Coverage of the arrest of the woman suspected of throwing sand at Ben-Gvir on Saturday. If only they had applied the same forensic rigour to the gang that has been kicking sand at the public’s eyes for many months Photo: Channel 12/Keshet/Mako

Israel’s authoritarian regime –a tragi-comic amalgam of fascism and slapstick

Liberal blindness in a nutshell: the inability to see the connection between the oppression of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and the rot spreading to Green Line Israel

The Palestine Project

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By Yoana Gonen • Translated by Sol Salbe

The current government of Israel has been characterised by wilful neglect and haphazard activity in every sphere, so it is not surprising that its gradual transformation into an authoritarian regime looks like a tragi-comic amalgam of fascism and slapstick. This is also what the arrest of Noa Goldenberg, the young woman suspected of throwing sand at Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, looked like: the honourable minister sauntering on the beach in shoes and a button-down shirt, the handful of almost invisible grains zooming at him, and the disproportionate reaction of the minister’s militia (formerly known as the Israel Police), which sent Goldenberg for a weekend in Neve Tirza women’s prison with her legs and arms shackled. If only they had applied the same forensic rigour to the gang that has been kicking sand at the public’s eyes for many months.

The conduct of the police led to a series of interviews that sounded like it came straight out of Eretz Nehederet, the prime-time satirical sketch comedy show, with the cops writhing in an effort to justify the arrest and the journalists figuring out what format the sand was propelled in — whether dry, damp, or a properly compacted sand ball [with a texture of an uncooked matzo ball -tr]. “Was it a ball of mud or was it more like the kind of pulp that falls apart in your hand?” wondered Arad Nir on Saturday. “When you pick up a handful of mud and work it together into a ball, it remains rigid,” replied Tel Aviv District Superintendent Adi Berkowitz with an unfathomable seriousness. “Was there a tossing of sand or not?” Inquired Amalia Duek of Nir Alfasa, the lawyer who represents Goldenberg, yesterday. “She views herself as throwing sand in general on the beach,” Alfasa replied, as if his client were Banana Beach’s Al Capone. The new Police Spokesperson, Superintendent Aryeh Doron, explained to Yaron Avraham that Goldenberg is as dangerous as someone hurling rocks and metallic objects, because “the laws of the State of Israel do not differentiate definition between sand and metal objects.” They don’t seem to distinguish between bootlicker and plain idiots, apparently.

But the most ridiculous moment occurred on Nesli Barda and Yoav Limor’s program and did not involve a single police officer. “The arrest of the young woman who tossed the sand, and had to spend a night in custody, is a very serious incident,” noted panellist Ori Egoz, adding: “To take her into custody, to lead her in shackled, are really indications of intimidation.” Them’s fighting words, were it not for the description next to Egoz’s name: a former judge in a military court. After all, there are thousands in the military courts who have been wronged far more: people who have not received due process, who have been detained until the end of the proceedings even for the most trivial offences, who have disappeared without their families knowing their whereabouts, who have been tried in a language they do not understand, whose cases turned into indictments and convictions even when there is almost no evidence.

Egoz’s words were liberal blindness in a nutshell [a pun on Egoz being Hebrew for nut]: the inability to see the connection between the oppression of Palestinians in the [Occupied] Territories and the rot spreading to Green Line Israel. In this way, a former military judge can lament the practices used against political activists, without realising that she herself is part of the system that established these practices — which is even more ridiculous and sad than a police officer explaining the dangers of properly compacted sandballs.

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