As if all this were not enough – the thousands of dead children, the death toll nearing 20,000, the hundreds of thousands uprooted from their homes, the tens of thousands of wounded and the starvation, disease and destruction in Gaza – on top of this, they must also be humiliated. Humiliated to the core, so that they learn.
- Israelis are still captive to Netanyahu’s doctrine
- The ‘accidental’ execution of a civilian must be a reminder: Immorality kills
- Israeli jails must not become execution facilities for Palestinians
We must show them (and ourselves) who they are (and who we are). To show how strong we are and how weak they are. It’s good for morale. It’s good for the soldiers. It’s good for the home front. A Hanukkah gift of humiliated Palestinians: What could bring more joy?
There is no greater proof that we have lost our way than the despicable attempts to humiliate the Palestinians for all to see. There is no greater proof of moral weakness than the need to humiliate them in their defeat. We are like Hamas; if they are such monsters, then we can also be, just a little. After expunging the lives of the Gazans, their property, their homes and their children, we will now also crush what remains of their dignity. We will force them to their knees, until they surrender.
Images and videos from last week: dozens of men on their knees, wearing only underpants, their hands tied behind their backs, their eyes blindfolded, their gazes lowered. One group is on a razed street, another in a sand pit, soldiers standing over them.
Bingo, a victory image. A few of the soldiers are masked; perhaps they are ashamed of their behavior – we can only hope. Their victims are young men and also older ones; some are fat, with potbellies, others gaunt, some have pale skin and others are scorched by the hardships of the war. Perhaps their children watched them, perhaps their wives; that would heighten the achievement.
According to reports, they were removed from a UN Relief and Works Agency shelter in Beit Lahia and detained for questioning. No one knows for sure if any of them were even Hamas members. After the victory photo, they were taken to an unknown location, their fate unclear. Who even cares, besides their loved ones?
What good does it do? This isn’t the first time the Israeli army has stripped Palestinians this way in order to humiliate them. Such “walks of shame” were held in the past in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Lebanon. Wanted and unwanted men in underpants, for all to see. That’s what Israel does, and it’s important to record the event and to spread the images. But the truth is that the images humiliate the Israel Defense Forces much more than they humiliate its naked victims.
But even this public undressing was not sufficient humiliation of them in this accursed war. Two weeks after the war broke out, IDF and Shin Bet security service forces took over the home of senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri, in the West Bank of village of Aroura – Arouri is now based in Lebanon – and attached to its facade an enormous Arabic-language banner that reads: “Here was Arouri’s home, which became the headquarters of Abu Al-Nimr of the Shin Bet.” Poor agent Abu Al-Nimr: His HQ was destroyed a few days later, and with it the spectacular display, but the taste of the infantile humiliation remains.
In Gaza, our forces destroyed the parliament building and the courthouse. Why? Why not? In the Jenin refugee camp, in the West Bank, they smashed all the monuments, including the “key of return” at its entrance. The army also destroyed and plundered the great, tin horse at the hospital entrance, constructed by a German sculptor from the wreckage of destroyed Palestinian ambulances, a monument to the dead. In Tul Karm it demolished the Yasser Arafat memorial. Soon we’ll scorch their consciousness too.
And the height of the grotesquerie: The commander of the Nahal Infantry Brigade’s 932nd Battalion, in an IDF Spokesperson’s Unit video, flaunts Ismail Haniyeh’s credit card, which expired in 2019. Kudos to the IDF. “You fled like cowards and we even got to your credit card,” the officer babbles.
Commentators explained that perhaps it was the credit card of someone with the same name: Our Haniyeh hasn’t lived here for a long time. But Haniyeh’s son lives here, and the IDF spokesperson neither rests nor sleeps: Here are the receipts that prove he bought jewelry. The great victory is closer than ever.
Israel wants to slay the monster next door, but with this lethal bombardment, it is feeding it
Repeal the Exclusionary Nation-state Law, for the Sake of All Israelis
A Brief History of the Netanyahu-Hamas Alliance
Do Palestinian lives matter to the world?
Chris Hedges: Letter to the Children of Gaza
Is it too much to ask people to view Palestinians as humans? Apparently so
Dogs of war / New acronym in Gaza: WCNSF – Wounded Child No Surviving Family
Patrick Lawrence: Deeper Into Depravity
A Conspiracy of Silence / The Killing Floor of Gaza
Michael Brenner: Europe-Jews-Muslims
Palestine and Israel: Historical, Legal and Moral Issues
Israel-Hamas War: US arms industry stocks rocket (October 10)
After the truth-shower 