Stealing laptops, credit cards and passports and if we don't get them in front of the ICC, maybe we can just charge them as common criminals

There is an article in today's 'Guardian', which reports that "Israeli troops have been accused of stealing from activists arrested in the assault on the Gaza flotilla after confiscated debit cards belonging to activists were subsequently used." My first reaction was that this might be the 'Guardian' trying to compete with the BBC for Jerusalem's favour and publish a report which could only discredit the peace activists because it could only be untrue. However, lo and behold one continues to read the article and discovers that Ebrahim Musaji, 23, of Gloucester, who was on the Mavi Marmara when it was boarded, has furnished a statement proving that his debit card was used at an Israeli vending machine and a Dutch website to purchase goods, while another peace activist, Kathy Sheetz, claims that she has been charged $1,000 for transactions at Israeli vending machines.

Serious stuff but we shouldn't be surprised, after all Kathy and Ebrahim as you both know they have stolen a bit more than just a few credit cards in the past. Yes, "rumour" has it that they misappropriated a sizeable chunk of land back in 1948 and have been stealing land ever since. Nevertheless, while we might want to relativise their latest theft and treat their little "joke" as a joke, other things have gone missing which should be a cause for concern and I am not thinking about the "£1m of goods and cash, comprising aid and personal possessions, including laptops and cameras." No, a number of passports, three of them British, have also disappeared that should worry us. After all, we know what they do with foreign passports, don't we?

Interestingly a spokeswoman from the Israeli embassy in London is advising Kathy and Ebrahim to make a formal complaint, while pointing out that "We (the Israeli government) regard any misconduct as described in Mr Musaji's allegations to be utterly unacceptable and intolerable, and suggest waiting until this subject matter is clarified," she said. "As had happened previously, an Israeli soldier was found guilty of illegal use of a credit card for which he was indicted and sentenced to seven months' imprisonment." Oh, so they are actually admitting that it does happen and if they admit that then you can be fairly sure that this "one" incident that they are admitting is hardly isolated. Yes, the evidence would really seem to suggest, that the IDF not only has an abundance of war criminals in its ranks but that it is also rife with common thieves.