This has been written about several times over the past week.
Miriam
Execution of Palestinian exposes militarism and racism of Israeli culture
Israel/Palestine
Jonathan Cook on April 4, 2016 29 Comments
(Screenshot: B'Tselem/YouTube)
It might have been a moment that jolted Israelis to their senses. Instead the
video of an Israeli soldier shooting dead a young Palestinian man as he lay
wounded and barely able to move has only intensified the tribal war dance of
the Israeli public.
Last week, as the soldier was brought before a military court for
investigation, hundreds of supporters protested outside. He enjoys vocal
support too from half a dozen cabinet ministers, former army generals, rabbis
and – according to opinion polls – a significant majority of the Israeli Jewish
public.
It is worth reflecting on this generous act of solidarity.
It is hard to dispute the main facts. On March 24 two Palestinians – Abdel
Fattah Al Sharif and Ramzi Qasrawi, both aged 21 – were shot during an attack
on soldiers manning a checkpoint in the occupied city of Hebron in the West
Bank.
Ten minutes later, the 19-year-old soldier at the centre of the investigation
arrived. Qasrawi was dead and Al Sharif was lying in the road wounded. Other
soldiers milled around, close by.
At that point, the soldier – who cannot be named because of a gag order –
approached Al Sharif, aimed his gun at the young man’s head and pulled the
trigger.
All of this was captured on video, as was a trail of blood that leaked from Al
Sharif’s head seconds later.
This was not a killing in the fog of war; it was a cold-blooded execution. As
Amnesty International noted, such an act constitutes a war crime.
And yet, for most Israelis the soldier is the victim of this story. Some 57 per
cent oppose an investigation, let alone prosecuting or jailing him. Some 66 per
cent describe his behaviour in positive terms, and only 20 per cent think
criticism is warranted. Only a tiny 5 per cent believe the killing should be
judged “murder”.
Should this video and the aftermath serve just one purpose, it is to open a
window on the rotten state of the Israeli body politic.
The incontestable evidence of Al Sharif’s execution is challenging Israeli Jews
to maintain the deception, among themselves and to outsiders, that the
institutions of their tribal, ethnic state have any abiding commitment to
universal values and human rights.
For decades Israel has trumpeted its army as uniquely “moral”. The claim was
always risible. But in an era of phone cameras, hiding the systematic crimes of
a belligerent occupying power has proved ever harder.
The past six months has seen a wave of desperate attacks by Palestinians –
mostly improvised, using knives and cars – to end the occupation. Some 190
Palestinians have been killed in this period.
A number of the incidents have been captured on film. In a shocking proportion,
Palestinians – including children – have been shot dead even when they posed no
threat to Israeli soldiers or civilians. In military parlance, this is called
“confirming the kill”.
The latest video is distinctive not only because the evidence is so
indisputable but because it exposes Israel’s wider military culture.
When the soldier took his shot, his comrades registered not the least surprise
that their prisoner had just been executed. This looked suspiciously like an
event that had played out many times before: standard operating procedure.
Back in December Sweden’s foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, spoke out against
the Israeli army’s trigger-happy attitude. She was lacerated by Israeli prime
minister Benjamin Netanyahu and barred from entering Israel.
Last week a letter from 10 US senators – written before the Hebron killing –
was made public, echoing Wallstrom’s concerns. Netanyahu was again indignant,
saying his soldiers were not “murderers”.
Wallstrom was concerned that, by refusing to investigate or condemn obvious
examples of summary executions, Israeli officials were sending a message to
their soldiers and the wider Israeli public that they condoned such acts.
It is therefore hardly surprising that most Israelis feel this soldier is being
singled out. His crime was not executing a Palestinian – that happens all the
time – but being caught on film doing so. That was nothing more than bad luck.
The Israeli public did not reach this conclusion by accident. They have been
schooled in a tribal idea of justice from a young age. Palestinians are not
viewed as fully human or deserving of rights.
That attitude has only intensified of late. Politicians from across the
ideological spectrum have urged soldiers, police and armed settlers to kill any
Palestinian who raises a hand against a Jew. The incitement has grown intense,
and no one – from Netanyahu down – has spoken against it.
In fact, quite the reverse. The few Israeli organisations trying to protect
Palestinian rights have come under concerted assault.
Breaking the Silence, a group helping Israeli soldiers turn whistle-blowers,
was recently accused by the defence minister of “treason”. Israel is busy
bullying and silencing the messengers, whether foreign diplomats or its own
soldiers.
Netanyahu has left no doubt where his sympathies lie. Last week his office
issued a press release highlighting that he had called the father of the
soldier to commiserate with him.
Rabbis too are contributing to the mood music of this war dance.
As supporters feted the Hebron soldier as a hero, one of the country’s two
highest religious authorities, Yitzhak Yosef, the Sephardic chief rabbi, ruled
that Israel’s non-Jews – some 2 million Palestinian citizens – should either
agree to become servants to Jews or face expulsion to Saudi Arabia.
Two weeks earlier he told soldiers they were under a religious obligation to
kill anyone who attacked them.
Note something else revealing about the Hebron soldier. He was serving in the
medical corps. Although his job was to save lives, he believed his greater duty
– in the case of Palestinians – was to terminate life.
He is no aberration. The other Israeli medics at the scene – including those
affiliated with, and supposedly obligated by, the code of the Red Cross – can
be seen ignoring al-Sharif, despite his life-threatening wounds, and clustering
instead around a lightly injured Israeli soldier. Palestinian and Jewish life
are patently not equal to these medics.
Many recent videos tell a similar story. In November an Israeli ambulance drove
past 13-year-old Ahmed Manasra, leaving him untreated, as he lay bleeding from
a serious head wound after his involvement in a stabbing attack in occupied
East Jerusalem.
And then there are Israel’s legal authorities.
Israeli media reported last week that the justice ministry had failed even to
open an investigation into a policeman suspected of executing a Palestinian man
following an attack last month near Tel Aviv, even though the moment was caught
on camera.
In the case of the Hebron soldier, the military court is already refashioning
the soldier as the victim. In imposing a gag order preventing his
identification, they have suggested to ordinary Israelis he is equivalent to a
rape victim.
Last week the prosecutors showed the pressure was getting to them – as it
doubtless will later to the military judge – when they downgraded their
accusations from murder to manslaughter. The army officer who presided over the
hearing has already effectively freed the soldier, restricting him to his
unit’s base.
The Israeli public understand that this soldier is being investigated for
appearance’s sake, only because the evidence is there for all the world to see.
He may not be a victim, but he is a scapegoat. He acted not just on his own
initiative but in accordance with values shared by his unit, by the army
command, by most Israeli politicians, by many senior rabbis, and by a
significant majority of the Israeli public.
We should judge him harshly, but it is time to extend that censure beyond the
lone soldier.
Those who over many decades sent him and hundreds of thousands of others to
enforce an illegal, belligerent occupation and taught them to view Palestinians
as lesser beings are at least as guilty.
A version of this story first appeared in the National, Abu Dhabi.
Execution of Palestinian exposes militarism and racism of Israeli culture
Israel/Palestine
Jonathan Cook on April 4, 2016 29 Comments
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(Screenshot: B'Tselem/YouTube)
It might have been a moment that jolted Israelis to their senses. Instead the
video of an Israeli soldier shooting dead a young Palestinian man as he lay
wounded and barely able to move has only intensified the tribal war dance of
the Israeli public.
Last week, as the soldier was brought before a military court for
investigation, hundreds of supporters protested outside. He enjoys vocal
support too from half a dozen cabinet ministers, former army generals, rabbis
and – according to opinion polls – a significant majority of the Israeli Jewish
public.
It is worth reflecting on this generous act of solidarity.
It is hard to dispute the main facts. On March 24 two Palestinians – Abdel
Fattah Al Sharif and Ramzi Qasrawi, both aged 21 – were shot during an attack
on soldiers manning a checkpoint in the occupied city of Hebron in the West
Bank.
Ten minutes later, the 19-year-old soldier at the centre of the investigation
arrived. Qasrawi was dead and Al Sharif was lying in the road wounded. Other
soldiers milled around, close by.
At that point, the soldier – who cannot be named because of a gag order –
approached Al Sharif, aimed his gun at the young man’s head and pulled the
trigger.
All of this was captured on video, as was a trail of blood that leaked from Al
Sharif’s head seconds later.
This was not a killing in the fog of war; it was a cold-blooded execution. As
Amnesty International noted, such an act constitutes a war crime.
And yet, for most Israelis the soldier is the victim of this story. Some 57 per
cent oppose an investigation, let alone prosecuting or jailing him. Some 66 per
cent describe his behaviour in positive terms, and only 20 per cent think
criticism is warranted. Only a tiny 5 per cent believe the killing should be
judged “murder”.
Should this video and the aftermath serve just one purpose, it is to open a
window on the rotten state of the Israeli body politic.
The incontestable evidence of Al Sharif’s execution is challenging Israeli Jews
to maintain the deception, among themselves and to outsiders, that the
institutions of their tribal, ethnic state have any abiding commitment to
universal values and human rights.
For decades Israel has trumpeted its army as uniquely “moral”. The claim was
always risible. But in an era of phone cameras, hiding the systematic crimes of
a belligerent occupying power has proved ever harder.
The past six months has seen a wave of desperate attacks by Palestinians –
mostly improvised, using knives and cars – to end the occupation. Some 190
Palestinians have been killed in this period.
A number of the incidents have been captured on film. In a shocking proportion,
Palestinians – including children – have been shot dead even when they posed no
threat to Israeli soldiers or civilians. In military parlance, this is called
“confirming the kill”.
The latest video is distinctive not only because the evidence is so
indisputable but because it exposes Israel’s wider military culture.
When the soldier took his shot, his comrades registered not the least surprise
that their prisoner had just been executed. This looked suspiciously like an
event that had played out many times before: standard operating procedure.
Back in December Sweden’s foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, spoke out against
the Israeli army’s trigger-happy attitude. She was lacerated by Israeli prime
minister Benjamin Netanyahu and barred from entering Israel.
Last week a letter from 10 US senators – written before the Hebron killing –
was made public, echoing Wallstrom’s concerns. Netanyahu was again indignant,
saying his soldiers were not “murderers”.
Wallstrom was concerned that, by refusing to investigate or condemn obvious
examples of summary executions, Israeli officials were sending a message to
their soldiers and the wider Israeli public that they condoned such acts.
It is therefore hardly surprising that most Israelis feel this soldier is being
singled out. His crime was not executing a Palestinian – that happens all the
time – but being caught on film doing so. That was nothing more than bad luck.
The Israeli public did not reach this conclusion by accident. They have been
schooled in a tribal idea of justice from a young age. Palestinians are not
viewed as fully human or deserving of rights.
That attitude has only intensified of late. Politicians from across the
ideological spectrum have urged soldiers, police and armed settlers to kill any
Palestinian who raises a hand against a Jew. The incitement has grown intense,
and no one – from Netanyahu down – has spoken against it.
In fact, quite the reverse. The few Israeli organisations trying to protect
Palestinian rights have come under concerted assault.
Breaking the Silence, a group helping Israeli soldiers turn whistle-blowers,
was recently accused by the defence minister of “treason”. Israel is busy
bullying and silencing the messengers, whether foreign diplomats or its own
soldiers.
Netanyahu has left no doubt where his sympathies lie. Last week his office
issued a press release highlighting that he had called the father of the
soldier to commiserate with him.
Rabbis too are contributing to the mood music of this war dance.
As supporters feted the Hebron soldier as a hero, one of the country’s two
highest religious authorities, Yitzhak Yosef, the Sephardic chief rabbi, ruled
that Israel’s non-Jews – some 2 million Palestinian citizens – should either
agree to become servants to Jews or face expulsion to Saudi Arabia.
Two weeks earlier he told soldiers they were under a religious obligation to
kill anyone who attacked them.
Note something else revealing about the Hebron soldier. He was serving in the
medical corps. Although his job was to save lives, he believed his greater duty
– in the case of Palestinians – was to terminate life.
He is no aberration. The other Israeli medics at the scene – including those
affiliated with, and supposedly obligated by, the code of the Red Cross – can
be seen ignoring al-Sharif, despite his life-threatening wounds, and clustering
instead around a lightly injured Israeli soldier. Palestinian and Jewish life
are patently not equal to these medics.
Many recent videos tell a similar story. In November an Israeli ambulance drove
past 13-year-old Ahmed Manasra, leaving him untreated, as he lay bleeding from
a serious head wound after his involvement in a stabbing attack in occupied
East Jerusalem.
And then there are Israel’s legal authorities.
Israeli media reported last week that the justice ministry had failed even to
open an investigation into a policeman suspected of executing a Palestinian man
following an attack last month near Tel Aviv, even though the moment was caught
on camera.
In the case of the Hebron soldier, the military court is already refashioning
the soldier as the victim. In imposing a gag order preventing his
identification, they have suggested to ordinary Israelis he is equivalent to a
rape victim.
Last week the prosecutors showed the pressure was getting to them – as it
doubtless will later to the military judge – when they downgraded their
accusations from murder to manslaughter. The army officer who presided over the
hearing has already effectively freed the soldier, restricting him to his
unit’s base.
The Israeli public understand that this soldier is being investigated for
appearance’s sake, only because the evidence is there for all the world to see.
He may not be a victim, but he is a scapegoat. He acted not just on his own
initiative but in accordance with values shared by his unit, by the army
command, by most Israeli politicians, by many senior rabbis, and by a
significant majority of the Israeli public.
We should judge him harshly, but it is time to extend that censure beyond the
lone soldier.
Those who over many decades sent him and hundreds of thousands of others to
enforce an illegal, belligerent occupation and taught them to view Palestinians
as lesser beings are at least as guilty.
A version of this story first appeared in the National, Abu Dhabi.
