This picture of Israeli soldiers smiling for a selfie in front of a destroyed Gaza...

[changefromhr]

I know there are lots of pictures. I try to avoid looking as its just so awful but this one couldn't be avoided.

How sickening that the soldiers can smile and act so happy in front of all that destruction.

This is just another picture, from the thousands, that shows how the Palestinians and their lives and homes are seen as worthless.

Just to balance this, does anyone have a picture of the young Jewish woman who was raped and driven around on display with her legs apart on October 11th?

I think you mean Shani Louk. There is no evidence she was raped but yes that picture of her body being paraded as a trophy is far more sickening than the one above.

What Hamas did was abhorrent and horrific and unacceptable. We all know this. But soldiers from a so called democracy standing in front of a place where 13,000 children have been killed by their hand is sick in the extreme too.

The children of Gaza did not carry out the attacks on 7th October. The thousands of other Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks didn't either.

Why is this so hard to grasp?!?

Only if you think that her Israeli life is worth over 30,000 Palestinian ones

I can't condone any of the awful suffering that has been inflicted on any side.

I believe that war crimes are being committed in Gaza, but those young Israeli soldiers must frame the situation entirely differently and must have a very different perception of the circumstances in which they are posing.

What Israel is doing is much worse than what Hamas did. That really shouldn’t be a controversial statement.

It's not just about numbers. Nobody could seriously think an unpleasant photograph of some immature girls posing for a photo is as bad, never mind worse, than 4 men triumphantly yelling as they parade the dead body of a young woman as a trophy.

In the rubble behind those young people lie the bodies of innocent people. Part of the horror of that picture is the indifference of the people in it to where they are and the suffering they are involved in causing.

Let's not infantalise women please. They're adult soldiers who are mature enough to hold a rifle and kill someone.

It's every bit as bad. These grown women are smiling and making a PEACE sign in front of a levelled city.

I'm wondering if there's a mnetter somewhere who's been storing the images of this atrocity so you can supply us with your expert grading analogies. I reckon those "immature girls" probably got lost on their way to Wetherspoons for some pre-drinks.

They don't seem to be as happy as Hamas was on the night they invaded Israel. Real celebrations Hamas had during the rapes and murders.

WTF sort of response is this? Is there something wrong with you? What do you consider balance? How many homeless Palestinians equal a Hamas victim of murder and rape?

Does that make it alright then?

Hamas invaded Israel and started a war. They cannot complain about Israeli retaliation. We can only hope that Hamas returns the hostages and then surrenders so that the Israelis can go in and destroy the tunnels and all they conceal. That will end the war.

Because this one woman is worth more than 30,000 people? What happened to her is horrendous, but them taking selfies to commemorate the murder of all those people is just as appalling as the men who rejoiced at Shani Louk’s murder. The some lives are worth more than others narrative is getting old.

GIVE BACK THE HOSTAGES , then this madness might end

this may come as a shocking statement to some so brace yourself:

The life of an Israeli or Jewish person is not worth more than a Palestinian. We’re all human and our lives have equal value.

It’s not ok to kill 30,000 people in retaliation / revenge / “self defense” in return for 1,200 being killed.

But why don't Hamas return the hostages? Hamas knew exactly what they were doing on October 7 and how Israel would react. They wanted this conflict.

Please do some basic googling and have a look at the news. Hamas have offered to return the hostages in return for a temporary ceasefire conditioned on negotiations to turn it into a permanent one. The proposal was brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the US.

The war criminal prime minister of Israel rejected the proposal and called it delusional. He doesn’t care about his own hostages, only about turning Gaza into an uninhabitable graveyard, pushing Palestinians in the Sinai desert, and extending this war as long as possible to save himself from his corruption charges and being thrown out on his ear.

And I’ll say it again, the lives of the Israeli hostages are not worth more than the 12,000 Palestinian children Israel has killed these 5 months or the millions it is starving to death. People need to get a grip on their humanity.

People in Gaza are demonstrating against hamas. If one Iranian guy gets attacked by sympathisers on the streets of London, how brave are those who demonstrate against hamas in their stronghold.

I stand with those who see hamas for what they truly are.
Is it a coincidence that Syria started bombing it's own people while the world looked at Gaza. Where is the outrage? Assad has used chemical weapons on his own people. Where are the demonstrations?

I can’t believe some people are so naive that they still claim that returning the hostages would stop the slaughter of innocent Palestinians. Actually I don’t think anyone truly believes that.

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/11/24/escalation-in-north-west-syria-civilian-areas-hit-in-renewed-attacks/

And so I see we’re going down the well worn path of thread derailment. It was only a matter of time.

thanks for the thread @changefromhr . I agree the image is disgusting and displays a total lack of humanity and empathy by the soldiers who thought it was appropriate to pose for it. Sadly it is only one example of many by the IDF. There are nearly 3 full threads documenting similar behaviour in case you wanted to check them out.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/conflict-in-the-middle-east/4987257-documenting-israeli-army-racism-and-torture-thread-3?page=1

Is it derailment to focus on the selective condemnation of Israel when the Syrian government right now is doing what you accuse the idf of, to it's own people ?

Or is it only Israel who will be called out for lacking humanity. Why is that?