Israeli occupation soldiers should stick to dancing
As I first watched this now viral video (below) on the nightly news bulletin, I saw the newsreader crack a faint but distinct smile after the excerpted clip was broadcast. There was a passing mention of the Muslim call to prayer in the background being “drowned out”, but otherwise not much on context about the dancing Israeli soldiers in Hebron; no mention of military occupation, marauding illegal settlers or the closure of Shuhada Street — Hebron’s main street — to its own residents. Located as it was so close to Palestinians in an area in which they suffer restricted movement, this pathetic display of contempt was made into a seemingly benign, fun, cutesy YouTube moment, even extracting an inappropriate smile from the mainstream network newsreader.
Are we to believe then the Israeli regime and press claims that these six dancing Nahal Brigade soldiers, armed and wearing bulletproof vests, will meet with a stern response and will be facing disciplinary action for their stunt? On the contrary, I think there is a real possibility this whole thing was cooked up in hasbara HQ to create a feel-good viral video about the IOF. One and a half million views later (of the original, now removed clip), what are viewers who are not aware of the conflict more likely to remember as their abiding impression of the Israeli soldiers? Ugly military occupation and violence against Palestinians, or a fun moment of six soldiers innocuously dancing to the electro-pop hit ‘Tik Tok’?
In other words, to the outside world, how brutal can these soldiers really be, when they ineptly dance the macarena to ‘cool’ western dance music? This is pure PR, whether it was opportunistic or calculated, and it is not hard to imagine that it may have been uploaded with the knowledge and consent of operational higher-ups in looking to make full use of web 2.0 sites.
Fortunately, the re-uploaded video, entitled ‘It’s easy to laugh at the occupation when you’re the oppressor (and a douchebag)’, has received over 2 million hits. Its annotations provide some context and reframes the video, ridiculing the ridiculers. And while some media pundits have mentioned a recent episode of a group of U.S. soldiers stationed in Afghanistan making a video rendition — indoors — of a Lady Gaga hit, in comparison, I don’t remember it drowning out any muezzin. Or making it to the light-hearted section of the nightly news.
It's easy to laugh at the occupation when you're the oppressor (and a douchebag)
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