The reproduction of genocidal culture

Israel is devolving before our eyes

One of the most striking pieces of evidence South Africa presented in its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice was a specimen that came in two parts: first was Benjamin Netanyahu giving his Amalek speech; second, a clip of a group of IDF soldiers hopping, dancing up and down, singing in unison how they were going to treat Amalek.

As the barrister showed, the soldiers clearly understood who Amalek was in present day, and they knew what was to be done to Amalek. Netanyahu had transmitted his message, and it was being carried out. 

Indeed, as Gazans moved south following Israel’s evacuation order, some were slaughtered on-route as though they were the animals listed in that Biblical injunction.

Itamar Ben-Gvir also is transmitting specific messages that are being taken up by those in the wider culture. He has called for the opening up of Gaza again to Israeli settlement, and just in the past two weeks or so we’ve seen “groundbreaking” happen on the Gazan border by zealous settlers intent on making Ben-Gvir’s words a reality.

Far more concerning is Ben-Gvir’s praise of clearly murderous acts. His high station in the government and his elevation of these deeds mean that, in effect, he is blessing murder. When disguised IDF soldiers infiltrated a West Bank hospital in Jenin and assassinated a patient there in his hospital bed as he slept, Ben-Gvir exalted those assassins as heroes to be commended. 

And this week, when IDF soldiers guarding a high perimeter in Jerusalem shot and killed a 12- or 13-year-old Palestinian boy playing with a sparkler during the Ramadan holiday, Ben-Gvir labeled the boy a ‘terrorist’ and said the soldier was a ‘warrior.’ He said he would try to get the soldier an award. This would be for sniping a pre-teen in the head.

Ben-Gvir’s words cascade into broader society. These ideas become reproduced in the culture.

We see this with Yoav Gallant’s declaration that Gazans would get no food, fuel, water or electricity during the ‘total siege.’ Months later, we see ordinary Israelis taking it upon themselves to interfere with aid trucks attempting to deliver food to Gazans, of whom nearly all are going hungry and many are literally starving. Without food, they will die. 

We see ordinary Israelis being interviewed, where they justify their blockades, the turning of themselves into roadblocks, into human shields. (One man even brought his infant daughter toward a convoy and revealed the girl when security forces attempted to move the crowd back — he was using her as a shield.)

These everyday Israeli citizens invoke strained justifications for denying the Gazan population — half of whom are children — these food deliveries. In the face of starvation, there is no compassion, only cruelty dressed up as stinginess. 

“They should get only the minimum of calories required to survive,” one woman, walking with purpose toward a convoy, said in an interview when a correspondent caught up with her. She said this in full view of a camera and live microphone.

But that was the old policy, implemented during the 17-year blockade of air, land and sea by Israel upon all of Gaza. Their calories had already been restricted. Now, we have seen the IDF destroy every bakery in Gaza but one; they have attacked aid depots; they have massacred Gazans for attempting to secure flour, the barest of essentials. 

The food at this point is being used as a lure; if true, this amounts to perfidy, a war crime in itself. 

Yet that Israeli woman harbored no mercy toward the Gazans, no respect toward the rules of just conflict.

“Even if there is a humanitarian crisis—and there is not—even if there is, it’s my right and my duty to prioritize life of kfir bibas, of one-year-old babies, that deserve over any Gazan babies.”

She wanted to punish, to deliver pain. She wanted to fulfill Gallant’s pronouncement.

This communication of cruel, callous, scabrous comments is one of the ways that the reversal of morality itself becomes reproduced. It’s how that reversal becomes an elemental part of the culture. It becomes embedded in the consciousness and in the actions of everyday Israelis and, in doing so, it becomes part of them.

This is how you get a genocidal society.

We must consider the possibility that things have progressed in Israeli culture to the point where it’s too far gone. For months, people have said that only the United States has the power and influence to get Israel and Netanyahu to change course. That was true in the very early days of the conflict and why it was so dispiriting to see President Biden literally embrace Netanyahu in a bear hug just as Israel was launching its campaign of retaliation. 

Biden had a choice then. He had a chance.

But now there’s momentum, murderous momentum. Now, Israelis feel themselves part of a mission. Now they are close to finalizing their goal.

We need to consider the very strong possibility that Biden squandered his time, that window in which he could have exerted true influence. Now that the reversal of morality is reproducing itself in Israeli culture, that sentiment will drive the behavior of senior officials and ordinary citizens alike. We may be at a point where Biden can do very little to influence the next chapter in Israel’s transmogrification.