Stop living in denial, israel is an evil state
Israel may not be Nazi, nor even a fascist
state. Yet it is a member of the same terrible family, the family of
evil states. Just consider these acts of evil perpetrated by the state.
ed
note–as I have said before–I like Gideon Levy’s work. He is reasonable,
fair, and does not seem to suffer from the same narcissistic psychosis
that seems to attend every individual who has grown up in the sewer of
Judaic culture.
Nevertheless,
despite his very accurate, brave, and honest statement concerning
Israel being an ‘evil’ state, he does not complete the picture. He lists
the symptoms of the disease, but does not give an accurate diagnosis as
to what the source of the sickness is, which is Judaism itself, which
has functioned as a wellspring of evil, disease, and mental illness now
for thousands of years, long before Israel was ever a ‘state’.
Gideon Levy, Haaretz
After we’ve
cited nationalism and racism, hatred and contempt for Arab life, the
security cult and resistance to the occupation, victimhood and
messianism, one more element must be added without which the behavior of
the Israeli occupation regime cannot be explained: Evil. Pure evil.
Sadistic evil. Evil for its own sake. Sometimes, it’s the only
explanation.
Eva Illouz
described its signs (“Evil now,” Haaretz Hebrew edition, July 30). Her
essay, which challenges the idea of the banality of evil, considers the
national group as the source of the evil. Using philosopher Ludwig
Wittgenstein’s concept, she finds a “family resemblance” between the
Israeli occupation and history’s evil regimes. This similarity does not
mean that Israel is Nazi, nor even fascist. And yet it is a member of
the same terrible family, the family of evil states. It’s a depressing
and brilliant analysis.
The evil
that Illouz attributes to Israel is not banal, it cannot happen
anywhere, and it has political and social roots that are deeply embedded
in Israeli society. Thus, Illouz joins Zeev Sternhell, who warned in
his impressive and resounding essay about the cultural soil out of which
fascism is now growing in Israel (“The birth of fascism,” Haaretz
Hebrew edition, July 7).
But
alongside these analyses, we must also present a brief history of evil.
We must present the instances that combine to create a great and
horrific picture, a picture of Israeli evil in the territories, so as to
stand up to those who deny the evil. It is not the case of the
individual – Sgt. Elor Azaria, for example, who is being tried for the
death of a subdued Palestinian assailant in Hebron – but the conduct of
the establishment and the occupation regime that proves the evil. In
fact, the continuation of the occupation proves the evil. Illouz,
Sternhell and others provide debatable analyses on its origins, but
whatever they are, it can no longer be denied.
One case is
like a thousand witnesses: the case of Bilal Kayed. A young man who
completed a prison term of 14.5 years – his entire sentence – without a
single furlough, without being allowed to at least say goodbye by phone
to his dying father; a clear sign of evil.
About six
weeks ago, Kayed was getting ready for his release. A representative of
the Shin Bet security service – one of the greatest agencies of evil in
Israel – even showed him a photograph of the home his family had built
for him to stir him up even more ahead of his release. And then, as his
family waited impatiently for him at the crossing point and Kayed grew
ever more excited in his cell, he was informed that he was being thrown
into administrative detention for at least another six months, without
trial and without explanation.
Since then,
he has been on hunger strike. He is cuffed to his bed. His family is
not allowed to see him. Prison guards never leave his room and the
lights are not turned out for a moment. Evil.
Only evil
can explain the state’s conduct toward Kayed – only an evil state acts
this way. The arbitrary announcement, at the last moment, of a senseless
detention is abuse, and the way he has been treated since then is also
abuse.
Only evil
can explain the detention last week of another young man, Hiran Jaradat,
whose brother Arif (who had Down syndrome) was killed in June and whose
father died two days ago. He is under arrest for “incitement on
Facebook” and was not released to attend his father’s funeral. Evil.
The
continuation of the detention of poet Darin Tatur – evil. The
destruction of the tiny swimming pool that the residents of Khirbet Tana
in the northern West Bank had built for themselves – evil. The
confiscation of water tanks from a community of shepherds in the Jordan
Valley in the July heat – evil.
A great
many of the decisions of the occupation regime that decides the fates of
individuals, families, communities, villages and cities cannot be
explained without evil. The list is as long as the occupation. The
extortion of sick people from Gaza to enlist them as collaborators, the
blockades on cities and towns for weeks, the Gaza blockade, the
demolition of homes – all evil.
Banal or
not, its existence must be acknowledged and it must be recognized as one
of the most influential values in Israel. Yes, there is an evil regime
at work in Israel, and therefore it is an evil state.
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