JERUSALEM (JTA) — The blindfolded Palestinian woman seen in a YouTube video with a male Israeli soldier belly-dancing around her is suing the soldier.
Ynet reported Wednesday that Ekhsan Debabseh, 25, who does not have Internet access, had not been aware of the video until she saw it on Al-Jazeera. She is suing the soldier with the help of an Israeli human rights organization.
As of Wednesday evening, the video in Israel had more than 516,000 views, up from 44,000 the previous day. The video went viral after its broadcast on a Channel 10 news program shortly before midnight Monday.
The video is not new; it was uploaded on April 20, 2008. The poor-quality footage shows the soldier dancing to Arabic-sounding music around a bound and blindfolded Palestinian woman. He brushes up against her several times as he smiles for the camera.
Debabseh told Ynet that during her detention in December 2007, she thought that she was being photographed but was powerless to do anything about it.
"I don’t know if justice will be served, but this soldier has to be punished for what he did to me," she told Ynet.
Hundreds of comments going back several months slam Jews, Israel and the Israel Defense Forces in profanity-laced statements.
The video comes to light more than a month after a former female soldier posted photos to Facebook showing her smiling next to a blindfolded Palestinian prisoner. In late August, four soldiers were indicted after taking pictures of themselves pointing their guns at a Palestinian prisoner.
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