The Ghastly Images Some Israeli Soldiers Put On Their T-Shirts

In the Israeli newspaper Haaretz Uri Bleu recently wrote about a print shop in Israel that prints various logos and images on T-shirts and baseball caps mostly, but also on fleece jackets, hoodies and pants. Israeli soldiers order customized clothing from the shop that usually has the the insignia of the soldier's unit with a slogan beside it and a drawing of the soldiers choice. A young Palestinian man from one of the Palestinian neighborhoods supervises the staff that imprint these images and slogans on the clothing that is ordered.

Soldiers usually order these shirts to commemorate the end of their training day and or field duty. Some of the images that been had printed on the shirts include dead babies, mothers weeping on their children's graves, a gun aimed at a child and a bombed-out mosque. The slogans next to the images are violent too. For example infantry snipers men have the incription printed on their t-shirt “Better use Durex” with an image of a dead Palestinian baby with a teddy bear beside him and his mother weeping. A T-shirt from the Givati Brigade's Shaked battalion has the image of a pregnant Palestinian women with an enlarged bulls eyes on her and the slogan, “1 shot, 2 kills” next to it. A “Graduation” shirt for those who have completed another snipers course shows a Palestinian baby , who grows into a combative boy and then an armed man. Beside the image it states “No matter how it begins, we'll put an end to it”.

Other images and slogans that get printed on the t shirt are sexual in nature. The Lavi battalion created a shirt depicting a soldier next to a young women that had bruises on her, Next to the depiction read “bet you got raped!”. Some of the shirts have images on them that depicts actions that the Israeli army has officially denied. For example, images of “confirming the kill” which is when a soldier shoots a bullet in their enemies head from close range to ensure their enemy is dead. Images also depict the harming of religious sites or of female and child non-combatants.

In many cases the slogans and images on these shirts are submitted to to the unit's commander. The commanders don't always have control over whats gets printed on these shirts because it is a private initiative on the part of the soldiers that the commanders may never hear about. Some designs that have been banned in one unit have later shown up on the shirts of soldiers in other unit. For example designs with the slogan “let every Arab mother know that her son's fate is in my hands!” This slogan was banned by one unit but later a soldier said his unit printed up dozens of shirts, fleece jackets and pants bearing this slogan. Next to the slogan is a picture that the soldier described as “A drawing depicting a soldier as the angle of death next to a gun and an Arab town. The soldier says, “The text was very powerful. The funniest part was that when our soldier came to get the shirts, the man who printed them was an Arab, and the soldier felt so bad that he told the girl at the counter to bring them to him.” The soldier was asked weather the design is seen by the commander for approval. The soldier said, “Usually the shirts undergo a selection process by some officer, but in this case, they were approved at the level of platoon sergeant. We ordered shirts for 30 soldiers and they were really into it, and everyone wanted several items and paid NIS 200 on average.” When the soldier was asked what he thought about the shirt he said, “I did not like it so much, but most of the soldiers wanted it.”

Many of the controversial shirts are ordered by soldiers from different units who completed the sniper courses. The graduates of the “Carmon Team” course for the the elite-unit marksman ordered shirts with an image of a Knife-wielding Palestinian in the crosshairs of a gun sight and the slogan next to it, “You've got to to run fast, run fast, run fast, before it's all over.” Below is an image of a Palestinian woman weeping over a grave and the words accompanying it, “And afterward they cry, and afterward they cry.”

A soldier from an elite unit who has completed the sniper course explained ,”It's a type of bonding process, also it's well known that anyone who is a sniper is messed up in the head. Our shirts have a lot of double entendres, for example: 'Bad people with good aims.' Every group that finishes a course puts out stuff like that.” According to the soldier the shirts are worn “around the house, for jogging, in the army.” He said, “Not for going out. Sometimes people will ask you what it's about.”

In a response to the shirt of the bull's-eye on a pregnant women he said,”There are people who think it's not right, and I think so as well, but it doesn't really mean anything. I mean it's not like someone is gonna go and shoot a pregnant woman.” When asked about the shirt from July 2007 which had the image of a child with the slogan, ”smaller-harder!” the soldier responded, “it's a kid, so you've got a little more of a problem, morally, and also the target is smaller.” He said that his superiors do approve these shirts before they are printed but once a design for a shirt was rejected because it “was to extreme.” The soldier was asked, “These shirts also seem pretty extreme. Why draw crosshairs over a child – do you shoot kids?” The soldier responded, “as a sniper, you get a lot of extreme situations. You suddenly see a small boy who picks up a weapon and it's up to you to decide whether to shoot. These shirts are half-facetious, bordering on the truth, and they reflect the extreme situations you might encounter. The soldier said he has not encountered this situation involving a child. He did encounter it with a women who was not holding a weapon but “was near a prohibited area and could have posed a threat.” The soldier said he did not shoot the women.

A soldier who designed a shirt after the invasion of Gaza explained, “You take whoever [in the unit] knows how to draw and then you give it to the commander before printing.” The shirt depicts a King Kong-like soldier in a city under attack and the words next to it, “If you believe it can be fixed, then believe it can be destroyed!” He explained, “I was in Gaza and they kept emphasizing that the object of the operation was to wreak destruction on the infrastructure, so that the price the Palestinians and the leadership pay will make them realize that it isn't worth it for them to go on shooting.”

This January, shirts were ordered for the “Night Predators”demolition platoon which is part of Golani's Battalion 13. The shirt showed a Goloni devil blowing up a mosque with the slogan above, “Only God Forgives.” A soldier from the platoon said, “It doesn't mean much, it's just a T-shirt from our platoon. It's not a big deal. A friend of mine drew a picture and we made it into a shirt.” The soldier was asked weather anybody had a problem with the mosque being blown up. The soldier answered, “I don't see what you're getting at. I don't like the way you're going with this. Don't take this somewhere you're not supposed to, as though we hate Arabs.”

The print shop manager, Haim Yisrael who has worked there since the early 1980's said the shop prints around 1000 different patterns. About half of those ordered are from soldiers. When he started he said there were very few orders from the army. First the Nahal brigade started having shirts printed up for them. Later, other infantry units started to follow suit. Currently, any army course with 15 participants has a shirt printed up.

Haim said, “Sometimes the soldiers do things that are inside jokes that only they get, and sometimes they do something foolish that they take to an extreme.” He said that their commanding officers have occasionally called him up and asked, “How can you print things like that for soldiers?” This may happen if a shirt is too hateful towards Arabs. He tells them his print shop is a private company and he does not concern himself with the content of what gets printed. He says, “I can print whatever I like. We're neutral”

Rossie Kaufman who moderates the army and defense forum for the website fresh served in the armored corps from 1996 to1999. He said he has seen shirts like these, but that these shirts cannot be worn by soldiers in civilian life. He continued, “because they would get stoned, nor at a battalion get-together, because the battalion commander would be pissed off. They wear them on very rare occasions.”

The Israeli Defense Forces Spokesman's office stated, “Military regulations do not apply to civilian clothing including shirts produced at the end of basic training and various courses. The designs are printed at the soldiers' private initiative, and on civilian shirts.” The Office did however state, “The examples raised by Haaretz are not in keeping with the values of the IDF spirit, not representative of the IDF life, and are in poor taste. Humor of this kind deserves every condemnation and excoriation.” The office concluded by stating that the IDF intends to take action to stop this practice and will encourage commanding officers to take discretionary and disciplinary action against those engaging in these sorts of practices.

Article that this post is based on:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072466.html