Israel is no longer ‘shoot and cry’ | Crimes Against People

In recent revelations about Israel’s brutal torture of Palestinian prisoners, which includes rape and sexual abuse, the world has seen yet another horrifying picture of Palestinian life under perpetual Israeli colonial rule. Any decent person is upset, angry and shocked by the news that has been revealed. Many people around the world do not even know how to see, let alone experience, the painful and horrific suffering described in the testimonies of the Palestinian people.

The sad truth is that this is not the first time we have heard of sexual abuse, rape, and other horrific forms of mental and physical abuse in Israeli prisons. Experts and civil society organizations have been documenting such abuses for years. Before October 2023, experts had already documented how conditions inside Israeli prisons had worsened for Palestinians since the 2010s. In the past two and a half years, these already dire conditions have worsened.

Meanwhile, we have also seen the emergence of another disturbing element of Israeli violence, not within the torture chamber but beyond: the joy with which the violence is carried out.

By reading the testimonies of Palestinian prisoners and prisoners, it is clear that not only are the Israeli guards being tortured all the time, but one of the most important reasons for this torture is that the Israeli guards are committing such atrocities while laughing. In testimony after testimony, victims recount the laughter of the guards. This raises a question that is often overlooked: Who finds such torture a source of joy and happiness? Under what circumstances is laughter considered appropriate and accompanied by torture? The magnitude of these questions is even more alarming and alarming when we consider that this phenomenon of laughing while committing unrestrained and senseless violence is not just a result of these new revelations.

In the last two and a half years of the ongoing attack, we have seen many Israeli soldiers filming themselves while committing crimes, such as destroying houses and entire villages, killing civilians, including children, stealing the property of civilians who have just been killed or arbitrarily deported, harming innocent Palestinians, but showing innocent Palestinians.

Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit created a database showing some of the videos. In one example, a French Israeli soldier pointed to a prisoner and boasted: “Look, he’s angry, look, I’m showing his back, you laugh, look, he tortured him to talk, see his back? Why does this soldier strongly believe that those who watch this video will “laugh”? Here we come to a terrible truth that needs to be mentioned: the joy of cold-blooded killers, torturers and destroyers of Palestinian life they are being paid by the Israeli community. They are, all over the place, receiving favors from their groups. Many Israelis are also celebrating killing people. Why is this happening and what does it tell us about Israeli culture?

For years, Israeli propaganda has pushed the idea that Israel views its killing, torture and deportation of Palestinians as tragic but necessary. This idea was expressed in the famous words attributed to the Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir: “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our sons. Since then, one type or another of these ideas has become a tool of propaganda for Israel so that the expression, “shooting and crying” came out.

Since the second Intifada, and especially after the brutal siege of Gaza in 2007, the “shots and cries” gradually decreased from the main Israeli forces. Israel’s public discourse, which has always minimized and distanced its violence against the Palestinian people, stopped emphasizing the atrocities committed against its soldiers. Instead, they were celebrating how their soldiers have been killing and destroying Palestinians.

Anticipating how the siege would lead to the killing of many Palestinians, one of the main supporters of education, if not the architect, surrounding Gaza, the democratic writer Arnon Soffer, declared authoritatively in 2004, “The pressure on the border will be terrible. It will be a terrible war. Therefore, if we want to kill every day, we need to kill every day. Although Soffer said at the time that “The only thing that concerns me is how I can show that the boys are the men who they will be killed, they will return to their families and become civilians”, the death was cast. The Israelis were slowly paying attention to their violence, and emphasized the killing of Palestinians. Killing and counting the bodies would be so important to the Israeli nation that such news would be received as entertainment. Today, pretending to cry when the shooting is completely over, instead of the reality of Israel rejoicing when they are shooting.

This exciting violence is not due to reasons that are foreign to the nation of Israel or its identity, nor to Judaism, culture, or religion, but it is the obvious result of a country and a society that has been filled with colonial violence and racist ideas. Settler colonialism is a system and system of violence that brings out the worst in people and makes them mature in their thoughts and actions. Why?

For colonialism to work, two things must be dominant in the government and society. The first is the complete dehumanization of the people living in the country that the project of colonialism seeks to eliminate the presence of physically, politically and culturally. Such defiance removes all moral restraints from committing any form of violence against the colonists. At the same time, it gives the inhabitant a sense of superiority so that he acts differently and interferes with society – it leads to the supra-humanisation of the inhabitant. Just as the dehumanized Palestinian becomes an unwanted object that can be thrown away without any moral restrictions, the humanized Israeli is almost like a divine being who does not obey man-made laws, moral restrictions, and even good human behavior.

The second related thing is that, with every act of colonial violence and its success in securing more land for settlers without negative consequences, the settler comes to associate violence with rewards. Violence is no longer seen as a necessary evil or tragic necessity, but as a means of reward, recognition, support, and positive reinforcement. This is what makes them happy when they do violence. When violence occurs, it is seen as something that amplifies and rewards the entire Israeli society, and therefore brings joy.

People who happily celebrate using some of the most brutal forms known to mankind, lack the power to change from within. It is a group that cannot heal itself and become a normal member of the community. The only way to stop violence is to remove the rewards of its violence. Today, Israel continues to benefit from its conquest of Palestine, as well as parts of Syria and Lebanon. These rewards come in the form of increased arms sales, growing economic ties with powerful countries such as the European Union, and continued political support for Israel across Western political, social and cultural institutions.

This has to change. Instead of being rewarded, Israel must be severely punished for colonial violence, and this means, gradually, the complete and total isolation of the Israeli state’s economy. Only when Israel separates itself from the world will it be forced into a new way, where it accepts the culture that criminal violence should not be celebrated and welcomed with joy, but instead should be considered abominable. If the world does not act to force Israel and its people to meet the basic principles of morality, then all the shame that falls on the nation of Israel must also fall on the countries of the world that support Israel’s violence.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect Al Jazeera’s influence.