Fear and Loathing in Israel

Israel has been actively promoting the vision of «the most humane army» both for domestic and international community and of humanitarian driving force behind all military operations carried out by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

But the recent conflict in Gaza Strip has demonstrated that the most important weapon of the Israeli Government acting against Palestinians through its military vehicle IDF is not ultramodern missiles and tanks but dehumanization of the Palestinians. Israeli propagandatransforms people into dry statistics devoid of any emotions, sufferings or deaths of children.Such transformation is very instrumental for taking away any guilt for killing women and children, destroying their apartments, houses and hospitals. Statistics shows that during the last Israeli-Palestinian conflict number of killed Palestinians exceeded that of killed Israelies more than in 20 times and those wounded more than in 40 times.

Total number of the Palestinians killed during Israeli air strikes of Gaza Strip amounted to 243 persons, including 66 children and 39 women. 1 910 were wounded» according to data provided by the Ministry of Healthcare of Gaza StripDuring the conflict Israel lost 12 killed and 50 severely wounded.

History witnessed numerous instances when dehumanization was used to justify genocide. And it is not only Holocaust. There is a lot of more recent examples. For example, in Ruanda when whole ethnic group official mass media called cockroaches deserving to be stamped out and destroyed. Ukrainian Nazis treated Russian speaking Ukrainian citizens in the same manner– they called them pests that should be burned in the House of Trade Unions in Odessa or killed in Donbass. They are the same Ukrainian Nazis who commemorate SS division Gallizia by torch marches and at the same time they fervently support annihilation of the Palestinians by Israel.

The wave of confrontation between Israeli citizens of arab and jewish origin that rolled over towns with mixed inhabitants many called civil war. What is the main source of aggression that spilt over streets of Israeli towns?

Based on public pall data presented by newspaper «Детали» (Details), one could came to conclusion that the confrontation originated not from Arab population of Isreal that actively demonstrated it support with Palestinian of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Survey compares degree of intolerance between different groups of Israeli youths:Arabs, Jews, ultraorthodox, religious and secular. And the Survey shows that degree of aggressiveness for at least Jewish youths of Israel is in direct correlation with the strength of their religious beliefs. The conclusion is supported by the statistics that the highest degree of intolerance tothem” is observed with ultraorthodox youths – haridim (76%), whilst the lowest is observed with polydenominational Arabs and (56%), and secular Jews (55%).

Among groups surveyed ultraorthodox Jewish youths hate Arabs most. And this hatred ofArabs is 1.5 times stronger than among moderately religious Israeli citizens  and in 2.8 times stronger than with secular population. And what is most peculiar it is 3 times stronger than observed hatred of Arabs towards ultraorthodox!

Arabs are the target group of consolidated hatred of surveyed groups of youths. Total share of respondents with hatred towards Arabs amounts to 132 which is 5 times higher compared to secular Jews (27) and 4 times higher compared to religious (33).

It should be noted that the ultraorthodox are also target for «general” hatred of the youths (55% of respondents demonstrated hatred towards them) but the overall value is 2.4 lower compared to hatred  towards the Arabs.

Data presented regardless of the group surveyed demonstrate dramatic level of intolerance in the Israeli society. It obviously shows that the main source of aggression towards “them” is not the Arabs, as it commonly presented in the mass media, but the ultraorthodox. And it isnourished by hatred towards the Arabs.  

Such “unbalanced” distribution of mutual hatred between the Arabs and the Ultraorthodox alongside with comparatively low level of intolerance of the Ultraorthodox to other groups draws assumption that there should be ”third party stakeholder” that regulates unjustified high level of aggression towards the Arabs in the group.

Who is that Third Party Stakeholder?

After the wave of confrontation between the Jews and the Arabs in the towns with mixed population on May 13 Chief of Police Kobi Shabtai warned the Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Minister in Internal Security Oxanu: “Ben Gwir is responsible for the present intifada. It all started with Lahava demonstration close to Shkhema Gates, then there was a provocation in Sheikh Jarakh and now he travels to other towns. Yesterday we managed to calm down Akko, but he arrived on a bus with activists and provoked unrest. Police has no tools to cope with it ».

On the same May 13 on the MAGAV base in Lod which became the epicenter of confrontation and pogroms Netanyahu stated: “recent events in Jerusalem  showed that violence could be provoked by the police – unjustified harassment of the Muslims near Shkhema Gates and violent dispersal of the demonstration in Sheikh Jarakh instigated the spiral of violence which involved Hamas and initiated the war» .

On May 19 the NYT published investigation titled “Mob Violence Against the Palestinians in Israel Inspirited by WhatsApp Groups». The article stated that according to the results of investigation conducted by The New York Times and FakeReporter Istaeli extremists set up over 100 new groups to coordinate attacks against the Palestinians in Israel.

On May 12, for example, WhatsApp hosted message “Death to Arabs”The message calls Israeli to join campaign of violence against Israeli citizens of Palestinian origin: «We should gertorganized and act together”Tell your friends to join the Group – we know how to protect Jewish Honor”. Within several hours dozens of new WhatsApp groups appeared with similar messages under the title “Death to the Arabs”

The groups organized confrontation in Bat-Yama. Scenes of violence were shown on TV where Israeli dressed in black broke car windows on streets of Bat-Yama.

One could assume that the party which:

undermined RAAM (Arab Party) joining government coalition;
destroyed public peace in Israel pushing it on the edge of civil war;
worsened international position of Israel

is religious Ben-Gvaira and Smotrich Zionists – factions “rak Bibi” and Bennet from ‘raklo Bibi”. They zealously build monoethnic Istrael on mandated territory. It is possible to say that the religious Zionists, not the Palestinians are the main perpetrators of human losses and of explosion of civil violence.

But getting back to dehumanization – the Jews deny collective responsibility for the Jews, but they put collective responsibility on all Palestinian people, regardless where they live –in Gaza Strip, Israel or West bank.  

Arab traditions are based on close family ties, that is why the Palestinians have large families with many relatives that may live in Israel, Gaza or West Bank. When Israeli Arabs express solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, they support their relatives who for many yearslive in miserable and inhuman conditions blockaded by Israel. How a normal human being could dispassionately watch his kins having no schools or hospitals, having no jobs with the only option to slave in Israel undergoing humiliating procedures on a daily basis.

How a normal human being could dispassionately watch that his relatives live on the territories where UN Human Development Index is nearly 50% lower than in Israel. In Gaza the Index has not been monitored at all.

If you are human, you cannot neglect sufferings of your kins and relatives. That is why Israeli Palestinians are eager to protect their kins in Gasa and West Bank showing solidarity and protesting against their dehumanization and slaughter.

To reunite Jewish families Israel contributed to destruction of the USSR. What should be destroyed by the Palestinians for the Jews to understand that Arab families also deserve the right for happy life and human treatment.

Manar Bsowl

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