Israel’s masquerade is over
By Tamir Sorek • Translated by Sol Salbe
The State of the Jews was conceived by Theodor Herzl, a theatre playwright, but it did arise and became a reality. It been real enough to even include police and courts. However, when it comes to the Palestinians, Israel’s legal and enforcement systems have always been a theatrical spectacle. The perceived audience, ie the Jewish public in Israel and the liberal public in Western countries, got the show they asked for.
After the conviction of Major Shmuel Malinky, commander of the battalion responsible for the Kafr Qasim massacre in 1956, then Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion met with him and asked him to “understand the situation and accept the judgement.” Ben-Gurion told him that he was a “living sacrifice of the state” and in fact asked him to play his part in the play. Malinky sacrificed less than three and a half years of freedom, his accomplices sacrificed even less, while the state and its leaders gained the ability to present the affair to the world as an unusual mishap, even though it was actually deeply anchored in the spirit of Transfer [expulsion] that enabled the establishment of the Jewish state.
Ben-Gurion’s play survived for many years. But the backbone of the army today is made up of a population that, for socio-economic class reasons and as a result of the interpretation that the colonial enterprise has been cast into religious texts, is no longer interested in considerations of international appearance. In fact, it even derives pleasure from the very fact of defying the norms the rest of the world expects it to hold. Since the Elor Azaria affair, the old elites, who so desperately desire the sympathy of the Western world, have been trying to patch the holes in the curtain separating the backstage from what’s up in front. It is no coincidence that as defence minister, Benny Gantz (ostensibly the alternative to Netanyahu) was so committed to persecuting all those who expose those human rights violations that threatened the credibility of the show.
Even today, fearing the impact of the international courts, the prime minister, defence minister and military leaders try to pretend that serious war crimes are exceptional cases. As though murder of detainees, torture, blowing up a water reservoir are all out of the norm and the IDF is investigating those. Through some symbolic gestures, they hope to placate the judges in The Hague, or at least prevent the rulings from translating into international sanctions and arrests. But the soldiers know it’s a lie. They are on the ground; they are familiar with the norms. They know what we call in Hebrew the spirit of their commanders just as they know the religious rulings of their rabbis that the state funds. They don’t understand why they have to be a “living sacrifice of the state”, which set up a torture camp and let it operate for months on end. It’s a state that, after years of forgiving, permissive attitude to the murder of Palestinians, sent those soldiers into a war of vengeance and annihilation and removed all and sundry restraints. They go wild, in the process wiping off the makeup off their leaders’ face and tearing up the curtain.
The performance is over.
