[News] The 'most moral army in the world' adds bulldozing a body to its repertoire

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/the-most-moral-army-in-the-world-adds-bulldozing-a-body-to-its-repertoire-34091 



  The 'most moral army in the world' adds bulldozing a body to its
  repertoire

Ramzy Baroud February 25, 2020
------------------------------------------------------------------------


      There can be no reasonable explanation behind the latest act of
      cruelty from the Israeli army.

How is one to apply rational political analysis to what is inherently 
irrational? What kind of political theory must one consult to formulate 
and test hypotheses when the information at hand is so grizzly, 
sadistic, and reeking with unbearable contradictions?

Seeing 
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israeli-army-says-it-shot-two-gazans-attempting-to-set-explosive-charge-on-border-1.8565385> 
the gaunt body of Mohammed al Naem hanging from the blades of an Israeli 
military bulldozer near the fence, which separates besieged Gaza from 
Israel, left me speechless. There is nothing in the field of political 
science that can convincingly explain the logic of that heart-rending scene.

Come to think of it, killing a Palestinian then dragging his lifeless 
body using the blades of a bulldozer, thus denying his family the 
dignity of burying 
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/family-slain-palestinian-demands-israel-return-body-burial-200224053714918.html> 
their beloved son or daughter 
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/four-eyewitnesses-describe-murder-rachel-corrie/4460>, 
is unique to Israel; an act that manifests itself in numerous ways every 
single day in occupied Palestine.

We often speak of Palestinian human rights - thus of Israel’s violation 
of these rights - of justice and peace - often contending that one is 
the prerequisite to the other. But how about humiliation, just for the 
sake of humiliation?

How about the purposeful degradation of Palestinian women and men who, 
daily, would have to navigate numerous obstacles imposed on them by the 
Israeli army, not only to survive but also to preserve as much of their 
dignity as possible under circumstances that are almost entirely out of 
their control.

Naem was only 27 years old when he was killed, thus he was merely 13 
years of age when Israel placed 
<https://www.ochaopt.org/theme/gaza-blockade> the minuscule Gaza - 365 
square kilometres - under a hermetic and deadly siege.

Chances are Naem’s political discourse was already inundated with 
terminology that no child anywhere in the world should be exposed to. He 
must have already been familiar with the concept of martyrdom, as he 
watched close relatives, friends and neighbours, children of his age and 
even younger being killed by the Israeli military for no reason 
whatsoever except their insistence to live a life of dignity - a wish 
that Naem himself was denied.

The Israeli military, which was forced to accept the damning evidence 
that the Palestinian man’s body was in fact “collected” by a bulldozer, 
countered with the same familiar lines - that Naem, along with his 
peers, were members of a “terrorist organisation 
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/terror-groups-slam-israel-after-idf-bulldozer-collects-body-from-gaza-border/>” 
and that they were planting explosives near the fence.

Sadly, many are willing to consume this kind of propaganda, always ready 
and willing to blame Palestinians for anything and everything.

But let’s assume for a minute that the Israeli army narrative is true. 
Should we be surprised that a man who grew up under siege, who 
experienced, since childhood, the most horrific and unjust Israeli wars, 
would grow up to be a fighter, defending whatever dignity that is left 
for him and his family?

What is so shocking about Palestinians fighting back? Why do the rules 
that applied to every national liberation movement around the world and 
throughout history, not apply to Palestinians? Why should Palestinians 
take their punishment and accept their perpetual humiliation, 
besiegement and victimhood as if they are subhumans incapable of 
engaging with the most basic human instincts, that of self-defence, 
sacrifice, and self-preservation?

*Naem is Gaza*

Naem must have joined the Great March of Return 
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/gaza-great-march-return-protests-explained-190330074116079.html> 
at some point, which, at its peak, was the largest collective 
non-violent mobilisation anywhere in the world.

Tens of thousands of besieged Gazans took part in that inspiring 
spectacle, starting on March 30, 2018, where they have gathered every 
single week facing Israeli snipers with nothing but their bare chests 
and resounding chants.

Yet over 300 of these protesters were killed 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/nearly-300-palestinians-killed-29000-injured-2018> 
in the first year alone. Among the thousands who were injured, hundreds 
lost limbs, becoming physically disabled for life.

While Gazans continue to reel under the horrific impacts of the Israeli 
siege, one can only imagine the kind of inadequate medical attention 
these wounded men, women and children have received.

The fact is, Naem is Gaza. He is every Palestinian man, woman and child 
in that tragic place. He is also every Palestinian man, woman and child 
standing at an Israeli military checkpoint in the West Bank, hoping to 
be granted entry to their jobs, schools, hospitals or back home. Naem is 
every prisoner held unlawfully in Israeli prisons, tortured and 
humiliated as a punishment for demanding the most basic rights for his 
people.

The Israeli bulldozer that dangled Naem as if some sacrificial lamb, in 
front of TV cameras in the middle of the day, although unwittingly, sent 
a message to the rest of the world: this is us, Israel is the bulldozer, 
and this is them, Naem is the Palestinians, in all of their 
vulnerability, nakedness, and defeat, and there is nothing that anyone 
can do about it.

“Israel has the right to defend itself” is the typical retort emanating 
from Washington and its western allies, and now, even by some Arabs 
<https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Bahraini-official-issues-rare-defense-of-Israels-right-to-defend-itself-556167>. 
Translation: Israel has the right to oppress and besiege Palestinians, 
to disrupt any sense of normalcy in their life, to deny them food and 
medicine, to block every entrance and every exit, to trap them for 
eternity; Israel also has the right to kill anyone who dares challenge 
this inhumane paradigm, and, when it chooses, to dangle his or her 
corpse from the blades of a bulldozer, so that it can restate the rules 
of the game over and over again.

*The crime of being born Palestinian*

Political science cannot help us much here, but history can. The 
humiliation of the Palestinians is part and parcel of an Israeli 
historical discourse that has dehumanised the Palestinians to the extent 
that during the genocidal war of 2014, Israelis gathered 
<https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/15/world/middleeast/israelis-watch-bombs-drop-on-gaza-from-front-row-seats.html> 
to watch the onslaught in Gaza, dancing and barbecuing and cheering 
every time white phosphorous came raining down on hapless Palestinians.

But this should not come as a surprise. The dehumanisation of 
Palestinians by Israeli Zionists has been the most consistent discourse 
that is shared by all of them, even when they claim to represent the 
political right, left or centre.

The perception of Palestinians as ‘beasts 
<https://www.al-awda.org/quotes.html>’ and ‘cockroaches 
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/when-journalists-refuse-tell-truth-about-israel/3724>’ 
who deserve to be erased and ethnically cleansed without impunity has 
penetrated every stratum of Israeli society, politics 
<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/11599932/New-Israeli-justice-minister-notorious-for-anti-Palestinian-rhetoric-given-bodyguard-after-Nazi-death-threats.html> 
and even school curricula 
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190726-how-israel-teaches-its-children-to-hate/>. 


The grisly murder of Naem represents the essence of Zionism, a political 
ideology that was modelled 
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200127-the-mussolini-jabotinsky-connection-the-hidden-roots-of-israel-fascist-past/> 
after European fascism, and despite its claims of progress and 
enlightenment has remained the world’s most backward political 
philosophy consistently - as it is predicated on discrimination and 
violence against those who belong to the ‘wrong’ religion, the ‘wrong’ 
race, and the ‘wrong’ colour.

Naem’s death will not end resistance in Gaza, as subsequent events have 
demonstrated. Instead, it would further accentuate the savagery of 
Israel as a heartless military occupier in the minds of Palestinians, 
Arabs, Muslims, and anyone who can see through Israeli state-sanctioned 
lies and propaganda.

Israel does not want peace with the Palestinians, because peace-makers 
do not besiege people, do not kill innocent children, do not destroy 
people’s lives and deprive them of their dignity. And, most importantly, 
because peace-makers do not dangle the corpses of young men from the 
blades of military bulldozers.

/Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily 
reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of TRT World./

/We welcome all pitches and submissions to TRT World Opinion – please 
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