A T-shirt too far. Israeli soldiers order designs to degrade.

'The funniest part was that when our soldier came to get the shirts, the man who printed them was an Arab' is the comment of an IDF soldier talking about the newest fashion craze to hit Israel; T-shirts bearing sick slogans that Hitler would have been proud of. His platoon had ordered dozen's of shirts bearing the slogan 'Let every Arab mother know that her son's fate is in my hands!'

Whilst I'm not sure whether this story has been confirmed or not I found the article in the Haaretz press which I'm pretty sure has to abide by journalistic conventions so I'm presuming it's a true story. Read the article HERE

More vile slogans include "Better use Durex," next to a picture of a dead Palestinian baby, with his weeping mother and a teddy bear beside him and "Bet you got raped!" next to a drawing of a soldier next to a young woman with bruises.

The crimes meted out  by the IDF are becoming part of Israeli pop culture. Many of these custom made T-shirts are approved by unit commanders and the comany that makes them receives orders for around 500 different designs by soldiers so far.

  

Ben-Tzedef, a research associate at the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism and former editor of the IDF publication Maarachot, said the phenomenon of custom-made T-shirts is a product of "the infantry's insane race to be unique. He explained how:

"These days the content on shirts is sometimes deplorable,"  "It stems from the fact that profanity is very acceptable and normative in Israel, and that there is a lack of respect for human beings and their environment, which includes racism aimed in every direction."

And sociologist Dr. Orna Sasson-Levy, of Bar-Ilan University, author of "Identities in Uniform: Masculinities and Femininities in the Israeli Military," said that the phenomenon is 

"part of a radicalization process the entire country is undergoing, and the soldiers are at its forefront. I think that ever since the second intifada there has been a continual shift to the right. The pullout from Gaza and its outcome - the calm that never arrived - led to a further shift rightward."

I haven't as yet associated the actions of Israel with fascism but the discourse is reminiscent of that published by French novelist Arthur de Gobineau, author of The Inequalities of the Human Race, who wrote extensively on this subject in the period leading up to the Holocaust and whose works were taken up by the Nazi regime in Germany. The IDF are indeed 'looking into this serious matter' and are considering taking 'discretionary and disciplinary measures against those involved in acts of this sort' but, on the other hand have said the 'military regulations do not apply to civilian clothing'. 

Another breaking story on the illegal actions of IDF soldiers can be found HERE