The hollowest words in the English language were those which appeared late on Monday, August 25th, on Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s X account: “Israel deeply regrets the tragic mishap that occurred today at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza. Israel values the work of journalists, medical staff, and all civilians. The military authorities are conducting a thorough investigation …”
Relating to the carnage at southern Gaza’s last remaining functioning hospital, where at least 20 people including medics and journalists were killed by the Israeli army, Netanyahu was careful to only comment on his English account.
No such statement came from him in Hebrew – Netanyahu didn’t want to provoke domestic ire.
He knows very well where Israeli public opinion stands: the latest public opinion poll (from Hebrew University’s aChord Center) shows that 76 per cent of Jewish Israelis agree – in full or in part – that “there are no innocents in Gaza”.
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Pause for a moment to come to terms with this dark reality: in the minds of an absolute majority of the Jewish public in Israel, the people including medics and journalists butchered yesterday – in broad daylight – at southern Gaza’s last remaining functioning hospital, were not “innocents”.
[ At least 20 killed, including five journalists, as Israel strikes Gaza hospitalOpens in new window ]
Public opinion in Israel is partly shaped by the members of the media here who openly call for the killing of Palestinian journalists in Gaza, or find ways to justify it. On i24news, senior commentator Zvi Yehezkeli said: “If Israel decides to eliminate the journalists, then better late than never ... Israel did well to eliminate them, in my opinion belatedly”. Meanwhile, Amit Segal, who is regarded as one of the most influential journalists in Israel, tweeted that Al Jazeera photographer Mohammad Salama “was eliminated in the IDF attack”.
Still, you might presume that serious people are capable of distinguishing between the moving sands of public opinion and the law’s terra firma. Did Netanyahu not, after all, promise “a thorough investigation”? Should we not allow Israel’s legal authorities to examine the facts and – if those facts are established – hold those responsible to account?
But that would be a hollow hope, playing right into Israel’s tried-and-tested theatre of impunity. Netanyahu’s pre-packaged and made for international public consumption statement should be taken for what it is: nothing more than the first step of a process designed to protect the perpetrators, not to prosecute them.
Think of all the unconscionable ways in which thousands of innocent Gazans – many of them children – were killed by Israel over the last 20 months. Who, exactly, in Israel has been held to account to date?
[ Gaza is the most dangerous place in world for journalistsOpens in new window ]
No one has been – and no one will be – because the destruction of Gaza is Israeli policy, because Israeli public opinion supports it and because the world allows it.
As far as Gaza is concerned, the public in Israel can stomach dead medics, slaughtered journalists and starving children. What the public cannot stomach is Israeli officials or soldiers being held to account.
In the face of this stark reality, headlines such as The Economist’s recent “Can Israel police its own war crimes?” are meaningless. It cannot and it will not – decades of self-provided impunity spell this out with absolute clarity. When a country is unable and unwilling to hold its own to account, the world must step in.
Giving any credence to Israel’s promises of accountability achieves nothing beyond allowing for another day of slaughter in Gaza.
If you are unable to stomach yet more dead medics, slaughtered journalists and starving children then you must demand your own Government to take concrete action.
Otherwise, you will go on living with the distant echo of more bombs being dropped with expected deadly consequences, the occasional bellows of international outrage and the hollow Israeli statement that follow – and then the next bomb, and the next body, and the next.
Enough, please.
Hagai El-Ed is a writer based in Jerusalem. He tweets @HagaiElAd
