Gideon Levy : Israelis Who Are Lost to Democracy
Israel
is perpetrating horrors in the territories at a frequency and degree
never seen before. Not that most Israelis seem to care.
www.haaretz.com
The Palestinians did not win (and presumably
never will win), but Israel lost once again. The remnants of its
humanity are being erased with frightening and unprecedented speed.
Horrors are being perpetrated in the occupied territories at a frequency
and degree never seen before.
The stones or stabbings that
could justify such crimes have not yet been created – and are greeted
with a shrug of the shoulder by the Israeli public. Its exposure to the
behavior of its soldiers and police officers is always mediated by the
Israeli media, which can be counted upon to blur, polish and hide as
much as possible. But social media sites spit out the images, horror
after horror. One glance and you are embarrassed; one more and a sense
of nausea mixed with anger overwhelms you.
What didn’t happen this weekend (apart from the stabbings, which resulted in minor Israeli injuries): An 8-month-old Palestinian baby died, allegedly
from inhaling tear gas at Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem. “We’ll fire
tear gas at you until you die. Children, adults, old people, everyone,
everything – we won’t leave a single one of you,” barked a Border Police
officer into the speaker of his armored jeep in the Al-Aida refugee
camp, in the name of all Israelis.
A different Border Police jeep deliberately ran over a Palestinian
who was throwing stones near Beit El. What happened next is difficult
to watch: The badly injured Palestinian lies on the ground, Border
Police troops kick him and rudely repel the Palestinian rescue teams
before they can treat him.
Another Border Police officer,
in a different place, hits a gas mask-wearing journalist who dared to
take pictures. Somewhere else, pepper spray is spritzed directly into
the face of a photographer, who falls down, his face contorted in pain.
Ahmed Manasra, the 13-year-old
boy who allegedly stabbed two Israelis, wounding them seriously, was
brought to a remand hearing in handcuffs. He is being charged with attempted murder,
but prosecutors will try to drag out the proceedings for more than two
months, until he turns 14. Then he will face decades in prison if
convicted – and that is all but guaranteed. The demure prosecutor has
promised to pursue “terrorists” of “any age.”
Israel graciously deigned to return the bodies of seven Palestinians
after a sickening delay that led to outbursts of rage in the
territories. The bodies of assailants who were shot to death are
stripped by soldiers and police officers in public, the images of their
naked bodies shared on social media. The lust for demolishing the homes
of terrorists – quickly and in large quantity – cannot be satisfied. A
civilian, Mashiah Ben Ami, boasts that he fired no fewer than 15 bullets
at a Palestinian who tried to stab him and tore his shirt.
The debate over a
shoot-to-kill policy, using live bullets, toward any person who stabs or
wields a knife, regardless of dangerousness, has not even begun in
Israel. It never will. Over 70 Palestinians have been killed in this
manner since the beginning of the uprising.
It is tumultuous, this
uprising, and it’s the most predictable thing that ever happened here.
It cannot be suppressed through the use of force, and the soldiers and
policemen who face the raging crowd and try to do so can only be pitied.
But when this wave diminishes,
on hiatus until the next one, we will be left with the real disaster:
Look at the soldiers, and especially the Border Police, observe their
storm trooper-like barbaric behavior toward anyone in their path, and
you’ll understand what awaits us and what character the country will
have, if it doesn’t already have it.
Those who maliciously run over
a teenager and then viciously kick him; who threaten mass killing with
gas and assault medical teams and journalists – knowing they won’t be
punished and will only be praised – are citizens who are lost to
democracy. They are kalgasim, as we say in Hebrew (“vicious
invaders”). And those who cover for them, who look on with apathy and
indifference – these are their partners. Full partners.
Gideon Levy
Haaretz Correspondent
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