By zooming in on the newly published satellite images of what was formerly agricultural land in the north of Gaza, the outline of what seems clearly to be a David star is sculpted in the ground.
The symbol of Jewish faith and the State of Israel can be seen in the images of Beit Hanoon, an area in the north of Gaza which has experienced vast battles and losses for the Israeli army.
Next to the star appears the figures 7979, a possible reference to the 97th Netzah Yehuda Battalion of the Israeli army.
Violations goat
The battalion of Netzah Yehuda, an entirely male ultra-Orthodox unit, would have deployed occupied West Bank in Gaza in January from last year and operated in Beit Hanoon.
Before its deployment, the battalion had been accused of many violent crimes, in particular what some US officials have declared could constitute blatant human rights violations, in particular the murder of unarmed Palestinians and torture and sexual abuse of prisoners in his guard.
Among the alleged victims of the battalion, there was an American Palestinian man in the 1980s, Omar Abdulmajeed Asaad, who died during his arrest by the battalion of Netzah Yehuda in January 2022.
After pressure from the United States government, Israel agreed to pay compensation to the Asaad family later that year. However, in the context of payment, the Israeli government insisted that no one in Netzah Yehuda was held responsible for the death of Asaad.
Bad intention
The battalion of Netzah Yehuda made the David star “for Google Maps, to see that they were here,” said Hamze Attar, Palestinian defense analyst in Tel Aviv Tribune.
Attar said the law could have been an answer to the plans of the administration of former American president Joe Biden to sanction the battalion. In August, however, the United States Department of State ended its investigation into the violations of its own Leahy laws, which prohibit the transfer of weapons to military units abroad involved in raw violations of the rights of the ‘Man, following objections of the Israeli government. The survey had been focused on Netzah Yehuda.
“We see what absolute impunity looks like in an army that receives everything it needs to destroy Palestinian life,” said Elia Ayoub, researcher and author of the Hauntologies Newsletter. “As in any genocide, those who commit them often take pleasure in displaying their superiority by forcing their symbols to their victims. The Israeli army also uses religious figures that speak of this genocide of the Palestinians and the colonization of Gaza as a religious duty. »»
Tel Aviv Tribune contacted the Israeli Defense Ministry concerning the David star engraved in northern Gaza but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
An extended model
David’s star is not the first symbol left by Israeli forces. In Gaza, the images downloaded on social networks have shown that soldiers set up giant Menorah candles or draw Jewish symbols in the wreckage of buildings. The soldiers did the same in southern Lebanon since Israel invaded in October.
“The (Israeli soldiers) have rabbis on the ground, and the soldiers brought the Menorah and the Shofar to the battlefield,” said Ayoub. “It’s not new. It’s just much more widespread now. The Israeli religious philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz described these attitudes like that of the Judeo-Nazis in the 1990s, warning that it could become the norm if it is not stopped. Unfortunately, he was right.
A ceasefire on January 19 ended, at least temporarily, to the attacks of Israel against Gaza carried out since the attacks led by Hamas in southern Israel of October 7, 2023. Those killed 1,139 people and took around 250 captive people. The subsequent War of Israel against Gaza killed at least 47,306 Palestinians in Gaza and injured 111,483 others while moving around 1.9 million of its 2.3 million people.
According to research by Jamon Van den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher of the University of the City of New York, 60% of all Gaza buildings have been destroyed by Israeli forces since the start of the war. In Beit Hanoon, the figure is 70%.
The question of the future of Gaza beyond the war received additional relevance last week after the suggestion of American president Donald Trump according to which the Palestinian residents of the enclave are “cleaned”.
The forced displacement of the entire population of Gaza has been the cornerstone of the Israeli far right for decades.
The Minister of Finance of Israel, Bezalel Smotrich, who often talked about his desire to restore the Israeli colonies in Gaza, praised Trump’s suggestion, promising: “I will, with the help of God, work with the Prime Minister and the Cabinet to ensure an operational plan to implement it as soon as possible. »»
‘Possession’
“Brand image is a question of property. It is a question of marking your territory, ”said Chris Arneing, founder and director of Creative Semiotics, a advice specializing in the direction of brand symbols. “The brand image originated from traders marking their products or the farmers of the brand of their livestock to signify the property. Over time, this also included the mark of condemned and slaves. »»
The sculpture of the David star in Beit Hanoon soil can be considered as an act of symbolic violence, said Arneing, referring to the violence that the symbol represents in the local context.
“In many ways,” continued Arneing, “it’s the brand on earth”.