Obliged to speak out against Israeli resettlement of Gaza

JVL Introduction

Alon Sahar, ex IDF soldier, now a film maker and anti occupation activist writes on the importance for Israelis as well as for Palestinians that there is no resettlement of  Gaza.  He says that “we have an obligation to speak out as calls for resettlement of Gaza mount in Israel”. His focus is on the hard right in Israel and it is a frightening read not least his description of what soldiers did to protest settlers.

We publish this even though he talks about  “after the war” without calling for a ceasefire, because the reminder about the Far Right in Israel is important and also because we do care about Israeli people as we care about all human beings.

Israelis – especially Israeli soldiers – are too often brutalised as well as brutalising. Factor in the near ubiquity of military experience and we may understand how deep these consequences reach.

We recall, for example, the celebratory viewings of the bombardment of Gaza in 2016 from a hilltop near to Sderot but also note that it seems that the Israeli leadership is more worried than ever about its citizens knowing what is being done in their name as I understand that this war on Gaza is, apparently the first time that Israeli soldiers have been unable to contact family while they are deployed.

Where is the compassion for others? As Sahar says “…in the new and horrifying post-October 7 reality, it seems that there is no longer room for empathy in Israeli society. That being the case, it is now time to expose the flip side of the coin: the terrible price we as Israelis pay to accommodate the policy of ruling over other people – because this is not just about the Palestinians; it is about us, too.”

LL

This article was originally published by Jerusalem Post (Opinion) on Wed 24 Jan 2024. Read the original here.