September 5,
2024
In July 2014,
shortly after the kickoff of Israel’s “Operation Protective Edge” in the Gaza
Strip – a 51-day affair that ultimately killed 2,251 Palestinians, including
551 children – Danish journalist Nikolaj Krak penned a dispatch from Israel for
the Copenhagen-based Kristeligt Dagblad newspaper.
People protest against the Israeli government in Tel Aviv on September 2, 2024 [Florion Goga/Reuters]
Describing the
scene on a hill on the outskirts of the Israeli city of Sderot near the Gaza
border, Krak noted that the area had been “transformed into something that most
closely resembles the front row of a reality war theatre”. Israelis had
“dragged camping chairs and sofas” to the hilltop, where some spectators sat
“with crackling bags of popcorn”, while others partook of hookahs and cheerful
banter. Fiery, earth-shaking air strikes on Gaza across the way were met with
cheers and “solid applause”.
To be sure,
Israelis have always enjoyed a good murderous spectacle – which is hardly
surprising for a nation whose very existence is predicated on mass slaughter.
But as it turns out, the applause is not quite so solid when Israeli lives are
caught up in the explosive apocalyptic display.
For the past 11
months, Israel’s “reality war theatre” has offered a view of all-out genocide
in the Gaza Strip, where the official death toll has reached nearly 41,000. A
July Lancet study found that the true number of deaths may well top 186,000 –
and that is only if the killing ends soon.
Now, massive
protests have broken out across Israel demanding that the government of Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enact a ceasefire and hostage deal to free the
remaining 100 or so Israeli captives held in Gaza. On Sunday, when the Israeli
military recovered the bodies of six captives, CNN reported that some 700,000
protesters had taken to the streets across the country. And on Monday, a
general strike spearheaded by Israel’s primary labour union succeeded in
shutting much of the economy down for several hours.
Although certain
wannabe peaceniks among the international commentariat have blindly attributed
the protests to a desire to end the bloodshed, the fact of the matter is that
Palestinian blood is not high on the list of concerns. Rather, the only lives
that matter in the besieged, pulverised, and genocide-stricken Gaza Strip are
the lives of the captives – whose captivity, it bears underscoring, is entirely
a result of Israeli policy and Israel’s unceasing sadistic treatment of
Palestinians.
As Israeli
analyst Nimrod Flaschenberg recently commented to Al Jazeera regarding the aims
of the current protests, “the issue of returning the hostages is centre stage”.
Acknowledging that “an understanding that a deal would also mean an end to the
conflict is there, but rarely stated”, Flaschenberg emphasised that “as far as
the protests’ leadership goes, no, it’s all about the hostages”.
The captives,
then, have assumed centre stage in Israel’s latest bout of blood-soaked war
theatrics, while for some Israelis the present genocide is evidently not nearly
genocidal enough. During a recent episode of the popular English-language
Israeli podcast “Two Nice Jewish Boys”, the podcasting duo in question
suggested that it would be cool to just press a button and wipe out “every
single living being in Gaza” as well as in the West Bank.
Time to break
out the popcorn and hookahs.
At the end of
the day, the disproportionate value assigned to the lives of the Israeli
captives in Gaza vis-à-vis the lives of the Palestinians who are being
annihilated is of a piece with Israel’s trademark chauvinism. This outlook
casts Israelis as the perennial victims of Palestinian “terrorism” even as
Palestinians are consistently massacred at astronomically higher rates by the
Israeli military.
During Operation
Protective Edge in 2014, for example, no more than six Israeli civilians were
killed. And yet Israel maintained its monopoly on victimisation.
In June of this
year, the Israeli army undertook a rescue operation in Gaza that freed four
captives but reportedly killed 210 Palestinians in the process – no doubt par
for the disproportionate course.
Meanwhile,
following the recovery of the bodies of the six captives on Sunday, Netanyahu
blamed Hamas for their demise, declaring: “Whoever murders hostages doesn’t
want a deal.” But what about “whoever” continues to preside over a genocide
while assassinating the top ceasefire negotiator for Hamas and sabotaging
prospects for a deal at every turn?
As the protests
now demonstrate, many Israelis are on to Netanyahu. But the issue with the
protests is that genocide is not the issue.
Even among
Netanyahu’s detractors, there persists a general consensus as to the unilateral
sacrosanctity of Israeli life, which translates into the assumption of an
inalienable right to slaughter Palestinians.
And as the
latest episode of Israel’s “reality war theatre” drags on – with related
Israeli killing sprees available for viewing in the West Bank and Lebanon, too
– this show is really getting old. One would hope Israeli audiences will
eventually tire of it all and walk out, but for the time being bloodbaths are a
guaranteed blockbuster.
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