Gideon Levy was the most outspoken critic of Israel’s war in Gaza
Haaretz
newspaper columnist Gideon Levy: “In the West Bank, you see the real
face of the Israel Defence Forces, the so-called most moral army in the
world.” Photograph: Gil Cohen Magen/AFP/Getty Images
Gideon Levy is preaching in the wilderness. Week after week, the columnist for Haaretz newspaper
tells his compatriots what they do not want to hear: that the siege of
Gaza and the occupation of the West Bank are immoral and
counter-productive; that the continued seizure of Palestinian land and
the construction of settlements is a “criminal enterprise” intended to
foil any chance for peace.
“What Israeli interest does it serve to put two million people in a
cage?” Levy asks. “Tens of thousands of Palestinian children will never
forget what Israel
has done to them and their parents in this [July 8th-August 26th] war.
That is something Israel should have taken into account: another
generation of hatred like never before, and very justified hatred.”
Levy is grateful to Amos Schocken, the third-generation owner of Haaretz,
for standing by him. Some 2,000 readers cancelled subscriptions because
of his July 14th column criticising Israeli air force pilots who bombed
Gaza. “They have never seen an enemy plane coming toward them,” Levy
wrote. “They never saw the whites of the eyes and the red blood of their
victims . . . They are heroes battling the weakest, most helpless
people . . .”
Israeli leaders portray their war on Hamas as a fight against terrorism. “Any Palestinian terrorist would rather sit in an Apache helicopter or an F16 and fly over Tel Aviv and push a button to bomb civilians,” Levy replies. “Nobody would call it terrorism. Terror is always the weapon of the weak.”
Treason accusation
During the war, Levy was threatened, heckled and spat upon. Haaretz hired bodyguards to protect him. Yariv Levin, the leader of the Likud Yisrael Beiteinu coalition in the Knesset, said he should be tried for treason, which carries the death penalty in time of war.“Nobody condemned Levin,” Levy says. “That tells you a lot about Israeli democracy.” Israel’s supporters boast that it is “the only democracy in the Middle East”.
“By definition, an occupying state is not a democracy,” Levy says. “Israel was always a full and liberal democracy for its Jewish citizens. It was a partial democracy for its Arab citizens, and a totalitarian tyranny in the West Bank and Gaza. In this war, I started to think it is not even a full democracy for its Jewish citizens; only for those who think like the majority.”
Opinion polls showed that up to 95 per cent of Israelis supported the assault on Gaza. While attention focused on Gaza, the Israel Defence Forces killed 20 adults and three children in the West Bank, mostly during demonstrations against the war in Gaza. Israeli soldiers wounded 2,218 people, 38 per cent of them with live fire.
“In the West Bank, you see the real face of the IDF, the so-called most moral army in the world,” Levy says. “You can’t claim those soldiers’ lives were in danger. You can’t claim there were tunnels and rockets and terrorists. But look how they killed.”
During the first intifada (1987-1993), a Palestinian woman who tried to reach a maternity hospital in East Jerusalem was turned round at three Israeli checkpoints, and gave birth in a car. “It was cold and stormy,” Levy recalls. “She begged the soldiers to take the baby to hospital. They refused. Eventually, she carried the baby, and it died.” The incident marked a turning point for Levy. “I could believe there were bad soldiers at one checkpoint. But three? I realised their inhumanity was not an exception, but deeply rooted policy. Ninety nine per cent of Israelis do not see Palestinians as human beings like themselves.”
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