Published: 13 August 2024
Last updated: 14 August 2024
“We recognise Israel’s right to defend itself, but how it does so matters,” Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong declared during her visit to the country in January.
No amount of fear for the hostages, trauma over October 7, or attachment to the Jewish homeland should stop us from sharing her conviction.
Israel is engaged in a war that, at least when it began, was justified, but that does not justify all the harm being done in the name of self-defence. Recent cases demonstrate that some Israelis have dehumanised Palestinians as Hamas has dehumanised Israelis.
Such attitudes cannot be tolerated, both because of the harm they do to Palestinian people and because of the destruction they bring to Israelis’ humanity and to the essence of Israel’s liberal democratic values.
Israel’s Finance Minister appalled the world late last week when he said it "might be just and moral" to starve Palestinians in Gaza until the hostages held by Hamas are returned. Wong was among the world leaders who condemned the statement by Religious Zionist extremist Bezalel Smotrich.
The next day four Arab women who mistakenly entered a West Bank settlement were attacked by settlers. One said a gun had been put to the head of her two-year-old child.
A week earlier, 10 reservists serving as prison guards at Sde Teiman base were arrested on charges that they had sodomised a Palestinian detainee, part of a pattern of extreme prisoner abuse at the base. The case sparked a riot by a far-right mob who stormed the facility in support of the offenders.
Many Israelis, absorbed by their own fear and trauma, are prepared to turn a blind eye to the worst excesses of their army and politicians.
More complex but impossible to ignore are the many cases of mass civilian casualties during Israel’s attempts to root out Hamas and Islamic Jihad from Gaza. The latest case was a strike on a Gaza city school sheltering displaced people. The deaths of World Central Kitchen Aid workers, including Australian Zomi Frankcom in April, are another example.
Numbers of civilian casualties are disputed and the terrorist policy of embedding themselves in schools, hospitals and residential areas deliberately sacrifices their own people. But there seems to be no limit to the number of civilian casualties Israel is prepared to inflict in the cause of defending itself against Hamas.
It is important to acknowledge that none of these cases represent official Israeli policy. The Israel Defence Forces do not intentionally target civilians. Starvation is not an intended consequence of Israel’s war in Gaza. Prisoner abuse is illegal, and the offending soldiers are facing charges.
But nor is it honest to treat these cases as isolated or exceptional incidents. All countries have extremists, and all armies have individual soldiers who commit war crimes. Israel has a problem that is becoming systemic.
These are not cases of Israel’s enemies making unsubstantiated accusations: they are cases where Israeli authorities have identified breaches.
Smotrich is not just a random crank. He is a minister in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. His and his partner Itamar Ben-Gvir’s parties hold just 13 of the 120 seats in Israel’s parliament, but Netanyahu’s decision to go into coalition with these extremists gave them disproportionate power.
The election of these so-called Religious Zionists not only represents the growth in their ideology as a significant minority in Israel but also the acceptance of it by other Israelis, who voted for Likud or for one of the Orthodox parties knowing it would result in a coalition with the extremists. Unlike their predecessors, who refused to sit with Meir Kahane, Israeli politicians and those who elect them no longer see Smotrich and his ilk as beyond the pale.
Netanyahu has presided over a government which has at best tolerated and at worst encouraged violence towards Palestinians.
The Sde Teiman cases are part of a pattern of human rights violations by soldiers. Since the beginning of the war, Israeli military police have opened 70 criminal investigations involving soldiers' conduct, including cases that involve suspected looting, weapons theft, and violence. There are investigations into at least 48 deaths of Gazans held in Israeli prisons.
Violence by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank is becoming commonplace, as Major General Yehuda Fuchs recently acknowledged.
These are not cases of Israel’s enemies making unsubstantiated accusations: they are cases where Israeli authorities have identified breaches.
Many Israelis, absorbed by their own fear and trauma, are prepared to turn a blind eye to the worst excesses of their army and politicians.
Early in the war, the Public Committee against Torture in Israel identified Sde Teiman as “a place where the most horrible torture we had ever seen was occurring”.
Executive director Tal Steiner said many Israelis did not care. “It was particularly hard to get the public interested, especially for a worldview stating that even when your blood is boiling and the reality is unbearable, you must maintain your humanity,” she wrote.
Israel was born as a traumatised society, its founders were refugees from Eastern European pogroms, the Holocaust, and the oppressions and expulsions of the Arab world. Constant war gave little opportunity for healing.
The invasion and the horrors of October 7 created a new level of trauma and made many Israelis feel that any response was justified. It also dangerously blurred the boundaries between a counteroffensive necessary to remove a threat and a downward spiral of revenge which has no limits.
Maintaining morality in the face of an enemy that has none is extremely difficult. The tendency by some pro-Palestinian advocates to condemn Israel’s failures but to characterise Hamas murders, rapes and kidnappings as justified “resistance" makes it harder.
But we cannot sink to the level of Hamas or sacrifice our own values. We stand with Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself, but we do not stand with those who have lost sight of their own and others’ humanity.
Comments7
Pauline17 August at 01:02 pm
Excellent article. We cannot allow ourselves to lose our humanity for this is what allows people to commit unspeakable acts.
Rachel Sussman14 August at 07:14 am
You are correct saying that “Maintaining morality in the face of an enemy that has none is extremely difficult.” And as you stated, it is especially difficult in the face of “The tendency by some pro-Palestinian advocates to condemn Israel’s failures but to characterise Hamas murders, rapes and kidnappings as justified ‘resistance'” and still, in the face of a world that has clearly lost its ‘moral campus’.
Nevertheless, I agree that we must do so regardless of the difficulties.
And we must do so not to satisfy or ‘follow’ Ms Wong moral judgement, for she is better to look at her own morals rather than advise us… I cannot see how a Foreign Minister who paid a visit to a dear Allies in the worst of times but refuses to pay respect by visiting the site of terror, or a Minister who insists on continuing
funds to UNWRA knowing well the part it plays in endorsing terror, or a Minister who dares distort an investigation and arrogantly claim that the IDF purposefully attacked the World Central Kitchen Aid workers some of whom were tragically killed (and much more), has any right to advise anyone when it comes to moral judgement!
But yes, we have to do so for our own sake, for the sake of our own Souls, our soldiers, army and country.
Nevertheless, unlike you, I believe Israel is doing well to ensure that whatever incidences occur they are attended to. To expect that in a war – any war – and especially in a war such as this, there will be no incidences is not realistic and to accuse a people of moral decline because they occur is to my view, sincerely unfair.
First the war is justified, not just at its beginning but also now – Has Hamas surrendered? Has it returned the hostages? No! Indeed, Hamas wants a ‘hostage deal’ that will allow it to regain power in Gaza and the release of murderers who are in prison for criminal acts so it releases innocent civilians… so the war was and is justified… Yes, harm is being done in the name of ‘self defence’ but the alternative is suicide…
You express concern about cases where Palestinians have been dehumanised, and I agree that we should not allow ourselves to fall into such behaviours as it damages our own moral, liberal and democratic values.
Smotrich is clearly not my favorite person, what he says is not what has been and is done, for the trucks keep coming into Gaza regardless of his words and at the end this is what counts. Saying that, one can hardly blame his ’emotional outburst’ for while food and medicine flows into Gaza, the Red Cross has not paid one visit to the hostages, nor ensured they have food or medications, and countries like Australia still keep sending money to UNWRA… Strange that the world is appalled by Smotrich words which are not followed by actions instead of being appalled by real failed human rights actions… We should not follow the world’s failed moral standard…
You are right, the incident that happened in the West Bank is appalling as is alarming the incident of the reservists accused of vile actions in Sde Teiman and the angry riots that followed. Saying this, did the army cave in? Are the incidences being treated with the seriousness they deserve to be? Yes, they are, and that is what is of essence. The message that such incidences will not be accepted nor tolerated is strong, and this is what we need to support rather than join a critical world who has lost its right to criticise….
As for the ‘mass of civilian casualties’, yes the numbers are disputed, and as you said Hamas choses to embed itself within civilians and sacrifice them… it is not Israel who is prepared to inflict ‘unlimited’ civilian casualties, it is Hamas! We must never forget this and never allow the world’s distorted vision, distort our own! The army evacuates as best as it can prior to action, but this is war and our ability to defend and fight cannot be overly hindered. If the world cares, it should put the pressure where it belongs, and we must speak so strong and clear instead of bowing as if we are guilty!
You are well to state that Israel’s official policies are clear and abide by protecting human life – as indeed they should. You are sadly mistaken when you fall into believing that these cases are much more than ‘incidences’ and that the problem is becoming ‘systematic’.
Yes, Smotrich is not a random crank but neither is dear Ms Wong who keeps funding UNWRA and who blatantly accuses Israel of intentionaly killing the Aid Workers, neither is Ms Harris who publicly says that she identifies with the feelings of the so called ‘Pro-Palestinians’ when they chant anti Israel and anti semitic slogans, and I can keep going….
I do not want to see violence encouraged against Palestinians, I also do not want to see violence encouraged against Israelis by Palestinians (as is and has been the case for decades)…
I do not want to see settlers acting violently against Palestinians in the West Bank or anywhere, and all I -and we- can do is support action taken to investigate such actions and treat them as criminal acts…
I do not want to see human rights violation by our soldiers, yet I understand that such is unavoidable in the light that the atrocities they saw done on their own people, so all I -and all of us – can do is to support the investigations and the consequences and re-enforce the message that such will not be accepted…
Israelis do care, they care, to be honest, they care about their moral stance more than most other nations, but as you said, they are tired and traumatised, you will not ask, nor expect, someone who has been tortured by a NAZI to be kind to this person, we should extend this understanding to our own people now… our task is not to criticise their ‘failing’ moral stance, it is not failing, far from it, in effect, they/we are all doing the best to sustain it, but yes, they/we stumble, and when this happens what is needed is support and a reminder that we will not fall into this for our own sake…. And certainly, we must not take too much notice from a world who has lost its right to be ‘appalled’ except by its own actions!
I hope my words are not offensive, I really feel we must stop ‘grovelling’ to the world and apologising and realise that while we at times falter, we shave the capacity to be our own regulator and that we have nothing to be ashamed of….
Geoff Solarsh14 August at 02:05 am
I find myself in total agreement with its every word and sentiment in this beautifully written and balanced editorial. I write this as someone with a long history of engagement with Israel, high aspirations for its future as a national homeland and who believes that Israel has every right to exist. But recent events suggest that Israel, in the hands of its current government, is on a downward slide into a moral abyss, whatever explanations or justifications one might hope to offer for this descent, that will make it increasingly difficult for some of its greatest allies, Jewish or otherwise, to offer it their unqualified support.
The images of Jewish Israelis, with Knesset members in their ranks, storming an IDF base to free IDF reservists under investigation for abuse of their Palestinian prisoners, is a picture of a country at war with itself. It is one of the most disturbing images I have yet seen in a 10-month long conflict that has not been short of disturbing images.
We, in the Jewish diaspora, watch from our seemingly secure perches every daily shift in the force field in and around Israel and its ramifications for all of us around the world. Until recently, I managed to convince myself that I had no right to speak out or act without directly experiencing the daily realities of living in that troubled place. What plays out in Israel and the decisions that its leaders take are not only relevant for the future of the country itself or the lives of our friends and family who occupy that little sliver in the Middle East but for every Jewish person with any stake in our continuity wherever we may live across the globe. There is so much more to say but what is clear is that we are all in this together.
Louis14 August at 12:32 am
Great article and well said!
Wesley Parish13 August at 12:00 pm
“It is important to acknowledge that none of these cases represent official Israeli policy. The Israel Defence Forces do not intentionally target civilians. Starvation is not an intended consequence of Israel’s war in Gaza. Prisoner abuse is illegal, and the offending soldiers are facing charges.”
Tell that to the peaceful protesters gunned down during the Great March of Return 2018-19. Tell that to the medical staff and journalists killed by snipers, bombs and missiles during the Gaza pogrom. Tell that to the relatives of Shireen Abu Akleh. Tell that to the Palestinian prisoners who spoke to B’Tselem about their experience.
Sooner or later you are going to have to face the facts, that such a systematic pattern of abuse is not an aberration, but policy. I recognize it from studying Australian, New Zealand, US colonial history.
Michele Alberth13 August at 10:28 am
Absolutely! And so well said!
rosie hersch13 August at 07:49 am
What is your news source Al Jazeera !?you have a few facts that could be rumours for instance according to other sources those Arab women were not threatened and they just left and no gun was held to any baby’ s head. And what do you want the IDF to do when Hamas terrorists plant themselves in schools and hospitals along with patients, civilians and kids? Perhaps you should go to Israel and live with the constant rockets and drones. Yes, it is very sad that many Gazans have died and I do agree that the right wing radical Israeli settlers should be apprehended and punished with the same sentence as any arab terrorists but until you walk in the shoes of Israelis who live near Gaza or near Lebanon. Wait a minute try to imagine 60,000 Israelis who have had to leave their homes in the North and are living in hotels because of Hezbollah. So to the journalist who wrote this article from comfort of your home try to imagine what it is like for Israel fighting for her life, which means fighting for us all in the diaspora.