Israel hangs a Palestinian from a bulldozer.

Seeing the gaunt body of a Palestinian man, Mohammed Al Naem, hanging from the blades of an Israeli military bulldozer near the fence, which separates besieged Gaza from Israel, left me speechless.There can be no justification or apparent 'logic'for the heartlessness behind such an inhumane act. The Israeli government, however, is nevershort of bizarre explanations. An Israeli right-wing politician offered an answer to why Israel would kill, mutilate and then steal the body of a dead Palestinian using an army bulldozer. 'If we have bodies of Palestinian terrorists, we can release those in return to get back the bodies of our soldiers,' Jeremy Saltan of the right-wing Yamina political alliance said in defence of the barbaric scene which was caught on camera on Sunday, February 23. The Israeliresponse to the army's blatantsavagery in Gaza is quite typical, as it follows the same grotesque logic thatIsrael has used for decadesto justify its numerous crimes against occupied and besieged Palestinians Israeli Defence

Minister Naftali Bennett also jumped at the opportunity in defence of the Israeli army's barbarism in Gaza. 'Enough of the hypocritical criticism by the left about the 'inhumanity' of using a bulldozer to recover the body of a terrorist,' Bennet said, showing no remorse for a scene thatsentshock wavesthroughout social media, asserting that 'that is how it should be done, and that is how we will do it'. Grotesque logic The Israeliresponse to the army's blatantsavagery in Gaza is quite typical, as it follows the same grotesque logic thatIsrael has used for decadesto justify its numerous crimes against occupied and besieged Palestinians. The Israeli behaviour, however, cannot be understood in the context of Israel's obsessions with 'security' or its tired cliches of 'fighting Palestinian terrorism'. Its basis lies in something entirely different: humiliating the Palestinian people, simply because it has the power to do so. Naem was only 27-years-old when he was killed, thus, he was merely 13 years of age when Israel placed the minuscule Gaza Strip - 365 square kilometres - under a hermetic and deadly siege. Chances are the young man's political discourse was already inundated with terminology that no child anywhere in the world should be exposed to. He must have already been familiar with the concept of martyrdom, along with other similar notions, as he watched close relatives, friends and...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT