On June 8, the Israeli army massacred at least 274 Palestinians and injured nearly 700 others during a raid on the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. Relevant sectors of the international community responded with typically ineffective admonitions; European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has condemned Israel’s latest “massacre of civilians”, saying “the bloodshed must stop immediately”.
Four Israeli captives held by Hamas were also rescued during the assault, which threw Israeli social media into a whirlwind of complacency and genocidal fanfare. The internet is full of sensational stories about the captives’ rescue and tearful reunion with their loved ones – not to mention all those dead Palestinians.
Indeed, the blatant disregard for Palestinian life is hardly shocking in the context of a war that has officially killed more than 37,000 people in Gaza in just over eight months. The actual death toll is likely much higher given the number of bodies remaining under the rubble.
Not that Palestinians have ever been humanized in the Israeli narrative – except, of course, when they can be exploited for propaganda purposes, as when Israel accuses Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as “human shields” and thus justifies Israeli military attacks against hospitals and schools. .
A glance at past episodes of Israel’s perpetual “bloodbath” in Gaza would seem to confirm that, according to Israeli military logic, more than 200 dead Palestinians constitute perfectly acceptable “collateral damage” in the recovery of four Israelis living. After all, Israeli life is imbued with a disproportionate value that tends to distract from the fact that Israel is killing Palestinians at an astronomically higher rate than Palestinians are killing Israelis – who nonetheless remain the “victims.” self-proclaimed throughout all of this.
Remember, for example, Operation Cast Lead, launched by Israel in Gaza in December 2008 and which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians over a period of 22 days, the vast majority civilians and 400 children. On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and three civilians were killed.
Then, in 2014, Israel’s 50-day Operation Protective Edge reduced Gaza’s population by 2,251 people, including 551 children, while Israel lost 67 soldiers and six civilians.
In prisoner exchanges too, the higher value placed on Israeli life was demonstrated time and again; In 2011, captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was released by Hamas in exchange for as many as 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.
Today, the Nuseirat massacre is not just the latest step in Israel’s quest to incite the world into unbridled depravity. It also symbolizes Israeli efforts to obliterate the Palestinians, both literally and figuratively, as the victims of Saturday’s raid are effectively erased by the celebratory ruckus.
Let’s call it collateral genocide.
In the aftermath of the attack, the Israeli military released a flurry of social media posts that made no mention of the Palestinian victims, but offered such compelling analysis as that the prisoners were being held by “Hamas terrorists.” who only seek to cause pain and suffering.” .
For its part, the Jerusalem Post went so far as to complain about Arab social media users who had pledged to rain on the Israeli parade. Noting that “the heroic Israeli operation that led to the release of four hostages has sparked much debate online,” the Post lamented that “some Hamas supporters have tried to downplay the significance of the operation, blaming Israel “using humanitarian devices to infiltrate the area (around Nuseirat) or pretending that the world ignores the alleged death toll among Gazans.”
As for one of the world’s biggest players, US President Joe Biden welcomed the return of the four captives at a press conference in Paris, adding: “We will not stop working until all the hostages are not returned home and a ceasefire will not be concluded. »
Which brings us to the question: How will a ceasefire ever be achieved – or the “bloodbath” ended, to borrow Borrell’s words – when the US president himself is praising Israel for leading said bloodbath?
Just a month ago, Biden warned that he would no longer provide offensive weapons to Israel in the event of a full-scale attack on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip because, he said, “Civilians were killed in Gaza as a result of this attack.” these bombs. And yet it suddenly becomes inconsequential that civilians continue to be killed, because it’s all about the captives.
Just three days ago, on June 6, an Israeli attack on a United Nations-run school in Nuseirat camp killed at least 40 Palestinians sheltering there. An Tel Aviv Tribune analysis of the weapons fragments found they contained US-made parts.
It appears that Biden’s warning has also become collateral damage. Or maybe genocide has just become totally normalized.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.