Occupied Jerusalem– While the Israeli occupation government continues to evade and procrastinate regarding the issue of prisoners held by the resistance in the Gaza Strip, the circle of protests has expanded in Tel Aviv demanding a new exchange deal, stipulating the release of all prisoners within a humanitarian truce and a temporary ceasefire.
This movement comes for the families of the prisoners, in light of what some believe to be an “Israeli consensus” to continue the war, a “consensus” that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is exploiting, to continue the ground incursion into the Gaza Strip, despite pressure from the American administration demanding an end to the phase of intense and violent bombing, and a move to The specific stage of military operations.
Consensus and convictions
This position expressed by Netanyahu – according to researchers and analysts – reflects the Israelis’ convictions that the government is exploiting the suffering of the prisoners’ families to continue the war, and that it is willing to sacrifice the prisoners to continue the military operation and justify the mass killing of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which is reflected in the occupation’s announcement of the killing of 3 prisoners by its soldiers’ fire in Al-Shuja’iya neighborhood.
The death toll of detainees killed by Israeli occupation forces’ fire rose to 4, as the Israeli security services failed to liberate even one detainee through a ground incursion, noting that the total number of those remaining in captivity held by the Palestinian resistance is 138 Israelis, the majority of whom are military personnel.
In front of the Israeli war propaganda machine, limited initiatives were formed by the Israelis calling for stopping the war and liberating all prisoners through a comprehensive exchange deal. These initiatives intersect with the movement of the families of Israeli prisoners.
Demands and protests
In this context, spokesman for the “Peace Now” bloc, Adam Clare, said, “Protests to free detainees are important, as are demands to stop the war,” adding that Israeli calls to stop the war are small, isolated, and besieged, and are almost never heard or even bring about any change – even if it is simple. Israeli society agrees to continue the war even if the detainees are released.
Despite this movement and protests that have not yet penetrated the Israeli consensus regarding the war, Clare believes that “even the families of the detainees are demanding liberation through a temporary ceasefire or what has come to be called a humanitarian truce, and not through an end to the war.”
Speaking to Tel Aviv Tribune Net, he pointed out that this demand for the families of the prisoners “is in harmony with the declared goals of the Israeli government to strive and work to liberate and return the detainees, in parallel with continuing military operations, with the aim of undermining the power of Hamas militarily and eliminating its rule in the Gaza Strip.”
The spokesman explained that the war on Gaza enjoys an unprecedented Israeli consensus, due to the shock of the events of October 7, and the huge price in terms of victims and even detainees, paid by Israeli society, which is living in an abnormal state and crazy hysteria, as if life stopped on October 7. /October, and insists on continuing revenge against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” according to his description.
He confirmed that “Even the huge losses in terms of the number of soldiers killed in ground battles or the sacrifice of some detainees will not put pressure on the government to move forward towards a comprehensive exchange deal or end the war on Gaza.”
The same spokesman pointed out that the protests demanding the return of detainees, no matter how widespread they are, as well as the demonstrations demanding the overthrow of Netanyahu, no matter their intensity and impact, do not come out to demand an end to the war on Gaza, doubting that a comprehensive exchange deal would lead to expanding the circle of Israeli protests demanding an end to the war.
Clare believes that external pressures from America, Europe, and the great powers would force Israel to stop the war in order to be less intense, which would disintegrate the government coalition and push for early elections, which is the scenario that Netanyahu fears.
Shocking and destabilizing
For his part, researcher in social and cultural history, Dr. Gadi Al-Ghazi, attaches importance to the expanding circle of protests in the Israeli street demanding the liberation of detainees and the conclusion of a new exchange deal, as well as the voices calling for an end to the war.
But the researcher in social and cultural history ruled out that these voices and demands would be able to penetrate the Zionist consensus regarding the war on Gaza, or create a state of great and influential pressure on the Israeli government, since the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation destabilized the Israeli consciousness, which is still shocked after the shaking of security immunity.
Al-Ghazi explained, in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net, that the occupation government is exploiting the suffering of the families of the victims and prisoners in order to continue the war, as the narrative in the Israeli mind and mentality has become that it is an existential war and defense of the home, but without this war or military operations leading to the liberation of even a hostage. one.
Sacrifice and justification
Accordingly, Ghadi Al-Ghazi confirms that there is “a state of Israeli indifference towards the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza. Rather, there is an Israeli consensus supporting mass killing in Gaza, given that the number of Israeli civilian deaths in the Al-Aqsa flood is the most since the Nakba of 1948, while the number of soldiers killed is the highest since the June War.” /June 1967, and thus liberating the detainees is considered a secondary goal.”
Regarding these beliefs that have been established, the researcher in social and cultural history rules out that a comprehensive exchange deal will lead to ending the war, while strengthening the convictions of the continuation of the state of fighting against the Palestinians, pointing out that the Israeli government will not even hesitate to sacrifice prisoners held by the Palestinian resistance in order to justify the continuation of the war. .
Al-Ghazi attributed this approach to the Netanyahu government and its handling of the prisoners’ file, due to the convictions that were strengthened among Israeli society that it paid a heavy price in the “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle, and therefore sacrificing the detainees will not change their outlook on everything related to the conduct of the war and the continuation of the fighting in Gaza.
