Israel apologizes over strip search of pregnant New York Times photographer

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Israel’s Defense Ministry apologized Monday for the treatment of a pregnant American news photographer who said she was strip searched and humiliated by Israeli soldiers during a security check.

Lynsey Addario, who was on assignment for the New York Times, had requested that she not be forced to go through an X-ray machine as she entered Israel from the Gaza Strip because of concerns for her unborn baby.

Instead, she wrote in a letter to the ministry, she was forced through the machine three times as soldiers “watched and laughed from above.” She said she was then taken into a room where she was ordered by a female worker to strip down to her underwear.

In the Oct. 25 letter sent by the newspaper said Addario, a Pulitzer Prize winner who is based in India and has worked in more than 60 countries, had never been treated with “such blatant cruelty.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/israel-apologizes-over-strip-search-of-pregnant-new-york-times-photographer/2011/11/28/gIQAx2ZQ5N_story.html

[MADem]

1. ....forced through the machine three times as soldiers “watched and laughed from above.”

Cruelty, indeed--sadistic cruelty.

I'd send those guys to the brig if they worked for me.

[Dawson Leery]

2. And strip them of any future benefits.

[atreides1]

3. Nice thought

But in Israel the military is always right...no matter what!!!

[Dawson Leery]

4. I have no desire to THAT part of the world.

[azurnoir]

5. so it was a failure to communicate right

but xray her 3 times was the first not enough to confirm she was pregnant?

[bemildred]

6. Unfortunate mistake, thought she was Palestinian. nt

[Crunchy Frog]

7. "Sorry Ma'am. We thought you were an Arab."

[Scurrilous]

9. The IDF's attitude toward pregnant Palestinian women is even worse:

Israeli army t-shirts spark outrage

<snip>

"Controversy has been sparked over a batch of T-shirts worn by Israeli soldiers that many say foment anti-Palestinian violence and human rights abuses. According to Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper: "Dead babies, mothers weeping on their children's graves, a gun aimed at a child and bombed-out mosques - these are a few examples of the images Israel Defense Forces soldiers design these days to print on shirts they order to mark the end of training, or of field duty. The slogans accompanying the drawings are not exactly anemic either: A T-shirt for infantry snipers bears the inscription 'Better use Durex,' next to a picture of a dead Palestinian baby, with his weeping mother and a teddy bear beside him. A sharpshooter's T-shirt from the Givati Brigade's Shaked battalion shows a pregnant Palestinian woman with a bull's-eye superimposed on her belly, with the slogan, in English, '1 shot, 2 kills.'"

http://imeu.net/news/article0016292.shtml

[oberliner]

10. No, actually the opposite is true

Israeli army bans t-shirts encouraging violence against Palestinians

Excerpt:

A spokesman for the Israeli military called the shirts “simply tasteless,” and chief educational officer Brigadier General Eli Shermeister has instructed commanders to ensure soldiers did not create or wear the items and to discipline those who disobeyed.

http://www.demotix.com/news/israeli-army-bans-t-shirts-encouraging-violence-against-palestinians

[oberliner]

11. New York Times Journalist Endured Sexual Assaults, Death Threats in Libya

A war photographer for the New York Times, the only woman in a group of four journalists captured in Libya last week, said that she was sexual assaulted and threatened with death by Libyan soldiers while in captivity.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/libya-york-times-journalist-endured-sexual-assault-death/story?id=13193890#.TtUR6-b6KlA

[King_David]

8. Thanks for posting this very important apology.

:thumbsup:

[azurnoir]

13. yes heart felt indeed

we're sorry but you didn't ask right is quite apologetic after very possibly willfully harming her unborn child

[Scurrilous]

12. Israeli Thuggery

<snip>

"My friend and colleague, the great war photographer Lynsey Addario, has been through a lot this year–kidnapped by the Libyans, difficult assignments in Afghanistan, Somalia and Gaza, and a much less taxing three weeks hanging with me on my annual road trip, all while pregnant…and now she has been utterly humiliated at a checkpoint by the Israeli army while on assignment for the New York Times.

Lynsey asked not to pass through the x-ray machine at the border, since she is nearly 8 months pregnant–and obviously so–but she was forced to pass through the machine 3 times while being verbally abused and then strip-searched for good measure.

This is completely outrageous, of course. It is another indication that Israel has been brutalized by its occupation of Arab territories since 1967. For those of us who feel strongly about the need for Israel to exist–especially those of us who love the place, warts and all–this incident is yet another reason to fear for Israel’s future."

Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2011/11/29/israeli-thuggery/#ixzz1f82luXOB