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How Occupation Corrupts
The Occupiers Absolutely

By Mustapha Karkouti

Gulf News
27 November, 2003

Occupation is, indisputably, an effective tool of corruption. Apart from the large scale destruction inflicted on "the occupied", history has shown that occupation can do a lot more damage on "the occupiers". The Vietnam legacy still lives within the American social fabric three decades after it ended. Though it was a difference in nature and goals to the continuous Israeli occupation of Arab lands, the American adventure in Vietnam brutalised US moral and political standing in the world.

For years, Israeli liberals and peace activists and sections of Jewish society in the Diaspora, had the slogan in demonstrations against the Israeli occupation of Arab lands, has been "the occupation corrupts."

Decades have elapsed since Israel first occupied Arab territories in 1967. The Jewish state seems to be reaping what it sowed: ordinary Israeli kids join the army and become sadistic monsters, just by complying with its rules.

Soldier's account

To understand to what extension occupation corrupts Israeli young men and women serving in the army, one has to read one soldier's account about his regular service at the army's checkpoints in the Palestinian territories.

The leading Israeli writer, Gideon Levy, brought this issue to the open in Haaretz last week. He revealed how checkpoints, which are measures in theory meant to secure movements in emergency situations only, have become breading ground for growing human "monsters." His article, gave a partial answer from an Israeli Staff Sergeant. It is a frank introduction to only one aspect of occupation: checkpoints.

While reading this eye-opening article about the Staff Sergeant's own experience, one has to remember that this specific account all took place pre-Intifada and during the so-called "peaceful" days of Oslo! (1996-99). If you can imagine this account multiplied ten-fold, you will start to understand how daily life really is now. Staff Sergeant, Liran Ron Furer, Levy said, cannot just routinely get on with his life anymore. He is haunted by images from his three years of military service in Gaza and the thought that this could be a "syndrome" afflicting everyone who serves at checkpoints gives him no respite. On the verge of completing his studies in the design programme at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, he decided to drop everything and devote all his time to the book he wanted to write. But the trouble the Staff Sergeant faced was that serious publishers refused to print his book, and when he found one who did, distributors refused to handle it.

Furer is certain that what happened to him is not at all unique. Here he was-a creative, sensitive graduate "who became an animal at the checkpoint, a violent sadist who beat up Palestinians because they didn't show him the proper courtesy, who shot out tires of cars because their owners were playing the radio too loud, who abused a retarded teenage boy lying handcuffed on the floor of the Jeep, just because he had to take his anger out somehow."

"Checkpoint Syndrome" (also the title of his book), "gradually transforms every soldier into an animal," Furer maintains, "regardless of whatever values he brings with him from home." No one is able to escape its taint. "In a place," he said, "where nearly everything is permissible and violence is perceived as normative behaviour, each soldier tests his own limits of violence impulsiveness on his victims: the Palestinians." His book is not easy reading. He reconstructs scenes from the years in which he served in Gaza (1996-1999), years that, one must remember, were relatively quiet, Levy said. He describes how they would order children to clean the checkpoint before inspection time; how a soldier named Shahar invented a game which goes like this: "He checks someone's identity card, and instead of handing it back to him, just tosses it in the air. He got a kick out of seeing the Arab have to get out of his car to pick up his identity card … It's a game for him and he can pass a whole shift this way." Also how they humiliated a dwarf who came to the checkpoint every day on his horse cart: "They forced him to have his picture taken on the horse, hit him and degraded him for a good half hour and let him go only when cars started arriving at the checkpoint. The poor guy, he really didn't deserve it."

Other scarring behaviour is how the soldiers at checkpoints would have "souvenir photos taken with bloodied, bound Arabs whom they'd beaten up," and how Shahar urinated "on the head of an Arab because the man had the nerve to smile at a soldier; how Dado forced an Arab to stand on four legs and bark like a dog; and how they stole prayer beads and cigarettes."

Haunting incident

One incident which is still haunting Furer is his mate, Miro, wanted to practice his favourite hobby. "Miro," he said, "wanted the Arabs to give him their cigarettes, but they refuse[d] to do so, Miro broke someone's hand and Boaz slashed their tires."

The most chilling of all the personal confessions Furer has made is this: "I ran toward them and punched an Arab right in the face. I'd never punched anyone that way. He collapsed on the road. The officers said that we had to search him for his papers. We pulled his hands behind his back and I bound them with plastic handcuffs. Then we blindfolded him so he wouldn't see what was in the Jeep. I picked him up from the road. Blood was trickling from his lip onto his chin. I led him up behind the Jeep and threw him in, his knees banged against the trunk and he landed inside. We sat in the back, stepping on the Arab … Our Arab lay there pretty quietly, just crying softly to himself. His face was right on my flak jacket and he was bleeding and making a kind of puddle of blood and saliva, and it disgusted and angered me, so I grabbed him by the hair and turned his head to the side. He cried out loud and to get him to stop, we stepped harder and harder on his back. That quieted him down for a while and then he started up again. We concluded that he was either retarded or crazy."

"The company commander informed us over the radio that we had to bring him to the base. 'Good work, tigers,' he said, teasing us. All the other soldiers were waiting there to see what we'd caught. When we came in with the Jeep, they whistled and applauded wildly. We put the Arab next to the guard. He didn't stop crying and someone who understood Arabic said that his hands were hurting from the handcuffs. One of the soldiers went up to him and kicked him in the stomach. The Arab doubled over and grunted, and we all laughed. It was funny … then, I kicked him really hard in the ass and he flew forward just as I'd expected. They shouted that I was a totally crazy, and they laughed … I felt happy. Our Arab was just a 16-year-old mentally retarded boy."

Mustapha Karkouti is the former president, Foreign Press Association in London.