Humiliating Israeli video condemned
A video of a male Israeli soldier bellydancing around a bound and blindfolded female prisoner has been received with disgust among Palestinians and in the Middle East.
The video provoked an angry response from the Palestinians on Tuesday.
The clip, which came to light after it was screened on Israel’s private Channel 10 television late on Monday, shows a soldier gyrating to rhythmic drumbeat of an Arabic track as the woman, who is wearing a headscarf, huddles against a wall, her hands bound in front of her and her eyes bound with a white cloth.
The soldier, who is wearing sunglasses and smiling broadly, repeatedly brushes up close to the woman who has a Hebrew speech bubble coming out of her mouth reading “Allahu Akbar” - Arabic for “God is greatest”.
Crudely captioned “Israeli soldier catch Arab terrorist (he dance on her) funny”, the clip lasts just over a minute.
The video was immediately condemned by the Palestinian Authority (PA) as “deeply offensive to the dignity of women”.
“This is a disgusting illustration of the sick mentality of the occupier. This is not an isolated incident,” a statement from the office of Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, said.
