Israeli Defence Force (IDF) and other branches of Israel’s security forces use violent tactics including curfews, house demolitions, checkpoints, nightly raids, arrests (often without charge) and other routine and often random violence.
Because humans are hard-wired to feel empathy, violence and discrimination need to be morally and ethically justified. For this purpose, Israeli propaganda focuses on two main points: 1) historically linking contested land to Jewish heritage and; 2) dehumanizing Palestinians and their leaders. While the former attempts to provide an inherent Jewish ‘right’ to the land, the latter serves to instil fear and distrust of Palestinians and thus absolve Israelis of any responsibility for their own crimes and those committed in their name.
Quite predictably, because the current wave of resistance does not present the Hasbara with a clear target, it is in crisis. Unaware or indifferent to their underlying racism, Israeli officials have been endorsing vigilante violence and inciting the masses against Palestinians and their leadership of past and present. Some notable examples include the immediate labelling of protesters as suspect of ‘violence and terrorism’, incendiary remarks by Israeli officials about the current Palestinian leadership, exclusion of Arab-Israeli representatives from official briefings, a call for civilian armament at all times in order to combat ‘terrorists’ and an outrageous claim by Prime Minister Netanyahu claiming that the Mufti of Jerusalem was the impetus behind the Nazi ‘final solution’ for European Jewry.
Segregation and chronic fear lead to an inability to empathise with others’ suffering. When a lack of empathy is combined with incitement of fear and encouragement toward vigilante-style aggression, it produces a dangerous cocktail that leads to unbridled violence. During the past few weeks in Israel these sorts of events have become commonplace including several extra judicial killings of suspects (see here for sample) and a mob-crazed lynching (of a man who happened to be innocent).
If we are to judge by the rhetoric coming from Israeli officials, their inflammatory propaganda will only get worse, and with it more of these vicious and tragic acts of violence. It is clear that in addition to the daily violence of occupation, this escalation in anti-Palestinian rhetoric/propaganda will have tragic consequences not only for Palestinians, but also on Israeli society.
This article originally appeared as: ‘The violence, crisis and tragedy of Israeli propaganda’.
Courtesy: Counterpunch.org