A picture is worth a thousand words: Hundreds of Palestinian detainees and prisoners who were released on Saturday are seen on their knees, in prison, wearing white T-shirts bearing a blue Star of David and the words “we will not forget nor forgive.” Gideon Levy suggests that Israel’s revenge against Palestinians has gone on long enough, and it is time to see them as human beings, capable of feeling pain – and anger.
by Gideon Levy, reposted from Ha’aretz
The head of Israel’s Prison Service, Kobi Yaakobi, revealed himself to be a questionable copywriter. There is nothing like these ludicrous pictures to reflect how low the propaganda of a modern state can sink. The Prison Service wanted to be Hamas, but Hamas is more successful than the service, at least in this battle over winning minds. It is arguably more humane as well. The hostages who returned on Saturday looked better than some of those prisoners in the blue and white T-shirts.
Ridiculous as the pictures are, one cannot ignore the message Israel chose to attach to the bodies of the released prisoners: We won’t forget. We won’t forgive. We will pursue you. Hamas’ message was: Time is running out. Even if this is cheap propaganda, one cannot ignore the message. It’s immoral to use hostages as a propaganda banner? Then this applies to us as well. Their propaganda talks about ending the war, while ours talks about pursuit and an endless war, waged by the “eternal people” which does not forget nor forgive.
The world, including Israel, forgot when it came to Nazi Germany, Vietnam forgot when it came to the U.S., the Algerians forgot as far as France goes and the Indians did the same regarding Britain – only the “eternal people” will never forget. How ridiculous. If anyone should “not forget nor forgive” one day, it will be the Palestinians, after 100 years of torment, including the prisoners who were released on Saturday. They will not forget under what conditions they were held in, and some will not forgive their wrongful detention, with no trial ever held in their case.
Emotions ran wild again on Saturday, and justifiably so. Three more lives were extricated from hell. News Channel 12’s military analyst Nir Dvori explained to Israelis that the release of hostages was evidence “of the resilience of the Israeli nation,” without specifying what he meant. For the brainwashed and weary viewers, there was no need to do so. It sufficed for the philosopher Dvori to pronounce how beautiful we are. But while all moist eyes were turned to the Re’im military base, the hostages’ first point of arrival, and then to Sheba Medical Center and Ichilov Hospital, where they were taken, another 369 Palestinian detainees and prisoners were released, all of them human beings, exactly like our Sagui, Iair and Sasha.
Cameras of foreign media outlets focused less on the Palestinians, while Israeli cameras almost totally ignored them. They are all “murderers,” after all. No helicopter waited for them in order to rush them to the hospital, and some were immediately deported from their country. A minority of them had blood on their hands; the others were political prisoners, opponents of the regime. Most of them were residents of Gaza who were caught up in that inferno. It’s doubtful that all of the hundreds of Gazans released on Saturday had ever raised a hand against an Israel Defense Forces soldier or residents of Israel’s border communities.
Some of them were abducted from Khan Yunis, just like Israelis were abducted from Nir Oz. But as far as Israel is concerned, all of them were part of Hamas’ Nukhba force. They were also awaited by excited families, no less excited than the Dekel Chen, Troufanov and Horn families. They also love their children.
Some of them didn’t know what had happened to their loved ones since the war began, just like our families didn’t. But whereas our families, like the entire nation, were allowed to rejoice as much as they wished to, led by Israel’s propaganda broadcasts which turn every human celebration into a North-Korean-style festival of indoctrination, the Palestinians were forbidden to rejoice. In East Jerusalem and the West Bank, any displays of joy were again prohibited. They were not allowed to express joy. So cruel is our tyranny, extending as far as controlling their emotions.
Judging by the treatment of prisoners and hostages – a very meaningful index – it’s hard to know which society is more humane. Does Israel abide by the Geneva Convention more than Hamas does? It cannot claim so anymore. This harsh impression can no longer be amended, not even with T-shirts emblazoned with a blue Star of David.
Gideon Levy is an Israeli journalist and author. Levy writes opinion pieces and a weekly column for the newspaper Haaretz that often focus on the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. Levy has won prizes for his articles on human rights in the Israeli-occupied territories. In 2021, he won Israel’s top award for journalism, the Sokolov Award.
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