy, not a terrorist. There&#8217;s a  Golani or Givati shirt of a soldier raping a girl, and underneath it says, &#8216;No virgins, no terror  attacks.&#8217; I laughed, but it was pretty awful. When I was asked once to draw things like that, I  said it wasn&#8217;t appropriate.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> The IDF Spokesman&#8217;s Office comments on the phenomenon: &quot;Military regulations do not  apply to civilian clothing, including shirts produced at the end of basic training and various  courses. The designs are printed at the soldiers&#8217; private initiative, and on civilian shirts. The  examples raised by Haaretz are not in keeping with the values of the IDF spirit, not  representative of IDF life, and are in poor taste. Humor of this kind deserves every  condemnation and excoriation. The IDF intends to take action for the immediate eradication  of this phenomenon. To this end, it is emphasizing to commanding officers that it is  appropriate, among other things, to take discretionary and disciplinary measures against  those involved in acts of this sort.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Shlomo Tzipori, a lieutenant colonel in the reserves and a lawyer specializing in martial law,  said the army does bring soldiers up on charges for offenses that occur outside the base and  during their free time. According to Tzipori, slogans that constitute an &quot;insult to the army or to  those in uniform&quot; are grounds for court-martial, on charges of &quot;shameful conduct&quot; or  &quot;disciplinary infraction,&quot; which are general clauses in judicial martial law.&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Sociologist Dr. Orna Sasson-Levy, of Bar-Ilan University, author of &quot;Identities in Uniform:  Masculinities and Femininities in the Israeli Military,&quot; said that the phenomenon is &quot;part of a  radicalization process the entire country is undergoing, and the soldiers are at its forefront. I  think that ever since the second intifada there has been a continual shift to the right. The  pullout from Gaza and its outcome &#8211; the calm that never arrived &#8211; led to a further shift  rightward.&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> &quot;This tendency is most strikingly evident among soldiers who encounter various situations in  the territories on a daily basis. There is less meticulousness than in the past, and increasing  callousness. There is a perception that the Palestinian is not a person, a human being  entitled to basic rights, and therefore anything may be done to him.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Could the printing of clothing be viewed also as a means of venting aggression?&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Sasson-Levy: &quot;No. I think it strengthens and stimulates aggression and legitimizes it. What  disturbs me is that a shirt is something that has permanence. The soldiers later wear it in  civilian life; their girlfriends wear it afterward. It is not a statement, but rather something  physical that remains, that is out there in the world. Beyond that, I think the link made  between sexist views and nationalist views, as in the &#8216;Screw Haniyeh&#8217; shirt, is interesting.  National chauvinism and gender chauvinism combine and strengthen one another. It  establishes a masculinity shaped by violent aggression toward women and Arabs; a  masculinity that considers it legitimate to speak in a crude and violent manner toward women  and Arabs.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Col. (res.) Ron Levy began his military service in the Sayeret Matkal elite commando force  before the Six-Day War. He was the IDF&#8217;s chief psychologist, and headed the army&#8217;s mental  health department in the 1980s.&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Levy: &quot;I&#8217;m familiar with things of this sort going back 40, 50 years, and each time they take a  different form. Psychologically speaking, this is one of the ways in which soldiers project their  anger, frustration and violence. It is a certain expression of things, which I call &#8216;below the  belt.&#8217;&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Do you think this a good way to vent anger?&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Levy: &quot;It&#8217;s safe. But there are also things here that deviate from the norm, and you could say  that whoever is creating these things has reached some level of normality. He gives  expression to the fact that what is considered abnormal today might no longer be so  tomorrow.&quot;&#160; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> <strong>Photo Caption: A T-shirt printed at the request of an IDF soldier in the sniper unit  reading &#8216;1 shot 2 kills.&#8217;&#160; <\/strong><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/2009-03-19\/ty-article\/dead-palestinian-babies-and-bombed-mosques-idf-fashion-2009\/0000017f-e11a-d568-ad7f-f37b4fd90000\">https:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/2009-03-19\/ty-article\/dead-palestinian-babies-and-bombed-mosques-idf-fashion-2009\/0000017f-e11a-d568-ad7f-f37b4fd90000<\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> &#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8211;<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> ePalestine Blog:<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.epalestine.com\"> <font face=\"Arial\" color=\"#0000ff\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> <u>http:\/\/www.epalestine.com<\/u> <\/span> <\/font> <\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> &#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8211;<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> Everything about this list:<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/lists.riseup.net\/www\/info\/epalestine\"> <font face=\"Arial\" color=\"#0000ff\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> <u>http:\/\/lists.riseup.net\/www\/info\/epalestine<\/u> <\/span> <\/font> <\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> To unsubscribe, send mail to:<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> epalestine-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">  <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> To subscribe, send mail to:<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <span style=\" font-size:10pt\"> epalestine-subscribe@lists.riseup.net<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m&#160; Last update &#8211; 22:41 20\/03\/2009&#160; Dead Palestinian babies and bombed mosques &#8211; IDF fashion 2009&#160; By Uri Blau&#160; The office at the Adiv fabric-printing shop in south Tel Aviv handles a constant stream of customers, many of them soldiers in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","iawp_total_views":3,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1401],"ppma_author":[936],"class_list":["post-4460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-hamas"],"authors":[{"term_id":936,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"sambahour","display_name":"Sam Bahour","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bca109c333bf6d8ae807746dd512adde46265d37c923f6cd0fc4aab437f8e9aa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4460"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9333,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4460\/revisions\/9333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4460"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=4460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}