Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Help Keep Boards Alive. Support us by going ad free today. See here: https://subscriptions.boards.ie/

Cork Student Volunteers for IDF

  • 09-08-2010 12:59PM
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,934 ✭✭✭


    http://www.tribune.ie/article/2010/aug/08/people-see-me-as-a-terrorist/

    'People see me as a terrorist'
    Cork student Cliona Campbell complains she is now victim of a 'hate campaign' after volunteering for Israeli Defence Force
    Jennifer Bray


    Campbell: 'huge interest in the Jewish people'
    A 19-year-old Cork student who volunteered for the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) says she has become the victim of a hate campaign.




    Cliona Campbell, who has just returned from two months working with the IDF, says she has received public abuse, emails and messages telling her to "keep her head down" after writing a piece for the local paper on her experiences.




    "I came back after two months and wrote a piece on my experiences. Now I am getting hate mail and being targeted. I went into a clothes shop where I live and the security guard came up to me abusing me. My Facebook page link was posted online in a forum and I started getting emails telling me to keep my head down from now on. My friends started getting abusive emails soon after that too."




    Campbell says she is upset at the personal insults that have also been sent to her.




    "There were guys online as well saying that I was 'rough' in terms of my looks and bringing it all to a new, personal level as well. If I was a man coming back from being in the IDF, there would be none of that. That is the upsetting part."




    She says most of the reaction has been because she spoke highly of her time with the army and maintains her own strong beliefs about their work.




    "I got on really well with the soldiers. They were all there for their own reasons and had their own stories as to why they were there.




    "I have a huge interest in the Jewish people and always have had so I had no hesitation about going out there."




    Campbell joined the IDF after applying through Sar-El, a volunteering project that agreed to send her over to work for eight weeks.




    "I took a crash course in Hebrew first and spent ages preparing. It was a massive culture shock, but very worthwhile. A lot of the days would be spent re-mantling guns and working with the soldiers out in the 42-degree heat".




    She also joined a protest against the flotilla to Gaza in May during which the IDF murdered nine passengers on board one of the boats.




    "I was a bit sad to be coming home, and now I've come back to all this discussion," Campbell says. "Some of the people writing to me and about me say they now see me as a terrorist and that they don't even see me as Irish anymore. I stand up for what I believe and I get hate mail and abuse, and I wouldn't mind if half of those people could back up what they are saying with a logical argument," she says.



    August 8, 2010

    ----

    Whatever about the pro's and con's of joining any foreign military, never mind one as contentious as the IDF, the levels of naivity eminating from this kid are quite frankly baffling. She joins the IDF during the passport scandal and flotilla massacre and acts surprised that she gets abuse and offended by comments about how she looked in uniform? Is she that far removed from reality or is this a cunning ruse?


«1345

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,967 ✭✭✭✭Zulu


    People are entitled to be idiots.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,443 ✭✭✭Byron85


    She has the courage of her beliefs. Whether that is a good or bad thing is something else altogether though.


    My own issues with her arise when she said there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, insinuated that Goldstone is a self-hating Jew and that Palestinians are naturally terrorists. Take this together with the fact that she was out protesting at the Turkish embassy, after the flotilla massacre, while holding a placard which says "Thank You Israel", it paints her in a rather non-sympathetic light.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,749 ✭✭✭✭wes


    I think some of the abuse she is talking about was on AH on here, and tbh I don't think that had anything to do with her volunteering for the IDF, and that AH just being AH. Certainly, no one deserves abuse of any sort, regardless of the reasons.

    However, some of what was said was not absuse of any kind and was valid criticism, and you have to be very naive to essentially volunteer to be a propoganda mouth piece, and not expect some criticism.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,770 ✭✭✭Bottle_of_Smoke


    Byron85 wrote: »
    She has the courage of her beliefs. Whether that is a good or bad thing is something else altogether though.


    My own issues with her arise when she said there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, insinuated that Goldstone is a self-hating Jew and that Palestinians are naturally terrorists. Take this together with the fact that she was out protesting at the Turkish embassy, after the flotilla massacre, while holding a placard which says "Thank You Israel", it paints her in a rather non-sympathetic light.

    I agree with all this. Though on the other hand I think she's a naive 19 year old who's a bit of an obsession with Israel. I think she's had enough punishment for joining now and people should leave her alone.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,443 ✭✭✭Byron85


    I agree with all this. Though on the other hand I think she's a naive 19 year old who's a bit of an obsession with Israel. I think she's had enough punishment for joining now and people should leave her alone.


    Also some of her original article was plagiarised straight from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. It was only a few lines but she should have known better than that, plus I take issue with it being someone who considers himself somewhat of a journalist.


  • Advertisement
  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,934 ✭✭✭OhNoYouDidn't


    wes wrote: »
    I think some of the abuse she is talking about was on AH on here, and tbh I don't think that had anything to do with her volunteering for the IDF, and that AH just being AH. Certainly, no one deserves abuse of any sort, regardless of the reasons.

    However, some of what was said was not absuse of any kind and was valid criticism, and you have to be very naive to essentially volunteer to be a propoganda mouth piece, and not expect some criticism.

    I wasn't aware of the AH thread. If you are reading Cliona, it would be interesting to have you contribute here in a more moderated and sensible environment.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,443 ✭✭✭Byron85


    I wasn't aware of the AH thread. If you are reading Cliona, it would be interesting to have you contribute here in a more moderated and sensible environment.


    She replied in the A.H thread.

    http://boards.ie/vbulletin/search.php?searchid=13667050#

    This is one of my favourite comments.

    · Are they in the right to routinely knock down houses with bulldozers?

    This is not a sport, believe it or not, and the reason bulldozing random buildings sounds illogical is because it IS illogical when you strip it from the context in which it occurs. The fact is, there IS logic behind it and it’s not just Israel ‘being an asshole’ as some left wingers like to portray it as. Why risk the lives of their soldiers by throwing them into a situation where a terrorist has barricaded themselves in a house which is very likely to be rigged with explosives? These aren’t your average ‘family homes’ – these are the militant headquarters of terrorists, hideouts, and areas where rockets destined for Israel are constructed and launched from. It’s simply a waste of time and energy for the Israel army to be mowing over random houses for absolutely no reason.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 46,938 ✭✭✭✭Nodin


    Byron85 wrote: »
    She replied in the A.H thread.

    http://boards.ie/vbulletin/search.php?searchid=13667050#

    This is one of my favourite comments.

    Yeah.....Its mad how everytime theres a village bulldozed, a child killed or a petting zoo flattened, theres always a "terrorist" to blame. Or some other excuse.
    http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/idf-destroys-west-bank-village-after-declaring-it-military-zone-1.303098


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,889 ✭✭✭evercloserunion


    Funny how there's no article in the Tribune about a Palestinian kid who was shot by the IDF complaining that he is the victim of a hate campaign.

    What does she think war is, other than a fecking hate campaign? And she could have stayed out of it but she just had to get her hands dirty. Looking at what has happened to some Palestinians in Gaza I find it hard to get worked up about a couple of nasty comments on boards.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,670 ✭✭✭✭Wolfe Tone


    Well I have zero sympathy whatsoever for her. She should have kept it under her hat.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,020 ✭✭✭BlaasForRafa


    I wasn't aware of the AH thread. If you are reading Cliona, it would be interesting to have you contribute here in a more moderated and sensible environment.

    You're f**king kidding right? With all the hysterical anti-israeli ranting that goes on in the politics forum she would be better off staying away than have people haranging her for the noble choice she made.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,934 ✭✭✭OhNoYouDidn't


    You're f**king kidding right? With all the hysterical anti-israeli ranting that goes on in the politics forum she would be better off staying away than have people haranging her for the noble choice she made.

    Noble my arse. It was a crude propaganda stunt that backfired.

    If some of the comments attributed to her facebook on the AH thread are true, she is a very troubled and confused young lady.

    But aside from that debate, are you as surprised as she is that it was an unpopular choice of holiday with her community?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,670 ✭✭✭✭Wolfe Tone


    You're f**king kidding right? With all the hysterical anti-israeli ranting that goes on in the politics forum she would be better off staying away than have people haranging her for the noble choice she made.



    lol, just lol


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,443 ✭✭✭Byron85


    You're f**king kidding right? With all the hysterical anti-israeli ranting that goes on in the politics forum she would be better off staying away than have people haranging her for the noble choice she made.


    No one here is being hysterical. Questioning someone's assumption of facts is not haranguing her.

    I wouldn't call her choice noble. I'd just call it a choice and this is coming from someone who was looking into a career in the military.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,485 ✭✭✭Denerick


    I seriously don't see the moral difference between volunteering for the IDF and volunteering for any other army of a western, secular democratic state, such as France. Unless of course the animosity from the rare case is generated by anti-semitism, and not some noble dedication to pacifism.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,934 ✭✭✭OhNoYouDidn't


    Denerick wrote: »
    I seriously don't see the moral difference between volunteering for the IDF and volunteering for any other army of a western, secular democratic state, such as France. Unless of course the animosity from the rare case is generated by anti-semitism, and not some noble dedication to pacifism.

    Surprised it took 16 posts for someone to play the anti-semetic card. Pathetic.

    Are you seriously going to argue that Israel is a secular state?

    The comparison is presumably with the French Foreign Legion. While I accept they can be a moody bunch, what have they done recently that can be ranked with occupying land illegaly, dropping white phosphorous on schools, sniping at children, attacking aid convoys in international waters as well as enforcing an illegal embargo to collectively punish a fenced in civilian population?

    Added into the mix are the dead Irish soldiers as a result of Israeli aggression into the Lebanon and the expulsion of an Israeli diplomat from Ireland for cloning our passports to commit murder. Relations with France are a touch more cordial.

    She went out there for two months and then came back and participated in an orchistrated media campaign to soft sell the IDF. Hardly the same context as a professional soldier joining the likes of the Legion.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,485 ✭✭✭Denerick


    yah, I was anticipating that.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,670 ✭✭✭✭Wolfe Tone


    Denerick wrote: »
    I seriously don't see the moral difference between volunteering for the IDF and volunteering for any other army of a western, secular democratic state, such as France. Unless of course the animosity from the rare case is generated by anti-semitism, and not some noble dedication to pacifism.
    Well if Denerick outlines what he thinks of those armies it may help......


    If he condemns them all equally(or something like that) then he has a very good point.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,020 ✭✭✭BlaasForRafa


    Denerick wrote: »
    yah, I was anticipating that.

    Indeed, this thread is degenerating into the usual anti-Israeli rants, which is presumably the reason it was created.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,798 ✭✭✭karma_


    Indeed, this thread is degenerating into the usual anti-Israeli rants, which is presumably the reason it was created.

    Where are these mysterious anti-Israel posts?


  • Advertisement
  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,485 ✭✭✭Denerick


    MUSSOLINI wrote: »
    Well if Denerick outlines what he thinks of those armies it may help......


    If he condemns them all equally(or something like that) then he has a very good point.

    I condemn and commend them all equally. I see as much point in an Irishman joining the armed forces of France as I would Israel.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,670 ✭✭✭✭Wolfe Tone


    Denerick wrote: »
    I condemn and commend them all equally. I see as much point in an Irishman joining the armed forces of France as I would Israel.
    Make sure you don't mention an Irishman joining the BA, big can of worms ;)


    I agree, only army an Irish man should join is an Irish one, if he feels the need to join any army at all.


  • Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 28,858 Mod ✭✭✭✭oscarBravo


    MUSSOLINI wrote: »
    I agree, only army an Irish man should join is an Irish one...
    There's only one.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,670 ✭✭✭✭Wolfe Tone


    oscarBravo wrote: »
    There's only one.
    Hahaha, I meant the Defense forces.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,283 ✭✭✭✭Scofflaw


    Denerick wrote: »
    I seriously don't see the moral difference between volunteering for the IDF and volunteering for any other army of a western, secular democratic state, such as France. Unless of course the animosity from the rare case is generated by anti-semitism, and not some noble dedication to pacifism.

    A moderately friendly reminder to only play the 'anti-semitism' card where it's actually warranted.

    moderately,
    Scofflaw


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 46,938 ✭✭✭✭Nodin


    ........than have people haranging her for the noble choice she made.

    And what "noble choice" was that, pray tell? Shuffling paper for a colonial army of a nuclear power, who occassionally stand around while their nuttier citizens destroy some dirt poor farmers olive trees?
    Denerick wrote:
    I seriously don't see the moral difference between volunteering for the IDF and volunteering for any other army of a western, secular democratic state, such as France.

    You can't think of anything that the Israelis do that the French don't? (anymore, at least). Then I suggest you've reading to do.

    http://www.btselem.org/English/Settlements/

    http://www.btselem.org/English/Jerusalem/Index.asp

    http://www.btselem.org/english/Hebron/Index.asp

    http://www.btselem.org/english/Administrative_Detention/


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,565 ✭✭✭losthorizon


    I would say that Isael and its allies have been responsibel for the deaths of some Irish army deaths in Lebanon. Surely reason enough not to go? In 1982 Sean McBride found Israel responsible and its army responsible for the Shatila massacre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_and_Shatila_massacre

    Of course its the students decision. But remember to do all your research properly. Dont be used as a pawn by either side.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,485 ✭✭✭Denerick


    Scofflaw wrote: »
    A moderately friendly reminder to only play the 'anti-semitism' card where it's actually warranted.

    moderately,
    Scofflaw

    How does this require a moderators intervention? I suggested that the key difference between people kicking up a fuss for an Irish person who joined the IDF and for one who might join in the Foreign Legion is that one nation has a majority Jewish population and one does not. Other moderators have commented on this thread since my comment, leading me to think that this is a biased political intervention, and not the impartial moderatorship this forum should strive to realise.

    Good day, sir.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,485 ✭✭✭Denerick


    Nodin wrote: »

    Thanks for the handy links. I hadn't heard of Jerusalem or of the Israeli settlements before. You've just opened my eyes to a great big world of injustice I would have been incapable of discovering on my own.

    I'm being sarcastic, if you're wondering.


  • Advertisement
  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,670 ✭✭✭✭Wolfe Tone


    TBH Denerick I think it is akin to objecting to people joining the American army because of the US armies actions. I dont think it has much to do with religion.


This discussion has been closed.
Advertisement