A draft law currently making its way in the Knesset, which will make it a crime to film soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces clashing with Palestinians, aims to encourage Israeli soldiers to commit more crimes without being held accountable.
The bill, sponsored by the ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu Party, needs three readings in parliament before being passed into law. It sets forth penalties of up to five years in prison for anyone caught filming or publishing footage of military activities with the purpose of harming “soldiers’ spirit”. Aggravating circumstances, such as publishing such footage with the intention of “harming state security”, doubles the sentence to up to 10 years in prison. The ban would cover social networks as well as traditional media.
Rights groups frequently film Israeli soldiers on duty in the occupied territories, documentation that is necessary to expose abuses by the military. These videos often shed light on aspects of the conflict that might not be brought up in the public debate in Israel. They bring to the fore both IDF misconduct that should be corrected and also bring to TV the images of how morally corrosive this occupation is. The bill’s aim is to ban criticism of the Israeli army and the documentation of its behavior and to prevent human rights organizations from doing their work. When you don’t allow people to take pictures of soldiers, you stop the freedom of press and speech. It’s also part of how citizens can blow the whistle on wrongdoing by authorities.
If there are no pictures or videos, the truth may never come out. An example is the video filmed by Israeli rights group B’Tselem in 2016 showing the Israeli soldier Elor Azaria shooting dead an incapacitated Palestinian assailant which drew international condemnation and led to the soldier’s conviction for manslaughter. Because of that film, Azaria was taken to court and to jail. Without the video, he would not have been arrested or jailed.
The controversial bill was proposed on April 12 days after video emerged of an IDF soldier cheering after shooting a seemingly unarmed Palestinian along the Gaza border fence. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman defended the soldier featured in the film, saying he “deserved a medal” for doing his job, while the photographer who filmed the incident deserved to be court martialed. If Lieberman was suggesting that the soldier who pulled the trigger and his gloating comrades who were overjoyed by this act were heroes and did the right thing, then he would not have minded that their pictures be plastered all over the media and social media. If IDF troops have nothing to hide, then there should be no harm in documenting their actions against Palestinians. But it’s obvious that he wanted this so-called act of bravery to remain hidden from the public’s view.
Since the Great March of Return protests began March 30, Israeli soldiers have killed at least 120 Palestinians and wounded tens of thousands. Given that medics and journalists were among those killed, not to mention unarmed, peaceful protesters, it was essential that their murders be recorded.
In the US, the dramatic rise in incidences of police officers, mostly white, shooting dead unarmed black youths and adults has spurred an increase in police body cameras and video cameras on police vehicle dashboards to ascertain if the shootings were warranted.
Imagine if the Abu Ghraib photos had never surfaced. The world would never have known the extent of the brutality, torture and prisoner abuse by American soldiers in Iraq.
The Israeli bill prevents the supervision of soldiers to avoid publicizing their crimes and violations against the Palestinian people. It seeks to offer the soldiers protection from international justice. It shows that Israel is concerned about potential punishment of its army because it is violating international and humanitarian laws and committing atrocities against Palestinians.
