Outrage As Video Shows IDF Following Rules, Holding Fire Near Children

“IDF behavior must conform to the brutality standards the NGO community imputes to it, and not adhere to its own ethical code.”

Tel Aviv, April 11 – Anger surfaced this week following a short clip of an Israeli military sniper aiming for non-lethal shots at a violent protest leader’s body and refraining from taking shots when the target was in the presence of children, in an incident that activists call a flagrant violation of what they have conditioned themselves to expect of the Israeli army.

Amnesty International spokesman Ali Latdam told reporters the sniper’s actions demonstrate Israel’s blatant disregard of the human rights NGO industry’s creed. “This can only be understood as an attempt to sanitize, or ‘non-lethal-wash’ the Israeli Occupation Forces’ behavior,” he charged, using propaganda terms typical of Palestinian rhetoric. “IOF behavior must conform to the brutality standards the NGO community imputes to it, and not adhere to its own ethical code. Certainly not when the zero-sum, black-and-white, Jews-bad-Arabs-good narrative is at stake.”

In the incident, which took place over the weekend, a group of Palestinian demonstrators ignore IDF attempts to distance them from the border fence by means of firing in the air and warnings over loudspeaker. Such groups, which include known terrorists, have repeatedly tried to breach the fence and enter Israel. A sniper can be heard requesting permission to fire at the ringleader, and having permission refused because the target was near a small child. Only when he had a clear shot did the sniper fire at the man’s legs. The man survived. The procedure and non-fatal result of the episode sparked ire from several NGOs that rely on monstrous depictions of the IDF to spread their message, secure Palestinian cooperation, and attract funding.

If such IDF behavior continues, activists warned, they threaten to undermine the groups’ efforts on the world stage. “As Israeli military behavior adapts to that of the Palestinians, human rights activists with an inordinate focus on Israel are finding it more challenging to develop credible documentation of Israeli violations,” explained Poi Zendawel, a European activist. “In recent years that barely presented a problem, as the mainstream media swallowed whatever the Hamas-allied NGOs claimed, regardless of the evidence. But of late, as regional politics have shifted and audiences have grown more cynical about Palestinian credibility, activists must rely on ever-more-liberal interpretations of the evidence that does exist in order to paint Israel as brutal and inhuman, and are enjoying mixed success at best. It’s no wonder the reaction to the Israeli military’s humanity has elicited such vehemence.”

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