{"id":12193,"date":"2014-08-08T04:26:06","date_gmt":"2014-08-08T08:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=12193"},"modified":"2014-08-08T05:41:49","modified_gmt":"2014-08-08T09:41:49","slug":"welcome-home-villagers-a-window-into-the-minds-of-the-occupiers-the-most-moral-army-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/welcome-home-villagers-a-window-into-the-minds-of-the-occupiers-the-most-moral-army-in-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome Home Villagers: A window into the minds of the Occupiers (“The most moral army in the world”)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Graffiti<\/a>

Graffiti left by Israeli soldiers at Beit Hanoun girls\u2019 school: photo via Hazem Balousha on twitter, 6 August 2014<\/p><\/div>\n

The following comes via\u00a0Tom Clarks\u2019 blog<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 which you all should\u00a0check out: he has been posting regularly on Gaza.<\/p>\n

Palestinians returning home find Israeli troops left faeces and venomous graffiti<\/span><\/h3>\n

Ahmed Owedat also found soldiers had thrown his TVs, fridge, and computers from upstairs windows and slashed furniture<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/h4>\n

Harriet Sherwood in Burij, The Guardian, 7 August 2014
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When Ahmed Owedat returned to his home 18 days after Israeli soldiers took it over in the middle of the night, he was greeted with an overpowering stench.<\/span><\/div>\n
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He picked through the wreckage of his possessions thrown from upstairs windows to find that the departing troops had left a number of messages. One came from piles of faeces on his tiled floors and in wastepaper baskets, and a plastic bottle filled with urine.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\"Graffiti
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\nSome of the graffiti Ahmed Owedat found on returning to his home in the town of Burij<\/i>: photo by Harriet Sherwood, 6 August 2014\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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If that was not clear enough, the words \u201cFuck Hamas\u201d had been carved into a concrete wall in the staircase. \u201cBurn Gaza down\u201d and \u201cGood Arab = dead Arab\u201d were engraved on a coffee table. The star of David was drawn in blue in a bedroom.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Graffiti left by Israeli soldiers in a house where they\u2019d stayed during the ground invasion<\/i>: photo via Hazem Balousha on twitter, 6 August 2014<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cI have scrubbed the floors three times today and three times yesterday,\u201d said Owedat, 52, as he surveyed the damage, which included four televisions, a fridge, a clock and several computers tossed out of windows, shredded curtains and slashed soft furnishings.<\/span><\/div>\n
A handful of plastic chairs had their seats ripped open, through which the occupying soldiers defecated, he said. Gaping holes had been blown in four ground-floor external walls, and there was damage from shelling to the top floor. There, in the living room, diagrams had been drawn on the walls, showing buildings and palm trees in the village, with figures that Owedat thought represented their distance from the border.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cI have no money to fix this,\u201d he said, claiming that his life savings of $10,000 (\u00a36,000) were missing from his apartment.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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But at least it could be repaired, he acknowledged, gesturing through the broken glass at a wasteland stretching towards the Israel-Gaza border 3km away. \u201cEvery house between here and there has been destroyed.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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His family of 13 fled their home after seeing troops and tanks advancing at 1am on 20 July, two days into the Israeli ground invasion. Several times, during the short-lived ceasefires in the following two weeks, they attempted to return only to find Israeli troops in their home instructing them to keep away.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Graffiti left by Israeli soldiers in a house where they\u2019d stayed during the ground invasion<\/i>: photo via Hazem Balousha on twitter, 6 August 2014<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Israel Defence Forces did not respond to a request for comment.<\/span><\/div>\n
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For the first time families of killed people in Gaza are able to have mourning tents today, during the 72 hours ceasefire<\/i>: photo by Hazem Balousha via twitter, 5 August 2014<\/span><\/p>\n

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Half an hour\u2019s drive north, a similar picture was found at Beit Hanoun girls\u2019 school, taken over by the IDF following the ground operation. Broken glass and rubble littered the floors and stairs. Tables and desks were covered in the abandoned detritus of an occupying army: hardened bread rolls, empty tins of hummus, desiccated olives, cans of energy drinks, bullet casings. Flies buzzed around the rotting food.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Graffiti left by Israeli soldiers at Beit Hanoun girls\u2019 school<\/i>: photo via Hazem Balousha on twitter, 6 August 2014<\/span><\/div>\n
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Here too, said the school\u2019s caretaker, Fayez, who didn\u2019t want to give his full name, soldiers had defecated in bins and cardboard boxes, and urinated in water bottles. \u201cYou will be fucked here\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t forget it\u2019s time for you to die\u201d were chalked in English on blackboards.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Here, Hamas had struck back. After the troops pulled out, counter-graffiti was sprayed on the walls, referring to Hamas\u2019s militant wing, Qassam brigades. \u201cQassam\u2019s army will crush you \u2014 dogs\u201d and \u201cIsrael will be defeated\u201d.<\/span><\/div>\n
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The 1,250 pupils at the school will, it is hoped, never see either set of venomous messages. Workers began the marathon cleanup operation this week but, said Fayez, \u201cit will take at least a month to fix\u201d. The academic year is due to begin in a little over two weeks.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\nSome of devastation I have seen today in Khuzaa village east of Khanyounis<\/span><\/i>: photo by Hazem Balousha via twitter, 4 August 2014<\/span><\/div>\n
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Some time back to the war \u2026
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\nDefense Minister Ehud Barak commented that the Israeli army is the \u2018most moral army in the world\u2026\u2019\u201d (3\/09)
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The phrase has covered a lot of mileage.
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\u201cIDF spokesperson Seymour Chutzpah meanwhile said the IDF was the most moral army in the world\u2026\u201d (7\/14)
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The verbs are interesting. \u201cPointed out\u201d would betray the arrogance. \u201cClaimed\u201d would be too impartial. \u201cAdmitted\u201d might be the best choice.\u00a0<\/span><\/i>\u201cThe Israeli Defense Minister conceded today that the IDF is \u2018the most moral army in the world\u2026'\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/i>
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Sources for these photos are Guardian correspondent Harriet Sherwood and the internationally recognized Palestinian Journalist Hazem Balousha, whose photos and reports appear regularly in The Guardian, Al-Monitor, and DW World, among other places; he holds a BA in Journalism, an MA in International Relations, and is the founder of the Gaza City-based Palestinian Institute for Communication and Development.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n
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The following comes via\u00a0Tom Clarks\u2019 blog\u00a0\u2014 which you all should\u00a0check out: he has been posting regularly on Gaza. Palestinians returning home find Israeli troops left faeces and venomous graffiti Ahmed Owedat also found soldiers...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,59,67,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gaza-strip","category-israel","category-man-made-disaster","category-palestinian-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12193"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12202,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12193\/revisions\/12202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}