JERUSALEM, Aug 17 (Reuters) - A former Israeli soldier said on Tuesday she
saw nothing wrong in having posted pictures of herself on Facebook posing next
to handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian detainees.
The images, from Eden Abergil's Army -- the best period of my life photo
album on the social media website, drew international attention and condemnation
by Israel's military after they appeared in Israeli newspapers on Monday.
The Palestinian Government Media Center described the pictures as indicative
of the mentality of the occupier, to be proud of humiliating Palestinians.
I still don't understand what was wrong, the former conscript said in an
interview on Israeli Army Radio on Tuesday.
Abergil said the photographs, which she has since removed from her Facebook
page, were not intended to make a political statement or demonstrate contempt
for Palestinians.
It was solely to show the experience of military service, she said.
Israel controls much of the occupied West Bank, captured in a 1967 war, which
Palestinians want as part of a future state along with the Gaza Strip, now run
by Hamas Islamists.
Abergil, who completed her mandatory two-year army service about a year ago,
said the photographs were taken in 2008 at her base where Palestinians who tried
to cross the Gaza border into Israel were often taken for questioning.
Palestinian suspects are sometimes bound with plastic handcuffs and
blindfolded while waiting to be questioned.
As a civilian, Abergil is no longer directly answerable to the military, but
an army spokesman condemned her actions as disgraceful.
Commenting on whether the photographs had dealt a blow to Israel's
international image, she told Army Radio: We will always be attacked --
whatever we do, we will always be attacked. (Writing by Ori Lewis; editing by
Andrew Roche)