<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.trtworld.com/opinion/the-most-moral-army-in-the-world-adds-bulldozing-a-body-to-its-repertoire-34091">https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/the-most-moral-army-in-the-world-adds-bulldozing-a-body-to-its-repertoire-34091</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">The 'most moral army in the world' adds
bulldozing a body to its repertoire</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Ramzy Baroud February 25,
2020<br>
</div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="content">
<div class="moz-reader-content line-height4 reader-show-element">
<div id="readability-page-1" class="page">
<div>
<div>
<h3>There can be no reasonable explanation behind the
latest act of cruelty from the Israeli army.</h3>
</div>
<p>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?</p>
<p><a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israeli-army-says-it-shot-two-gazans-attempting-to-set-explosive-charge-on-border-1.8565385"
target="_blank">Seeing</a> 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.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/family-slain-palestinian-demands-israel-return-body-burial-200224053714918.html"
target="_blank">burying</a> their beloved son or <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/four-eyewitnesses-describe-murder-rachel-corrie/4460"
target="_blank">daughter</a>, is unique to Israel; an
act that manifests itself in numerous ways every single
day in occupied Palestine.</p>
<p>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? </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>Naem was only 27 years old when he was killed, thus he
was merely 13 years of age when Israel <a
href="https://www.ochaopt.org/theme/gaza-blockade"
target="_blank">placed</a> the minuscule Gaza - 365
square kilometres - under a hermetic and deadly siege. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 “<a
href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/terror-groups-slam-israel-after-idf-bulldozer-collects-body-from-gaza-border/"
target="_blank">terrorist organisation</a>” and that
they were planting explosives near the fence.</p>
<p>Sadly, many are willing to consume this kind of
propaganda, always ready and willing to blame
Palestinians for anything and everything.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p><strong>Naem is Gaza</strong></p>
<p>Naem must have joined the <a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/gaza-great-march-return-protests-explained-190330074116079.html"
target="_blank">Great March of Return</a> at some
point, which, at its peak, was the largest collective
non-violent mobilisation anywhere in the world. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Yet over 300 of these protesters <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/nearly-300-palestinians-killed-29000-injured-2018"
target="_blank">were killed</a> in the first year
alone. Among the thousands who were injured, hundreds
lost limbs, becoming physically disabled for life. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>“Israel has the right to defend itself” is the typical
retort emanating from Washington and its western allies,
and now, even by <a
href="https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Bahraini-official-issues-rare-defense-of-Israels-right-to-defend-itself-556167"
target="_blank">some Arabs</a>. 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.</p>
<p><strong>The crime of being born Palestinian</strong></p>
<p>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 <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/15/world/middleeast/israelis-watch-bombs-drop-on-gaza-from-front-row-seats.html"
target="_blank">gathered</a> to watch the onslaught in
Gaza, dancing and barbecuing and cheering every time
white phosphorous came raining down on hapless
Palestinians.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>The perception of Palestinians as ‘<a
href="https://www.al-awda.org/quotes.html"
target="_blank">beasts</a>’ and ‘<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/when-journalists-refuse-tell-truth-about-israel/3724"
target="_blank">cockroaches</a>’ who deserve to be
erased and ethnically cleansed without impunity has
penetrated every stratum of Israeli society, <a
href="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"
target="_blank">politics</a> and even school <a
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190726-how-israel-teaches-its-children-to-hate/"
target="_blank">curricula</a>. </p>
<p>The grisly murder of Naem represents the essence of
Zionism, a political ideology that was <a
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200127-the-mussolini-jabotinsky-connection-the-hidden-roots-of-israel-fascist-past/"
target="_blank">modelled</a> 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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><i>Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed by the authors
do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints
and editorial policies of TRT World.</i></p>
<p><i>We welcome all pitches and submissions to TRT World
Opinion – please send them via email, to <a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:opinion.editorial@trtworld.com">opinion.editorial@trtworld.com</a></i></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>