IMEU Logo
The Institute for Middle East Understanding offers journalists and editors quick access to information about Palestine and the Palestinians, as well as expert sources — both in the U.S. and in the Middle East. Read our Background Briefings. Contact us for story assistance. Sign up for e-briefings.
Institute for Middle East UnderstandingMisc.
Donate to IMEU
Home
News & Analysis
Commentary
From the MediaLife & Culture
Cuisine
Customs & Traditions
Film
Literature
Performing Arts
Visual Arts
Palestine in Photos
Art & Culture
Business & Economy
Daily Life
People
Politics
Palestinian Americans
Background Briefings
Documents & Reports
Development & Economy
Historical Documents
Human Rights
Politics & Democracy
Misc.
Maps
Links
Media Inquiries
About IMEU
Donate
Contact

Get E-mail News
Journalists & Editors: Sign up for e-mail briefings here.
Follow the IMEU on Twitter

EDITOR'S PICKS

On civil disobedience
Neve Gordon, The Palestine Chronicle


Gaza families demand answers
Ma'an News


Goldstone and the 'peace process'
George Giacaman, Bitterlemons.org


Advanced SearchSend/E-mail This PageShare/Save This PagePrint This PageAdvanced SearchAccess RSS Feed
Home > Documents & Reports > Misc.
Israeli army t-shirts spark outrage
israel-army-tshirt.jpg
One of the controversial t-shirts, seen here, shows a target over a pregnant Paslestinian woman with the name of an army brigade in Hebrew and English text "1 Shot, 2 Kills."

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.'"

These T-shirts come in a context of a steady drift to the extreme right in Israel. A notorious racist is now Israel's foreign minister - "minorities are the biggest problem in the world" he once quipped. And the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, rejects the two-state solution. Numerous independent human rights groups have called for war crimes investigations into Israel's December-January military attacks on Gaza. Yet Israel has refused to take seriously the accounts of its own soldiers who say they were ordered to kill Palestinian civilians in Gaza and has announced its intention to block the United Nations team of independent investigators, led by renowned human rights advocate and Jewish South African judge, Richard Goldstone.

Finally, the T-shirts have led many to question what it means for the U.S. to provide billions of taxpayer dollars in military aid to Israel when its soldiers sport T-shirts that glorify and encourage the killing of pregnant women and babies.

shirt-set-1.jpg
Left shirt text: "Sniper's Division" (Hebrew), "1 Shot, 2 Kills". Right shirt text: "Only God Forgives" (Hebrew)

shirt-set-2.jpg
Left shirt text: "The smaller - the harder!" (Hebrew). Right shirt text: "Each Arab Mother Should Know That the Fate of Her Son Is Dependent Upon My Hands" (Hebrew)

shirt-set-3_1.jpg
Left shirt text: "Destroy" (Hebrew, top). Right shirt text: "We Won't Rest Until the Confirmation of the Killing of 3 Samurais" (Hebrew)


For more information on this story, contact the IMEU at info@imeu.net.


Advanced SearchSend/E-mail This PageShare/Save This PagePrint This PageAdvanced SearchAccess RSS Feed


FEATURED DOCUMENTS & REPORTS
The impact of two years of blockade
OCHA
Gaza: Killed holding a white flag
HRW
Children and education in Gaza
AIDA & OCHA

ALSO IN THIS SECTION
Israel's Gaza blockade continues to suffocate daily life
Amnesty International (Jan 19, 2010) 

The First Anniversary of Israeli Offensive against the Gaza Strip
Al-Dameer Center for Human Rights (Dec 27, 2009) 

Report of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict
UN Human Rights Council (Sep 15, 2009) 

Between political statements and reality on the ground: Eighteen months since the Annapolis Conference
Alternative Information Center (Aug 27, 2009) 

Data on Arabs incarcerated in Israeli prisons
Adalah (Aug 26, 2009) 

Shiekh Jarrah factsheet
UN OCHA (Aug 18, 2009) 

Locked in: The humanitarian impact of two years of blockade on the Gaza Strip
UN OCHA (Aug 18, 2009) 

The grave violations of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly due to the recent Israeli military attacks against the occupied Gaza Strip
United Nations Human Rights Council (Aug 18, 2009) 

Alternative report for consideration regarding Israel's report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child
Defense for Children International (Aug 18, 2009) 

Medical equipment in Gaza's hospitals
World Health Organization (Aug 18, 2009) 


Home > Documents & Reports > Misc. > Israeli army t-shirts spark outrage


All content ©2006-2009 Institute for Middle East Understanding

site designed by nigelparry.net