Brutality Unleashed

October 7, 7 pm. :  I have just watched an AP video documenting a level of brutality by Israelis against Palestinians that has me gasping.  It conveys two things. One, that Israel has pulled out all the stops so that it is acceptable to  beat and shoot Palestinians like despicable creatures; and two, that Israel has launched an observable campaign to push Palestinians unto a violent resistance that will justify removing them from all of Palestine.

The AP video is shocking. It shows very clearly and up close how Israeli men, dressed to appear to be Palestinian protesters throwing  stones at Israelis, draw in the waiting soldiers who then attack the real Palestinians whether or not they were also throwing stones. What happens when the soldiers advance on the Palestinians is what drives me to write these words.  The “undercover” Israeli men suddenly join the soldiers and draw their handguns.  After they together pull a Palestinian to the ground and kick him repeatedly, one of the infiltrators puts his handgun against the Palestinian man’s thigh and shoots.  Full stop. Read that sentence again. Thus disabled, the man cannot walk, so the soldiers drag him along the ground like a piece of meat toward their waiting vans. 

Meanwhile, another infiltrator shoots a Palestinian in the head, and he too is dragged away.  I could see him in the video, on the ground, a shaking hand reaching for his head and pulling back full of blood.  There was a third such assault underway, but frankly, I don’t remember what it showed.  My brain is just echoing the brutal kicking of an injured man and the certain death of the second man. 

And this has happened only a few miles from where I am sitting.

Yesterday Netanyahu declared all-out war on terrorism. To the average Israeli this reads “war on most Palestinians” because they have been indoctrinated to believe that Palestinians are inherently violent.   To the  rampaging settlers, who have already taken over Palestinian lands, attacked farmers and random youth,  and declared their intention to clear the way for a purely Jewish state, this means they can be as brutal as they want.  They are now fully justified in provoking, kicking, torturing and shooting any Palestinian.

I write about one scene, but there have been others like it happening in rapid succession over the past 5 days.  I believe Israel is perpetrating and provoking as much violence as possible in order finally to be able to expel or eliminate the unwanted Palestinians from the rest of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  That leaves only Gaza, and we already know how its fate can be decided.   Another “Protective Edge” like last summer’s assault, protecting the edge of the apartheid state, and the Zionist project will be complete.