Israeli Soldiers dancing get 15 minutes of fame

Israeli Soldiers Dance to Ke$ha in Hebron 

A video of Israeli soldiers dancing to the song Ke$ha's "Tik Tok"was posted on YouTube over the weekend, It was removed but resurfaced and has hit the media in Israel. It shows six soldiers breaking into a choreographed dance routine while on patrol in Hebron. Originally posted under the title "Battalion 50 Rock the Hebron Casbah," the re-posted video is titled "It's easy to laugh at the occupation when you're the oppressor (and a douchebag)."

The video is part of a growing trend where soldiers produce cover versions of pop songs and post them to the internet, as American soldiers did to the tune of Lady Gaga's "Telephone." However, as Haaretz points out, usually these videos are produced on base instead of while the soldiers are on patrol.

Reactions to the Israeli video have ranged from amusement to "disdain for the sight of soldiers dancing in an occupied Palestinian street." One Jezebel commenter remarked that the film was apparently shot during the Muslim call to prayer and hence was doubly inappropriate. According to Haaretz, the soldiers involved will likely be punished for improper conduct, though The Huffington Post claims commanders have "shrugged off" the incident as a "stunt.

But seemingly they have escaped being penalised by their commanders. Larry King was the first to announce the dance breakout to Prime Minister Netanyahu in his interview with him.  The Prime Minister's response was, "let me get a report on it then I'll let you know my response."

Initial reports said the six were facing disciplinary action, but the army later said the soldiers were just fooling around and no harm was done.

The YouTube user who originally posted the clip identified it as "Battalion 50 Rock the Hebron Casbah", the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

It shows the six - armed with assault rifles and kitted out in bulletproof vests - doing a combination of the Macarena and the chicken dance to the catchy dance track, before twirling in pairs and skipping out of camera shot while holding hands.

After it was taken down, it was re-posted by a user who added the title: "It's easy to laugh at the occupation when you're the oppressor (and a douchebag)."

Hebron is home to about 160,000 Muslims, but some 500 Israeli settlers live in the centre of the city with a heavy Israeli security detail.

On Monday, Israeli TV stations picked up the clip and aired it repeatedly.

The military called the video a "stunt". They were dancing but someone who had posted it on Utube added the music to it.


They are just soldiers doing nothing more than many of our own soldier do but the negative world always has something to say about every move of everyone. If we put an article in the newspaper criticizing our youth for the things they do while church worship was going on, the newspapers would be double their size.