The proclamation comes in the wake of Abergil becoming the subject of a meme treatment – her now infamous pictures being rehashed and imitated in all sorts of ways, including a sarcastic Twibbon campaign allowing you to add Abergil to your Twitter avatar. Ido Kenan’s indispensable blog Room 404 has the collection; here are a few samples.
The inevitable LOLcatz
And my personal favorite:
Abergil, naturally enough, did not appreciate the jokes, and got into a furious argument with one of the meme authors. It’s already hitting the headlines on Israeli websites, but Kenan’s blog got it first. Here is the montage she took offense at:
And here is the argument:
Eden Abergil: Tell me, you think that this pic on the side is funny? There’s a limit!
Eden Abergil: No, honey…
Shay Atik: To be honest, it’s kinda funny.
Eden Abergil: Oh yeah? And what’s so funny? I’m dying for laughs I haven’t laughed a week
Shay Atik: Maybe you haven’t watched the new enough.
Eden Abergil: Aaaaa no? You wanna tell me what was funny? Cause I really didn’t watch
Gal Ivon Cohen: Shay, it really isn’t funny. They ruined her life for such a simple and innocent picture and turned this girl into something that she’s not.
Eden Abergil: No honey they didn’t ruin my life I can’t afford Arab-lovers to ruin the perfect life I live!!! I’ve got no remorse and no regrettttttttttts.
[…]
Shay Atik: Eden, I guess you still didn’t get the meaning and implications of these pictures. It’s not about someone loving Arabs or not. It’s called humanity.
Eden Abergil: I’m not humane to murderers!
Shay Atik: Hmm… so you could equally kill those detainees you posed next to. If you’re being inhuman, go all the way! No?
Eden Abergil: I’m for a Zionist Jewish state! I’m protecting what was mine since forever!! I won’t get with you into religious statements etc but I’m declared and defined as a proud Jew and as a proud Jew it’s my duty to fight for everything that belongs to me there’s a picture of me they published that says it all in my opinion “if it wasn’t for her they’d murder your mother” and I’m not talking just about me but about all the soldiers guarding and protecting us!!! There are no laws in war!! I hate Arabs and wish them all the worst and it would be fun for me to kill them or even massacre them you can’t forget what they’re doing nevermind the reason I’m just on the side of the Jewish people!!! And this will last forever.
I really don’t think Abergil is a monster. She speaks and acts like someone from a conflict area, who had well-grounded fears of Palestinian political violence nourished and grown into a full-fledged paranoia by a society built around the idea of existential fear. Comments similar to hers are posted in their hundreds on Israeli news sites every day; and frankly, some of the pro-Palestinian comments I’ve been trashing from this blog over the past couple of days are no better; the worrying thing is not Abergil’s uniqueness but her complete commonality, the fact that mind-numbing fear is taking hold of more and more young Israelis, grinding on whatever little intolerance we have left for abuses of state power against minority.
As for Abergil, like I said earlier, life is long and there’s hope she’ll feel differently in years to come; I’d strongly suggest you watch “To see if I’m smiling” before you wish her ill.