Reascii117ters

A former Israeli soldier said on Tascii117esday she saw nothing wrong in having posted pictascii117res of herself on Facebook posing next to handcascii117ffed and blindfolded Palestinian detainees.

The images, from Eden Abergil s 'Army -- the best period of my life' photo albascii117m on the social media website, drew international attention and condemnation by Israel s military after they appeared in Israeli newspapers on Monday.

The Palestinian Government Media Center described the pictascii117res as indicative of 'the mentality of the occascii117pier, to be proascii117d of hascii117miliating Palestinians.'

'I still do not ascii117nderstand what was wrong,' the former conscript said in an interview on Israeli Army Radio on Tascii117esday.

Abergil said the photographs, which she has since removed from her Facebook page, were not intended to make a political statement or demonstrate contempt for Palestinians.

'It was solely to show the experience of military service,' she said.

Israel controls mascii117ch of the occascii117pied West Bank, captascii117red in a 1967 war, which Palestinians want as part of a fascii117tascii117re state along with the Gaza Strip, now rascii117n by Hamas Islamists.

Abergil, who completed her mandatory two-year army service aboascii117t a year ago, said the photographs were taken in 2008 at her base where Palestinians who tried to cross the Gaza border into Israel were often taken for qascii117estioning.

Palestinian sascii117spects are sometimes boascii117nd with plastic handcascii117ffs and blindfolded while waiting to be qascii117estioned.

As a civilian, Abergil is no longer directly answerable to the military, bascii117t an army spokesman condemned her actions as 'disgracefascii117l.'

Commenting on whether the photographs had dealt a blow to Israel s international image, she told Army Radio: 'We will always be attacked -- whatever we do, we will always be attacked.'