- 31 Mar 2016 10:26
#14666184
Their main line is racism.
http://www.haaretz.com/misc/iphone-arti ... m-1.711887
http://www.haaretz.com/misc/iphone-arti ... m-1.711025
Never have so many cheered such a vile murdererhttp://www.haaretz.com/misc/iphone-article/1.711888
It’s doubtful there’s another Western society whose racism is accompanied by such bloodlust.
Hebron shooter
An image grab taken from a video released on March 24, 2016 by B'Tselem showing an Israeli soldier aiming his weapon before alle... / Photo by AFP
By Gideon Levy
Published 12:12 31.03.16
The rabble demonstrating and writing in support of the soldier-executioner in Hebron sees him as a hero. Not just a victim, like the convicted murderer Roman Zadorov, for example, but a hero. E.A. — his full name remains under a gag order — is a folk hero because he murdered a dying Palestinian. Because, not despite.
This must be stated clearly. Perhaps for the first time in the history of the state, an abhorrent murder whose only obvious justification seems to be a hatred of Arabs and contempt for their lives, has become a heroic act. A murder that required no courage, a cowardly act of the highest order, has become heroic in the eyes of the masses, simply because it ended with a dead Palestinian bleeding on the road to the sound of their rejoicing.
Never have so many cheered such a vile murderer. In the history of the Israel Defense Forces there have been quite a few obscene acts disguised as heroism — the reprisal raids of the 1950s, the Gaza Strip activities of the Sayeret Rimon special operations unit, operations Cast Lead Protective Edge — but never was an obscure murderer lauded as a hero. Shimon Bar Kochba, Meir Har-Zion, Yoni Netanyahu, Ehud Barak and … E.A. Who can retell the mighty feats of Israel?
Israeli racism has reached a new peak. The murder in Tel Rumeida and the ensuing response are no less than seminal events. Israeli racism had previously been based on the arrogance of the Chosen People, to which everything is permitted, which is the very best and knows better than anyone else; on manipulating the perception of endless victimhood and persecution; on demonizing the Arabs, who only want to destroy us; on dehumanizing them, as if their lives are worth nothing; on incitement, denial, repression and lies and on Israel’s formidable military might. On these foundations we built a racist society, probably the most racist in the world today.
Now all this has been taken up a notch, or perhaps down. To all the above we can now openly add bloodlust — unadulterated, uninhibited and undisguised.
This combination of racism and thirst for blood is not only repulsive, it’s also volatile and dangerous. There is racism in many societies, generally hidden and marginal. In Israel it has become standard, perhaps the height of contemporary political correctness, and fighting it is seen as treason.
Moreover, it’s doubtful there’s another Western society whose racism is accompanied by such bloodlust. Whites hate blacks in the United States and South Africa, Europeans hate refugees, Christians hate Muslims, but not with such bloodlust and murderousness. The cry “Death to the Arabs” has taken on shocking practical significance. E.A. is its executor. That’s why he’s being applauded.
These are deep currents that are difficult to stop. They have settled deep in people’s hearts, the result of decades of incitement and brainwashing. Neither a severe punishment for E.A., which he deserves, nor the chief of staff’s letter to soldiers reminding them of the army’s ethics can suffice.
Few have dared to confront these currents; most of our systems support or have capitulated to them. It’s enough to see the military prosecution grovel before the mobs outside, dropping the allegations from murder to negligent homicide, and even that is in doubt. The media outlets, which know what their audiences want, have of course joined in spreading the incitement. It sells well. Suddenly what happened is “unclear,” “not definitive.” The video incriminates as much as a thousand witnesses and myriads of evidence, and the picture is still “unclear.” What’s not clear?
And the politicians, who as usual support the masses, are either silent or paralyzed with fear. The thuggish Avigdor Lieberman, with Sharon Gal tagging along, and the mobs at the military court in Kastina are the most Israeli things there are now. There’s nothing to stop them. It’s doubtful if it even pays to try.
But they won’t stop at Kastina. After the Arabs will come the leftists, the journalists, the judges and who knows who else. Prepare for the next Israeli hero; he’s already polishing his gun.
Along the way to full, official fascism — especially fascism based on religious, ethnic or racial identity — a society must experience two critical stages.
The first is the complete dehumanization of “the “Other” — that is, members of a different religion, nation or race. In the mind of the budding fascist, they must cease to be human beings. They must instead be turned into animals without rights, dangerous objects, natural threats. Or, in contemporary language, they must be turned into “two-legged animals” and “wild beasts” from the jungle beyond the fence. This makes it easier for the nascent fascist to subjugate and abuse them, to deprive them of their rights and property and ultimately to kill them like pests.
Last week Israeli society proved it passed this stage with flying colors. The dehumanization of the Palestinian “other” is complete. In the neofascist Israeli consciousness, the Palestinians are like cockroaches. Even when they lie on the ground, helpless, their heads must be crushed with a slipper, or punctured by a bullet. Such is the fate of the cockroach.
But the act of the soldier-murderer in Hebron was not the proof of the completion of the first stage. It was only the last in a long, bloody series of similar acts. (I know, he hasn’t been tried yet. It’s wrong to call him a murderer already. I’m only applying to him what I’ve learned from the saints in the right wing. They bestow terms such as “murderer” and “terrorist” on Palestinians without waiting for an investigation, trial or verdict. So why can’t I?)
The response of the witnesses to the act attested to the completion of the dehumanization process. The total indifference. The relaxed calm. The silent, routine consent. It was as though a rat had been run over, as though a mosquito had been squashed. And when it was done, there was the soldier’s smiling handshake with one of the thugs of the late right-winger Rabbi Meir Kahane. The response to that too was indifference and tolerance.
All doubt has therefore been removed; we can check off the “dehumanization” box and move to the next stage.
Discomfitingly enough, to explain this next stage I must resort to an ancient German word, vogelfrei. Its literal meaning is “free as a bird,” but its meaning as a legal term is “fair game, like a bird.” In other words, an outlaw, whose property and whose very body are up for grabs. Even his life. Anyone who hurts or robs him will not be held accountable. If he is murdered, his body will not be buried.
The term originates in the Middle Ages, but it was revived in the 20th century. Gypsies, homosexuals, blacks, some Poles and members of a nation that has meanwhile managed to forget the lessons of its past, were semi-officially but publicly declared vogelfrei. A despicable government deprived them of their rights, looted their property and allowed them to be killed.
The sickening commotion now being raised by the supporters and defenders of the attacker from the Israel Defense Forces is about precisely this issue. It’s about completing phase 2. It’s about carrying out their desire to make the Palestinian “other” vogelfrei as well. Fair game. Deprived of all legal protections, so that they can maltreat him without hindrance, hurt him without having to justify their behavior. Plunder his property with impunity. And, of course, to shoot him at any time, without encountering the annoying questions of some traitorous minority, whose day is also coming.
It is fitting that Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Lieberman should lead this riff raff. From their perspective, so it would seem, the Palestinians have long become vogelfrei.
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Hebron murder was no exception, but the inevitable result
It’s the present and the future. It’s impossible to maintain the occupation without such murders, their number will only mount.
Israeli soldiers surround the body of one of the two Palestinians.
Israeli soldiers surround the body of one of the two Palestinians who were killed after attacking a soldier in Hebron, March 24,... / Photo by AFP
By Gideon Levy
Published 01:01 27.03.16
It was murder. It was murder of the most abominable kind, the murder of a helpless human being. It was murder committed by a cowardly soldier, who shot a wounded man.
The murderer’s accomplices were those colleagues of his who said “it’s no big deal” and the officers who spoke on their cellphones or occupied themselves in a thousand different ways while the wounded man lay helpless. The soldier shot him in the head and his body was left bleeding on the road.
If the soldier had shot a stray dog, it would have raised more interest among the soldiers and settlers milling round. They looked so bored – after all, what happened? A soldier shot a Palestinian. We’ve had loads of those.
Israeli racism reached its sickeningly lowest point in Hebron on Thursday. Such indifference to the murder of a person, in front of a crowd of people, has not been seen here before. A wounded person thrown in the road – and it occurs to nobody to help him. A soldier shoots him in the head, and the soldiers and settlers around him are all busy directing the ambulance. Heaven forbid, its bumper might get scratched.
To all those who think this is an exception and all those who are for putting off a peace agreement in favor or “managing the conflict” and those convinced that maybe one day we’ll have to end the occupation, but not now: This murder is the inevitable result. It’s the present and the future. It’s impossible to maintain the occupation without such murders, their number will only mount.
It will be impossible to continue ruling Hebron without daily executions; it will only be possible to hold the West Bank by committing more war crimes.
The momentary storm that erupted in Israel is a self-righteous one. This is exactly what the extrajudicial killings over the past months have looked like – the only difference was the B’Tselem camera. There were plenty of testimonies and evidence about these killings, but Israelis chose to close their eyes. As in previous incidents, the wounded man lying on the road was no threat to anyone - and no shrewd lawyer will be able to convince a decent judge that the soldier fired because he felt that his life was threatened.
Look at the video clip – this is not the way you behave when you feel you’re in danger. This is the way you behave when everything is cool, when you’re having a good time.
Portraying the soldier as a victim is a deliberate distraction. True, the politicians incited him to act this way and the army did nothing to stop him from acting this way, but the soldier shot his victim in cold blood and is responsible for his actions. He simply didn’t know there was a camera present, the unlucky wretch.
Soldiers, beware of the cameras, they are the enemy. Some of the soldiers are already aware of this. The talk about the “booby-trapped terrorist” sounds like a recitation for the camera, as if they were preparing an alibi. Turning the murderer into a victim is also outrageous. The victim is Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, who tried to stab a soldier.
As usual, the chorus of sanctimonious cheer leaders is chanting in the background. The prime minister and defense minister wash their hands of the deed and say it is “opposed to the IDF’s values and its ethical code.” They lie. The fact that no soldier has yet been brought to trial for execution is the real reflection of the army’s values.
Then there are the explicit supporters of the murder, from the education minster down. For them, every murder of a Palestinian is a blessing. It would not occur to them to apologize for their incitement against the left wing NGOs. Were it not for these organizations, we wouldn’t have known.
The next few days will shape the IDF’s image, no less. Failure to indict the soldier and those who took part in enabling it will prove that the IDF does not want to change.
Look at the video and see the IDF of 2016. Listen to the voices of those who see the murderer as a national hero and see Israel of 2016.
http://www.haaretz.com/misc/iphone-arti ... m-1.711025
Last edited by Pongo on 31 Mar 2016 18:11, edited 1 time in total.