Nathan Hersh Opinion Israel's Only Policy on Gaza Is to Beat the Drums of War
Following the killing
of Givati soldier Aviv Levi last week, another fragile ceasefire has
taken hold, potentially averting a war this summer. Prior to the
ceasefire, the violence on the Israel-Gaza border had begun to take more
familiar form, with Hamas launching rockets at Israel and Israel
striking targets in Gaza, and the Israel Defense Forces was preparing
for war.
The ceasefire, however, is clearly not a long-term solution.
Two potential
deviations from a march to war have recently gained traction. The first
is a 2011 Israeli initiative designed to alleviate the blockade of Gaza
with an offshore seaport. The plan would help improve the plummeting
Gaza economy while also helping ensure security for Israel. The seaport
plan is contingent on Hamas releasing two captive Israelis, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, and the remains of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, two IDF soldiers killed during the 2014 war.
>>The week Netanyahu admitted helplessness in the face of Hamas' flaming kites | Analysis | Israel, Hamas Make U-turn on the Precipice With Gaza Cease-fire | Analysis <<
Another plan to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is a solar energy field Israel would build, perhaps with Gulf funding, to supply Gaza with continuous electricity.
Let’s be clear: These are both good ideas that
should be pursued. Beyond these plans, however, Israel’s government has
thought up precious few solutions. It continues to treat Gaza as it has
for the past 11 years, preferring to simply keep the IDF prepared for
the next confrontation. IDF reserve units are now preparing for the next
Gaza war as if it could happen this summer.
The question all
Israelis should be asking is: Why are these solutions more practical
now? What has changed about the situation in Gaza that wasn’t true four
or six years ago? The answer is that nothing much has changed, aside
from Israel now tacitly acknowledging what those on the left have been
saying for years: The blockade isn’t working.
Instead of listening to those voices, however,
the government was satisfied to allow the army to set Israel’s policy
toward Gaza. By yielding to the army the mandate to form solutions for
Israel’s Gaza problem, government ministers avoid accountability.
Ultimately, this lack of accountability not only
led to thousands of innocent Palestinians killed, but it has harmed
Israeli soldiers, and by extension, Israeli society. IDF soldiers,
conscripted to serve in the military at 18 years old, end up carrying
out Israel’s only Gaza policy while standing too low in the military
hierarchy to change that policy.
As with the occupation of the West Bank,
there is no alternative policy to the Gaza blockade. This is by design.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert initiated the blockade to
strangle the Palestinians of Gaza until they voted out or overthrew
their Hamas leaders and Netanyahu has been happy to inherit that passive
strategy.
Every government
since Olmert’s, each more right-wing than the last, has used that as the
foundation for its own policies, which can occasionally be even more
aggressive; MK Betzalel Smotrich from the Habayit Hayehudi party
recently suggested Israel reinstate a military occupation of the Gaza Strip with boots on the ground. He also recommended building an Israeli settlement there.
In return for taking responsibility for the
occupation and blockade, the Israeli government proactively absolves the
army of wrongdoing while upholding it, socially if not legally. But
social or legal impunity is not really protection, it’s unhealthy
denial.
The other side of
this "protection" is that soldiers are expected to keep quiet about
their experiences. It’s not uncommon for soldiers from my army unit to
react to my opposition to the occupation and blockade by suggesting that
even harboring such a perspective is harmful to Israel. This social
pressure to keep dissenting opinions to oneself prevents many soldiers
from discussing the more difficult aspects of their military service.
The denial of accountability, then, is a denial of justice - not only justice for Palestinians, for for IDF soldiers themselves.
When the result of
soldiers’ actions is the killing of innocent people, the psychological
impact on them can be very difficult to overcome. If the result of their
decisions is the death of their fellow soldiers, the impact is
devastating.
One former soldier I
spoke to recently was responsible for sending a team into a building in
Gaza during the 2014 war, only to be ambushed by Hamas fighters. All the
soldiers he sent in were killed. Today he struggles with alcohol and
drug abuse, and he continuously relives his experience.
Making matters worse,
even soldiers known to be suffering from mental health problems, such
as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, rarely receive the attention or help
they require. This past December, when a friend from my reserve unit
killed himself, his history of PTSD, which the army had known about, had
been untreated since the 2012 Gaza war.
Meanwhile,
organizations meant to strengthen veterans’ voices receive public
support if they also defend Israel with publicity. Organizations that
don’t do publicity for the government receive only limited funding or
nothing at all.
In 2015, one group of
veterans had to publicly demand a minimum level of attention from the
Ministry of Defense for treatment of veterans with PTSD. Breaking the
Silence, an Israeli NGO that records soldiers’ testimonies of human
rights abuses in the occupied territories, fares far worse. Breaking the
Silence is frequently actively demonized by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and government-supported groups, despite its members having once been celebrated as IDF combat soldiers.
The families of fallen soldiers are also silenced unless they toe the line of Israel’s government. During a Knesset
committee meeting for some of the families of soldiers killed during
the 2014 Gaza War, some of the bereaved family members were yelled at by
the politicians who were meant to be listening to them. The wife of my
former battalion commander, who was killed in the 2014 war, took that
opportunity to clarify that in addition to Hamas, she holds Netanyahu accountable for her husband’s death. She has sustained ceaseless abuse from the prime minister’s supporters ever since.
Conscripting citizens
to the army and sending them to defend the occupation of the West Bank
and blockade of Gaza forces societal acceptance of those institutions.
When critics of those
institutions are smeared by the government and organizations supported
by the government, the occupation and blockade become unquestionable
aspects of Israeli security, and their consequences become inevitable:
Instead of producing professional soldiers capable of clearly
differentiating civilian from combatant, security from aggression, or
lethal tactics from non-lethal ones, the lack of accountability produces
occasional vigilantes like Elor Azaria, veterans who silently struggle
with their experiences and more staff sergeants like Aviv Levi who die
in vain protecting the government’s mistakes.
Both Israelis and
Palestinians deserve the possibility of freedom from occupation and
blockade. Israelis deserve a government that can offer them long-term,
multi-faceted protection from their enemies. Instead, they were given
one option: endless conflict, and the scapegoating their soldiers for
wrongdoing in the fog of war.
Real solutions will be out of reach until governments are accountable to their people, instead of taking advantage of them.
Nathan Hersh is a
writer and the former managing director of Partners for Progressive
Israel. He has written for the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Twitter: @Nathanhersh
Commenti
Posta un commento