Dehumanisation and the morality of starving children to death
JVL Introduction
While increasing numbers of Israelis are beginning to protest against the slaughter in Gaza, they remain nevertheless a minority. The large majority continue either to turn their eyes away from the images of horror that are so distressing the rest of the world, or applaud them in an utterly unashamed abdication of any remnants of their own humanity.
Here are two recent articles from Ha’aretz, published in the past three weeks. The stories recounted illustrate in a particularly stark, indeed shocking, way the abyss of inhumanity and also self-delusion into which Israel is sinking ever more deeply, and they reveal clearly what we are really confronting, or abetting – for those of us (our Government for a start) who continue so egregiously to abet.
We owe it to those already murdered, and to the hundreds of thousands today facing the annihilation so blatantly promised them, to be fully aware of the lethal narrative of their dehumanisation as exemplified so chillingly in these two reports.
(The second piece follows the first)
FL
This article was originally published by Ha'aretz on Sat 10 May 2025. Read the original here.
Knesset Debate Reveals Not Everyone Thinks Starving Gazan Children Is a Bad Thing
A seemingly trivial remark from an Israeli doctor was met with a barrage of fervor from MKs. ‘I’m not sure you’re speaking for us when you say we want to treat every child and every woman,’ said one.
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These individuals have become so hardened to the sufferings of others that they are no longer able to recognize their own loss of humanity. This is not a healthy condition. Guilt and shame can’t be suppressed indefinitely. And when western society in less than a decade starts facing up to the horrors of what is being done to the people of Gaza, the psychic pain of many of these advocates of genocide will become literally unbearable.
The starvation and bombing of Gaza blows away the whole victim narrative that pro-Israel elements around the world have weaponised to attack any critic of Israel and that political ‘leaders’ in the west have opportunistically embraced. Pictures of Auschwitz will now be displayed alongside pictures of Gaza.
These negative comments chill me to the bone. Brave people who question their rhetoric. When eventually the truth dawns on these poor misguided souls will they expect the rest of the world to accept..’Well we were never told’ like after the second world war?
For far, far too long, European nations have tolerated the extremes of Zionism for fear of being tarred with the antisemitic trope. Our governments bear a heavy responsibility for the way in which these ultra right wing Zionist groups have been allowed to sully the values of right-minded Jewish people, whose common humanity has not been brutalised and trivialised by rabid hatred. Never mind the unfolding catastrophic tragedy in Gaza, for decades, the world has watched on, whilst armed Zionist settler gangs have been grabbing land in the West Bank, terrorising local communities with impunity, often aided and abetted by the IDF and condoned by successive American administrations.
Perhaps, just maybe, a change is taking place, but far, far too late and still woefully inadequate.
Anti-genocide Jews everywhere have a special responsibility to speak out against these monstrous abuses being carried out in the name of Judaism. They are the ones who will have to redeem the honour of the Jewish people once the dust has settled over this terrible chapter in the history of our civilization. Some of the names are already legendary: Gabor Mate, Gideon Lévy, Norman Finklestein. There are many more, including those responsible for this website. The defenders of Israel’s actions are well-organized and funded and will do everything in their very considerable power to defame, expel & imprison those who stand against them. But even when they succeed in suppressing protest in the short term, they are ultimately doomed to fail. The world has a long memory and these days the records of what is happening in Israel, in Gaza and the West Bank are comprehensive, impassioned and indelible.