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Unequally Worthy in Life and Death
Jul 6 2014 / 12:03 am
Israel has kidnapped our freedom, our lives, and our futures since it took occupation of our land. (ActiveStills.org)
By Samah Jabr, MD
This
morning I woke up to the noise of helicopters, police cars, and
ambulances as clashes erupted in our previously peaceful neighborhood of
Shufat, East Jerusalem, with Israeli security forces shooting at
Palestinian youths who were protesting the killing of a 16 year old boy,
Mohammed Abu Khudair. Mohammed had been snatched from our neighborhood
while on his way to Ramadan prayers at dawn, but eyewitnesses who
observed him forced into a vehicle had informed the police. A few hours
later, Israeli police discovered his body in the forests of Jerusalem in
the site of the massacred village of Deir Yasin—a moment of déjà vu or a
traumatic flashback of the village itself! His body had been stabbed,
disfigured, and charred. These events took place the night following an
attempt by Israelis to kidnap a 10 year old boy, Mousa Zalloum, who was
saved by his mother’s courageous resistance. This child and his mother
Deema survive to tell their story.
Inciting Revenge
Immediately
following the kidnapping of the three settlers on June 12th, Israel’s
Prime Minister announced, “Hamas is responsible and Hamas will pay.” The
Israeli army launched violent raids, imposed curfews, and effected
closures throughout the Occupied West Bank, killing a dozen youth,
re-arresting without cause members of the Palestinian parliament and
prisoners who had been previously freed, and demolishing the homes of
suspects before any evidence for charges against them had been provided
to the court or to the public. It would not be surprising to me if the
accused were to be assassinated, so that only the Israeli narrative of
the killing of the settlers would remain alive.
The
military escalation that took place following June 12th was not just
about finding the three missing Israeli youths. It was a moment in which
the Israeli government seized the advantage to recruit international
sympathy to reverse the recent global criticism of Israel’s role in
paralyzing negotiations. It has been a moment of collective punishment
of the Palestinian people through imposing movement restrictions across
the West Bank, banning international travel from Hebron, and
implementing brutal incursions and armed searches into Palestinian
camps, towns and homes. Whoever is perceived as posing an obstacle is
arrested or killed.
These actions
have succeeded in disempowering the recently-formed Palestinian unity
government and inducing re-polarization among Palestinians, especially
following President Abbas’ speech describing the sacred quality of
cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authorities. Even more,
we have witnessed our own security forces sneaking into their police
stations in civilian clothes, permitting the Israelis of the Occupation
to do whatever they please in the West Bank.
Double Standards
The
Israeli leadership and propaganda have stirred up an toxic
anti-Palestinian climate and dehumanizing image of
Palestinians—including children—in both official and social media. For
example, Netanyahu stated, when the bodies of the settlers were
discovered, “They were abducted and murdered in cold blood by human
animals.” He went on to note, “a broad moral gulf (that) separates us
from our enemies,” and to assert that, “They sanctify death, we sanctify
life.” The mayor of the Ma’ale Adumim settlement, Benny Kashriel,
called upon the Israeli authorities to construct new settlement units in
the area in response to the killing of the three Israeli settlers.
Slogans like, “Death to the Arabs,” and “No Arabs, no terror attacks,”
have arisen louder and louder from the Israeli public.
At
the same time, international diplomats and global leaders (who would
not know the names of any of the Palestinian children who are killed on
an almost-daily basis) are deploring in the strongest terms the killing
of the settlers, identifying them name by name. The story of Yousef
Shawamreh, age 14, who was killed in March while harvesting the wild
thorny vegetable gundelia (akkoub) in Deir Al Asal south of Hebron, or
the story of Ahmad Sabarin, age, 20, who was watching a match of the
World Cup when the Israelis came to arrest people in this Al Jalazoun
refugee camp and was shot as he went out to see what was going on—these
stories are not known to the diplomats. Saker Daraghmeh, age 16, who was
killed in the Tayaseer village near the Jordan Valley while shepherding
his cattle, or Muhammad Abu Daher and Nadim Nawwara, two teenagers
killed while commemorating the Nakba—the death of these young people did
not earn international visibility equal to the killing of the settlers.
These are just a few of the names of the dead, now held in the recent
memory of Palestinians, but they demonstrate the inconsistency of the
preaching by Israel and its supporters regarding the value of human life
and the innocence of children and adolescents.
The
killing of Palestinians is not seen as horrific as the killing of
Israelis. Our pain is not perceived as acute as theirs—if our pain even
enters consciousness at all. The supreme violence and aggression that
Israel has initiated and continues to inflict on the Palestinian people,
from its unlawful Occupation of our land to the settler’s presence at
our doorsteps, lies in total oblivion. The equation of Palestinian
responsibility for the alleged acts of a few individuals with the formal
responsibility of a democratically elected Israeli government for the
actions of its army is illogical and unjust. But this equation is often
made by the supporters of Israel, although it is an insult to reason.
The
administration at Haifa’s Technion University is considering taking
disciplinary action against an Arab student who posted on Facebook,
after the bodies of the three settlers were found, “Three goals for
Palestine without taking part in the World Cup.” But who would
discipline the thousands of Israelis who have endorsed the Facebook
page, “Until the boys are back, every hour we shoot a terrorist!” Within
hours of its creation, this Facebook page accrued 10,000 “likes,” while
calling for the murder of a Palestinian every hour until the three
missing Israelis were located. No one has disciplined the Israeli
soldier who posted online a photo of his T-shirt with the word “Revenge”
written in blood, celebrating the killing of a 16 year old boy, Yousef
Abu Zagha—who was shot in the chest during clashing with troops invading
the Jenin camp.
Price Tag is the
name of a group of settlers committing anti-Palestinian vandalism whose
graffiti urges “Price tag blood vengeance.” The Israeli government’s
response to their conduct has been minimal. Israeli intelligence, so
effective in hunting down a Palestinian kid who throws a stone, remains
so inept in setting any limits on such actions by Israelis.
Throughout
its history, Israel has never imposed meaningful consequences on anyone
for killing a Palestinian. After the death of Mohammed Abu Khudair, the
police are invading Shufat—not the neighborhood of his killers! But his
killers will remain anonymous, their homes will not be demolished,
there will be no closure of Israeli neighborhoods, no settlers will be
prevented from going to work or from traveling abroad, and there will be
impunity for the rabbis and the leaders of the settlers who incited
this crime.
Israel has kidnapped
our freedom, our lives, and our futures since it took occupation of our
land. Israel has established a discrepancy in human worth, since the
killing of a non-Jew seems far from equivalent to the killing of a Jew.
There is also discrepancy in the validation of human experience, since
Israel remains the sole author of the narrative of this land and the
sole power determining its political reality. But in reaction to these
violations, there will always be individuals who rise up to oppose them.
In this way, Israel will kidnap all of our opportunities in life and
bring nothing but death and nihilism to Israelis and Palestinians alike.
-
Samah Jabr is a Jerusalemite psychiatrist and psychotherapist who cares
about the wellbeing of her community – beyond issues of mental illness.
She contributed this article PalestineChronicle.com. (A shorter version
of this article was first published in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.)
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