<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<div class="container content-width3" style="--font-size:20px;">
<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200224-israel-has-no-moral-high-ground-after-violating-a-palestinian-corpse-in-gaza/">https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200224-israel-has-no-moral-high-ground-after-violating-a-palestinian-corpse-in-gaza/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Israel has no moral high ground after
violating a Palestinian corpse in Gaza</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Yousef Alhelou<span> -
February 24, 2020 <br>
</span></div>
</div>
<div class="content">
<div class="moz-reader-content line-height4 reader-show-element">
<div id="readability-page-1" class="page">
<div id="post-content">
<p>Restoring its lost “power of deterrence” has been
always Israel’s pretext for using excessive force
against Palestinians, especially in the besieged Gaza
Strip. “Changing the rules of engagement” is another
term that we hear from Israeli officials when it comes
to dealing with the legitimate resistance factions.</p>
<p>However, what happened yesterday to the east of Khan
Younis in the southern Gaza Strip was unprecedented. A
shocking <a
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200224-israel-hangs-palestinian-martyr-from-bulldozer/">video</a>
shared online shows the body of a slain Palestinian man
hanging from the blade of an Israeli military bulldozer
after he was shot dead and run over along the
Gaza-Israel nominal border fence. The gruesome footage
drew strong reactions from Palestinian officials and
factions. One senior member of the PLO Executive
Committee, Dr Hanan Ashrawi, tweeted: “Too painful to
watch let alone experience this unhinged sadistic
cruelty of the occupation and persistent Israeli
crimes.”</p>
<p>Israeli army officials claimed that the man, along
another who was wounded but escaped, was suspected of
placing an explosive device near the fence, where
hundreds of Palestinian protesters have in recent years
been killed by Israeli soldiers using excessive force
against unarmed civilians. Adalah, the Legal Centre for
Arab Minority Rights in Israel, has demanded a criminal
investigation into the incident and sent a letter to the
Israeli Chief Military Advocate General Sharon Afek,
detailing that the actions “depicted in the video were
viewed as war crimes and blatant violations of
international criminal law, and international human
rights and humanitarian law.”</p>
<p>Twenty-seven-year-old Mohammed Al-Naem was a member of
the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Al-Quds
Brigade<i>. </i>His corpse was taken away by the
bulldozer and is being held by the Israeli army. The
incident was witnessed by dozens of unarmed Palestinian
civilians and medical teams who gathered to retrieve
Al-Naem’s body but were shot at by an Israeli tank that
crossed into Gaza, injuring three people.</p>
<p><strong>WATCH: <a title="Israel bulldozes Palestinian
protest in the West Bank"
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200224-israel-bulldozes-palestinian-protest-in-the-west-bank/">Israel
bulldozes Palestinian protest in the West Bank</a></strong></p>
<p>The humiliating theft of the corpse is obviously an
example of the new measure introduced by Israeli Defence
Minister Naftali Bennett. He intends to keep the bodies
of Palestinians from Gaza to use as a bargaining chip to
put pressure on Hamas — the de facto government in the
enclave — to release the remains of two Israeli soldiers
and two others who are presumed to be still alive, after
being captured during Israel’s 2014 military offensive.</p>
<p>As the anger mounted yesterday, multiple barrages of
home-made projectiles were fired from Gaza towards
nearby Israeli settlements. The decision to respond was
apparently taken by the Joint Operations Room run by
Hamas and the other factions.</p>
<p>“The resistance will not hesitate to retaliate to any
Israeli attack and we are prepared for any large scale
operation,” insisted Islamic Jihad spokesman Musa’ab
Al-Buraim on a local TV station. “We will defend our
people and will not stand idly by.”</p>
<p>Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system was deployed
hours before the Palestinian response. What’s more,
dozens of Israeli air strikes have been carried out in
the past 24 hours across Gaza, targeting training sites
belonging to Islamic Jihad and injuring four people. Two
members of the movement were killed in air strikes
against a facility near Damascus in Syria. The
simultaneous attacks were intended to point the finger
at the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad leadership in Syria and
Lebanon. The message was clear: Israel’s arm can reach
anywhere under the pretext of fighting “terrorism”.</p>
<p>As usual, mediation efforts by Egypt and the UN have
been made to contain the situation but it seems that
Israeli threats to wage a large scale operation in Gaza
do not hold with the resistance groups for two reasons:
First, the threats are always in the context of
psychological warfare and changing the rules of
engagement. Second, fierce statements to crush the
resistance in Gaza serve the electoral interests of
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rival, former
General Benny Gantz of the Blue and White bloc. Gantz
seized the opportunity to criticise his opponent’s
efforts to stop the retaliatory rocket fire from Gaza.
“Israel’s government is Hamas’s hostage,” railed Gantz.
“[Hamas leader Ismail] Haniyeh is extorting Netanyahu
and he’s paying up with suitcases full of dollars.” This
was a clear reference to Qatar’s financial aid to Gaza.</p>
<p>It’s no surprise that Palestinian blood in Gaza — an
open laboratory for testing Israeli weapons and
munitions on live targets — is being used to boost the
popularity of election candidates, most notably
embattled Netanyahu who failed to form a government in
the elections last April and September. Having a third
Israeli General Election in less than a year scheduled
to take place on 2 March explains the appetite to
provoke Palestinians not only in Gaza but also in the
occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. Candidates are vying
with each to show who can be the hardest against the
Palestinians, defy the most international laws and build
the most settlements, all with the backing of the Trump
administration in Washington. It has become the norm for
Palestinians to be used by Israeli politicians and army
officials in this way for selfish political gains.</p>
<p>Since the last major Israeli military offensive on Gaza
in the summer of 2014, many truces and ceasefires have
been mediated, and have been fragile. The Palestinians
in the beleaguered territory have been demanding a total
lifting of the siege after 13 years, but the demand has
been fruitless. Israel’s reluctance is a way of buying
it more time to impose facts on the ground, and of
blackmailing the victims of its siege to keep calm, or
Qatar’s financial aid will not be allowed through.</p>
<p>As I write, the air is filled with tension as air raid
sirens sound across the nominal border and Palestinian
projectiles fly over towards Israeli settlements. Every
such message to the other is followed by military
action. Israel’s disproportionate force, though, is
clearly not producing the desired effect; there are no
white flags being waved in Gaza. Apart from anything
else, its 2 million inhabitants have nothing left to
lose after living under a brutal military occupation for
decades.</p>
<p>Israelis may think that they are dictating the rules of
engagement, but they are wrong. The Palestinian
resistance groups are doing that by demonstrating that
by violating Mohammed Al-Naem’s corpse, Israel has
abandoned any more high ground that it wants the world
to believe it holds. The thousands of Palestinian
political prisoners held in Israeli jails are no less
valuable than Israeli captives in Gaza, and mutilating a
corpse on camera is never going to change that.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>The views expressed in this article belong to the
author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial
policy of Middle East Monitor.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://freedomarchives.org/">https://freedomarchives.org/</a></div>
</body>
</html>