14 
The Israeli Defense Forces has a history of overzealous campaigns on its official social media accounts. So maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that an IDF sniper doesn’t take his job very seriously. Or that’s the impression we get, since he Instagrammed a photo of what appears to be a Palestinian child in the crosshairs of his rifle scope. Real, real messed up.
Buzzfeed reports that 20-year-old Israeli soldier Mor Ostrovkki posted the photo on Instagram and later took it down after it sparked outrage. With good reason! What the hell is this maniac thinking? The Israeli paper Haaretz reports that the IDF has come out against the photo, which, you know, good.
No matter where you fall on the Israel/Palestine issue, we all have to agree that it’s completely inappropriate to post a cyan glossed image glorifying child-murder on a social network. It betrays a lack of respect for human life. The IDF will condemn this, but you can’t help but think that the IDF’s callous approach to social media probably gave this soldier a skewed perception of right and wrong. [Buzzfeed and Haaretz]
Israeli Drone Crashes in Gaza
Man in Underwear Stabs His Computer with a Samurai Sword When Police Search for Child Porn
Snoop Dogg's Got His Own Instagram Now
He is a Sharpshooter, Snipers operate at a much longer (further?) distance.
I was under the impression that sharpshooters were snipers.
Sharpshooters (called marksmen in some areas) are soldiers that are trained to use long ranged handheld weaponry (Sniper rifles, DMR’s etc) in an accurate manner. Sniper is a step up from this in that they are also taught advanced camouflage and concealment techniques among other things.
It’s stupid but I’m not sure he counts as a maniac. Just because his crosshairs are over something doesn’t mean he’s going to shoot it.
It’s easier than pulling binoculars out.
It does also look pretty cool. Probably all he was going for. The zoom on that is pretty impressive.
But it doesnt give any confidence he wouldnt. He has the tools, and it takes one silly move on both sides. If it was a normal photographer noone would say anything, but this is a soldier in hot grounds, he should have known better… It is not about shooting (photo/bullet) someone or not, it is who and who.
You could make the same argument for men and rape.
Just because he has the tool to kill doesn’t mean he isn’t just using the scope tool to see at a distance.
He sees a head or movement, moves the crosshairs over it, decides its not a threat and then thinks actually this would make a cool picture (and the last bit is his only mistake)
Maybe the boy wants his ear pierced in a weird way. Or, maybe the boys tooth is loose and the bullet has a piece of string tied to it.
See that is what people pick on societies like ours. We are trying to find what’s cool in things that are just plain wrong, dead wrong.
Say it was the other way around? There is nothing cool about a soldier kidding around with his rifle than there is to bombers blowing themselves on buses. Both don’t value human life at all.
Frankly none of you do, kidding around a photo like this. Shame on us.
This does not surprise me. It is simply another sign that Israelis continue on their march towards becoming like the nazis they still feel so pursecuted by.
“Please think”
Yes you are correct there the jews are nazis… they murder people and commit genocide. It’s not like they actually better the world we live in. How about you take a stance by not using any products that they helped create like i dont know the microprocessor in your computer, phone, ipod, really any piece of technology you own. please continue to be narrow minded and kindly go away. This photo is not a clever thing and I understand that however there are many examples of worse actions all round the world for instance every gun crime in America where instead of just aiming they are firing. I really do pity the weak minded such as yourself who are drawn in by social media and dont bother to do any research yourself.
“they murder people and commit genocide.”
No, Jews don’t, Israelis do.
I’m not even talking about the whole Palestine/Israel thing, that’s a mess I’m not going to get into, but the Israeli state is pretty much evil. Just take a look at their campaign of forced sterilisation of immigrants, they sterilised people without their permission, most of the time without their knowledge. That’s genocide.
Don’t make the laughable mistake of mixing up Israelis with Jews. One is a country, one is a religion, the two are not the same thing, and by making out that they are, you completely undermine your point of view. Not that it really needed undermining…
Cloudfire makes the correct point that Israel is not the same thing as jews, but also repeats some myths. The forced sterilisation of immigrants thing turns out to be false. Plus Cloudfire needs to look up the word genocide in a dictionary.
As for the Godwin’s law violators. First, it is not even all Israelis, let alone all jews. Jewish opposition to Israeli policy is growing, even in the US (if you were not a complete idiot, I might recommend some reading on the question, but you *are* a complete idiot). Second, Godwin’s law. Third, f*ck you, racist dicks.
Forced sterilisation sits well within the UN’s definition of genocide. Where did you read it was false? I can’t find anything on it.
Okay, I take back the gratuitous insult about needing a dictionary. I don’t think it counts as genocide bc I think that genocide has to aim at the elimination of a people, but I would not be surprised at all if your usage is in line with the UN’s. My source is the Tele (I know). TL; DR: it wasn’t forced.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100200874/how-true-is-it-that-israel-deceitfully-gave-ethiopian-jews-birth-control-injections/
None of which is to deny that Israel is an increasingly racist society. That has come out in the treatment of asylum seekers recently. People like yonifinke should feel right at home there.
Can’t help but agree there. The lack of understanding on the state of Israel and the Jewish people at times astounds me.
I’m not surprised by the attitudes of the people of Israel, nor by those who were displaced by the creation of the country, it was a terrible idea! Did you know the original plan was to put it in Canada? Seriously, Churchill was well up for that idea, but the Canadians weren’t having any of it!
What worries me though is I was really interested in that story, and I read the Telegraph website every day and I completely missed it. I would have been actively seeking more information on that very story. Crazy what we miss. I’m glad it wasn’t the way it was presented, the idea of a state doing that really didn’t sit well with me.
I’m honestly not surprised that Israel is a racist country. It was established by a seriously persecuted people as their salvation. Since it’s conception it has been opposed by those it displaced (funnily enough) which is naturally going to breed a xenophobic attitude. Of course, that doesn’t excuse it at all.
Even the Jews outside of Israel think the Israelis are doing a lot of wrong things and against Judaism… Their overconfidence about the power of money will be their downfall. They are angering a lot of people around the world not just Muslims/Arabs around them. It is said to see History repeat itself. They just forget the most fundamental rule of the worl. Born/Lived/Died, but what you have left behind to be remembered?
Please re-read my comment CAREFULLY.
Jewish People ≠ Israeli people. This is a common mistake that people make (on purpose) to equate hating a set of religious people with hating a state and it’s actions.
Even if you ignore that I didn’t say “jews”, I also did not say they ARE nazis. I said they are BECOMING LIKE nazis. This is different.
Also just because there are worse things happening in the world does not mean it is acceptable to do bad things. This is an idiotic argument.
The state of Israel, by all accounts, is a state that does more bad than it does good. You are simply an Israeli apologist who is incapable of making an unbiased decision.
Hello I am a Jew with an apartment in Israel. It is by far the most advanced civilisation in the middle east. It is certainly the only liberal democracy in the middle east. I have friends there and have been to there schools and seen immigrants of all types living in peace and harmony. Israel lets in thousands of african immigrants to whom have been persecuted in their own home land. I’m not going to pretend that they are a golden civilisation doing all the right things at the right times but they do not generally fire first they usually defend for instance there was more than 10x more rockets fired at israel rather than israel fires at the gaza strip and instead of attacking back all the time they employed the iron dome that merely intercepts rockets. I’m not here to start an argument I just want you to know Israel are not nazis, my entire fathers side died in nazi germany, my Grandfather was brought into this country without the ability to speak english and i promise you every night that he had nightmares about his past and my father heard he did not want that in 60-70 years time to be doing the same thing and i guarantee that he was not the only one. I can’t speak for Israel but only to speak as a visitor in their beautiful country and when I say they are in general peaceful and kind I mean it.
Please note peace is all I want.
May I ask why you believe Israel is even close to becoming Nazis?
p.s. here is a list of things Israel has done in it’s brief life. Take special care when reading medicine, it makes me proud to be Jewish. http://www.jfns.org/page.aspx?id=43769
Being an “advanced civilisation” or being democratic does not give the state of Israel the right to do what it does. One positive does not cancel out one negative. They are separate situations. Both Britain and America do bad things in the world yet they would be considered an “advanced civilisation” and democratic (Although I would say both are neither an “advanced civilisation” nor democratic. How can we say we are a civilisation when we are not yet civilised and how can we say we are Democratic when the people are NEVER listened to by their government).
Israeli, British and the US media consistently only portray Israel as “defending” itself. This is because they all have their own biases for doing so. Britain because they setup Israel and now feel they have to endlessly justify this. Israel for obvious reasons. And the US because it uses Israel as a highly strategic military presence within the Middle East and has Jewish donors with very deep pockets. For this reason, many western people see the situation as one with no one being in the right or wrong.
It can only be seen this way if people look away at what is going on or simply never see or hear about it due to western media bias.
“May I ask why you believe Israel is even close to becoming Nazis?”
1. Treatment of Palestinian people by the Israeli army.
2. Prisoner X.
3. Other prisoners being treated like Prisoner X.
4. The large swaths of land being stolen by the Israeli government from the palestinian people.
5. The treatment of the Palestinian people as lower class people.
6. The nuclear arms Israel has but refuses to acknowledge.
7. The fact that Israel refuses to become part of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.
8. The refusal of Israel to appear before the UN human rights review.
9. The refusal of Israel to allow the UN to investigate Human rights within Israel.
10. The many assassinations Israel carries out around the world.
11. The sterilisation of Ethiopian women simply because they are not believed to be “real” jews.
12. Launching air attacks on sovereign nations (Syria).
13. Agressive talk on attacking sovereign nations (Iran).
I am not saying that their actions are anywhere near the level of the Nazis but they do seem to be walking on a path in that direction. I find that very disturbing, especially since it has western nations backing it up.
A very large portion of the success of Israel can be chalked down to the fact that it has huge investment from the US and that it is a relatively recently stolen country. When you steal a country, you get a country for free. This means that all the resources of that country are free and when you sell those resources and pieces of land to settlers, you receive huge amounts of money that didn’t exist before. You can then invest this new money into businesses, infrastructure, education etc.
This is certainly not the only reason why Israel is doing well but having large amounts of money pouring into the country in the form of settlers and donors certainly helps.
In my opinion all support of Israel from the west needs to stop and it needs to have a serious look at it’s actions.
Alright this is unfortunately becoming a cyclical people generally won’t change their views so I will just make a few comments. Firstly there is no palestinians any more, secondly do you not think all countries have prisoners of war that they keep, I’m not condoning it but when murderers won’t stop there is no other option. Thirdly may I remind you not stolen as the “palestinians” never owned it and Israel even gave back the west bank which was then used by the “palestinians” to strategically attack israel and showed them no peace from the deal. Fourthly i do agree to some extent that I have experienced the viewpoint of “palestinians” as lower class people but they are still offered the exact same rights as israelis. Fifthly if Israel do have nuclear warheads they have not and most probably will never fire them the issue as it is with all middle eastern countries if one fires on the other they will be hitting themselves. Next if Israel carries out an assassination it is always because the other is a significant threat I’d like an example of a non-threatening assassination. My next point you should take great head with, Israel have given back thousands of prisoners of wars in exchange for very very very few prisoners in return, if you want to think how much more the average Israelite is to their country than the palestinian is to theres, They literally traded 1000 “men” for one man Gilad Shalit. Please tell me how you can widdle your way out of that one. And as for launches and talks they are always in response.
I’d just like to point out one last time that Israel isn’t stolen it never was it was given. I agree the manner in which the transition happened was incorrect and trust me, me and my friends debate about this all the time but when you look over what the “palestinians” have done in the past they did not warrant the gift that is Israel. A random example is the golden mosk that is oh so conveniently built on top of the western wall. If Israel ever take it down war will occur and if we leave it there then they can complain that it is one of their most sacred places on earth and must be allowed into Israel’s capital city and thus must be apart of the country.
As I said this is the last time I respond to such a tiresome post and really hope you realise the flaws in almost everything you say. You are after all clearly intelligent just extremely susceptible to social media. I truly am sorry for that. x
Well, I am sure there had been situations where you might have to shoot to kill a child for security reasons, e.g. if the child was wearing an explosive vest and rushing towards a check point. However, posting a photo of your scope while on duty is unprofessional. It probably constitutes a security hazard as well.
I see nothing wrong with that picture, at least it’s not a fluffy bunny rabbit. http://db.tt/AoUMxRyv
How about being the one sat there yourself !!!
The jews are nazi’s.
Because everyone else is so innocent!
This piece of racism should be removed. Administrator?
No, they are not Nazis. Israel is, it’s a racist state who violates international law and terrorises Palestinians, don’t get mixed up please.
Jet, the jews are not nazis. Only nazis are nazis. The state of Israel is behaving increasingly LIKE the nazis but this does not mean that jewish people are nazis.
How do we know if it’s even attached to a rifle.. ?
He could just be holding up a scope…
Implied context. Crosshairs suggest violence.
What if the picture had been taken by an iranian sniper and instead of the kid we had a israeli kid?
am i the only one who thinks this post is about someone political/religious soapbox rather than the actual image.
I nearly posted this last night about 3am as I couldn’t sleep, but figured I was just tired and cranky
but having read it again the whole post doesn’t belong here in the manner in which it is written.
and for the record I don’t know enough about the Israel/Palestine conflict to make an informed decision as to who I think is in the right or wrong, and even if I did, it wouldn’t belong here.
You’re probably not the only one, but that does’t mean you’re right. The point is that it is stupid and offensive to post such a picture. It would be stupid and offensive if the person was actually a legitimate target: you don’t trivialize killing or beautify it, even if it is necessary. Since this isn’t a legitimate target, it is much worse. Of course it is nowhere near as bad as the genuine atrocities both sides in this particular conflict have been guilty of.
How do we know that the child was ever a real target? The scope may not even have been attached to a gun and the photographer may be an artist (soldiers and not ‘just’ soldiers).
I doubt this is the first of such images and I bet their are plenty similar out there made by American ‘artists’ that have already been excepted as art.
This does exactly what most good art does. It gets you thinking about the subject. Maybe it will actually get people thinking about how horrible war actually is and get people discussing it (as it is on these sites).
Art ‘can’ be offensive and I have seen much more offensive than this.
Framing makes a difference. If it is done by an artist, it has a different meaning. Think Duchamp’s urinals.
Again: what if the picture had been taken by an iranian sniper and instead of the kid we had a israeli kid?
you completely missed the point i was trying to make
the writer of this article Mario Aguilar is using his position as a writer to promote his political/religious message rather than it being about the photo, there is no neutrality involved in this post, now personally politics and or religion does not belong on a tech blog, and should the subject be raised then the writer needs to be seen to have a neutral position, to keep it professional,
as to whether the photo is acceptable or not is covered in other posts here.
this writer has lost any respect I had for his writing
what a load of anti jewish crap….