The dancing storm-troopers

What planet do these Israelis live on? Occupation soldiers are dancing in the streets of an apartheid town and we should celebrate?

It has been a while since we felt the kind of joy we experienced when we saw the six Nahal Brigade soldiers dancing in Hebron’s streets.

If I were a Foreign Ministry official, I would rush to recruit these six young men to the ranks of the Foreign Service. Unless the Bat Sheva dance company signed them up already, of course.

It was not only the world that suddenly saw IDF soldiers from a different perspective. We also saw it. It did not matter how many times they showed us the clip, it was not enough for us.

How should I put it? Suddenly there was a feeling of normalcy around here; a sense of having the right perspective about life. When was the last time we saw an Israeli combat soldier in a pose that is not meant to kill, detain, search, or thwart an attack? Yet there it was, under the military uniforms and helmets, the protective vests and the M-16 rifles – for a few moments we saw the emergence of young, funny people who view the world not only through the sights of their weapons.

We saw people who understand that there is life beyond the alleyways of Hebron.

The clip presented IDF soldiers in such manner that had these troops not existed in real life, the IDF would have had to invent them.

Text and images ©2024 Antony Loewenstein. All rights reserved.

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