What about the Christmas trees on which, in some quarters of Arab Jerusalem, people hung, in place of garlands, photos of "martyrs" killed in "combat"—killed, that is, while trying to stab Israeli civilians?
Unluckily for Torres, the soldiers wanted a combat kill to please commanders.
In this field, hundreds of people have been buried in individual, unmarked graves, killed by the army, claimed as combat kills.
The military continues to be accused of serious human rights violations, including some 2,000 cases under investigation in which civilians were allegedly recruited, murdered and then presented as combat kills.
It involves the murder of civilians whose bodies were then passed off as those of Farc rebels or paramilitaries to boost combat kill rates.
Soldiers would then dress them in guerrilla uniforms and declare them combat kills.
One retired officer told me how Montoya pressured him to produce more combat kills and to reward soldiers who produced them with money and time off.
Once away from their families, the soldiers executed the men, dressed them up in guerrilla uniforms, and presented them as combat kills.
By 2012, however, nearly 3,000 murders were recorded and, in 2007 the worst year for this type of killing one in every five combat kills recorded was a false positive.
In other parts of the Middle East, too, tensions between ruling elites and religious conservatives have complicated efforts to combat honor killing.
