War Porn To A T(shirt)

Some Israeli soldiers spotted wearing crude T-shirts joking about murdering and raping Palestinians

By Mark Taylor
DeMOCKracy (11/28/23)

CBS News had a story about Israeli Defense soldiers designing and wearing several different t-shirts joking about killing — murdering — innocent Palestinians. The “1 SHOT 2 KILLS” design with the crosshairs of a rifle centered on the belly of a pregnant Muslim woman is about as brutal as you can get, but a design joking about rape is a whole different brand of despicable.

“Some of the shirts had blatant sexual messages,” CBS reported. “One battalion had a shirt made of a soldier standing next to a young woman with bruises, with the slogan, ‘Bet you got raped!’ according to Haaretz.”

There are five known similar t-shirt designs circulating among some Israeli soldiers.

CBS noted news of the shirts was first reported in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. When I tried to link to the original story a note popped up that the page was not available. Israeli government censorship of Haaretz and other Israeli media trying to provide full coverage of the Gaza genocide have been experiencing increased levels of official censorship.

The Israeli military denounced the shirts, CBS noted: “‘The shirts ‘are not in accordance with IDF values and are simply tasteless,’ the military said in a statement. ‘This type of humor is unbecoming and should be condemned.’ The army said it would not tolerate such behavior and would take disciplinary action against the soldiers involved.”

The shirts were made at the unit level and not approved by the IDF, and the company that printed the shirts would not comment CBS reports.

Crude and callous war porn is as indispensable a part of war-making propaganda as anything official pumped out by governments. It is part of the dehumanization and cheapening of the lives of one’s enemies; a cynical ingredient of moral numbing. War porn is a central and celebrated theme throughout American empire pop culture, from your nephew’s video war game to major Hollywood productions. It is one reason so many Americans are quick to snap a salute, slap a flag decal on their car, and

robotically cheer on our latest war for oil and corporate profit … for at least a year or two before they realize — damnit! — they’ve been had again.

Chumps.

You can link to the full CBS story Israeli T-Shirts Joke About Killing Arabs.

(Photo by Mark Taylor at DeMOCKracy.ink / Free to use.)