As the killing continues Israel creates soldiers’ respite centre in Gaza
JVL Introduction
It seems that some – perhaps most – Israelis have completely lost the ability to care about human suffering when those humans are Palestinians. That there has been a respite camp created for Israeli soldiers close to what was Jabaliya Refugee Camp that is now destroyed beggars belief. Middle East Eye has also covered this saying that Israel created a fantasy retreat to distract from genocide. Israeli media outlet, Ynet also covered the story without criticism and included this paragraph “You know this is Gaza, right? Yet we’ve created a sense of home here, with iced coffee, espresso, protein shakes, toast, shakshuka, fresh fruit, and even ice cream on warmer days,” (according to Chief Warrant Officer David Turjeman, the head of food services for IDF’s southern command) “One soldier said each platoon gets a day at the resort every 10 days.”
In this Palestine Chronicle piece, Jeremy Salt likens the respite centre in Gaza to Auschwitz Commandant Hoss’s house and garden next to the extermination camp as portrayed in the film “The Zone of Interest” and he goes beyond the retreat to emphasise the barbarity meted out, especially in Northern Gaza, to its people, its hospitals and notably the treatment of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya.
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This article was originally published by Palestine Chronicle on Wed 1 Jan 2025. Read the original here.
Israel’s Holiday Village in Gaza: The Grotesque Reality behind the Genocide
Israel’s latest actions in Gaza, from setting up a holiday village for soldiers to the destruction of hospitals, highlight a grotesque disconnection from human suffering.
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Jonathan Ofir’s opinion piece “A year of shame, and many more to come” https://mondoweiss.net/2025/01/a-year-of-shame-and-many-more-to-come/ expands on some of the themes in this article.
Quotes from it:-
“The shame concerning Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians, specifically in Gaza, is an issue likely to dominate both the international conscience as well as the Israeli psyche for the coming century.
Israeli Jews know very well what ongoing, inter-generational shaming of those who commit genocide is like. UNTIL NOW, THEY HAVE SOCIALLY RELISHED IN DOING THS TO GERMANY.
Israel itself committing genocide, constitutes a breaking of the singularity of Jewish victimhood relating to the Holocaust. THE HOLOCAUST HAS BEEN A CENTRAL INSTRUMENT OF PROTECTING ISRAEL AGAINST CRITIQUE AND CONDEMNATION, AND NOW IT RISKS LOSING ITS SINGULAR POWER .. its monopoly on genocide.”
If you’ve internalised the belief that a nation and its people are ETERNALLY DAMNED because of the horrors committed by Germany 1933-45, then it’s a near psychological impossibility to accept you and yours are guilty of similar behaviours. Fundamentalist thinking will block the path back to self-forgiveness, reconciliation and inner peace.
Another horrific account of the terrorist state of Israel.
It gets worse — a luxurious therapeutic retreat was set up for Israeli soldiers to recuperate HERE IN THE UK. I happen to know this from a statement put out by UK Friends of Israel just before Xmas. The whole statement is sickening beyond belief. I would like to share it but have to protect the recipient.
Killing women and children is clearly draining, physically and emotionally. And to think that we, through our government, are aiding and abetting all this. Democracy has failed when there is no mainstream political party that opposes the war crimes in Gaza.