A group of Israeli soldiers takes a selfie near the ruins of a Gaza town on the Israeli border on February 19.TSAFRIR ABAYOV (AP)Selfies of war crimes in Gaza
An Al Jazeera documentary brings together horrific images of the devastation in the Strip, including those recorded and shared on social media by Israeli soldiers demolishing houses, humiliating prisoners, or playing with Palestinian women’s underwear
There are reasons to be wary of Al Jazeera: the largest news channel in Arabic, which also broadcasts in English, is owned by the Emirate of Qatar, which is only too happy to deploy its influence in the region. It sparked the Arab Spring, which succeeded in toppling some tyrants but not in consolidating democracies (there is none in Qatar either). There are also reasons, perhaps more, to pay attention to what Al Jazeera has to say: not only as a thermometer of how Arab countries are reacting to the Middle East conflict, but also because it is the global television channel with the greatest presence in Gaza, given that the major international media outlets are denied access. It has first-hand material that it continues to broadcast despite the fact that Israeli forces killed four of its journalists (and the entire family of its local chief, Wael Dahdouh, who continued to work through the heartbreak.) It is no longer present in Israel, where its activities have been banned.
Al Jazeera has produced the documentary Investigating war crimes in Gaza, available on its website and on YouTube, which presents evidence of violations of the rules of war and humanitarian law committed by Israeli troops in a small, overcrowded territory where more than 43,000 people have already died and where most of the buildings have been destroyed. It includes good material of the devastation of the Strip, but what is most striking is that it contains abundant footage recorded and distributed by Israeli soldiers themselves, because the military appears not to have any restrictions when it comes to sharing footage of shootings, demolitions or the mistreatment of prisoners on Instagram or TikTok. A first, shocking conclusion is that the dissemination of these videos is tolerated by army commanders, given that those who upload them to social networks often do so under their own names. Today it is quite common — and at the same time stupid — for someone to record themselves committing a crime, but it fits poorly into the discipline expected of such a sophisticated army. This material could be incriminating in court, were it not for Israel’s habitual disregard for the demands of international justice.
Among these videos there are some that show cruelty: shooting defenseless civilians, including children and women, just for being where they are; the humiliation of handcuffed prisoners, almost naked and dragged along the ground; the destruction of basic civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and schools. Other videos are chilling for their frivolity: they are set to music and emoticons, trying to make humor out of the tragedy of others. The euphoria unleashed by the occupation forces with each demolition is shocking. We see private homes, entire neighborhoods, entire villages, and multi-story buildings being destroyed with large explosive charges. There is a soldier who admits that he is addicted to this spectacle. A few days ago, a well-known journalist from Israeli television channel N12 had the rare honor of pressing the button to blow up a building, this time in Lebanon. An Israeli song, which went viral on networks and is played at parties and discos, mocks Gazans who have lost everything: This was my house. It is danced to on TikTok, in a grotesque manner, by users who dress up as Palestinians.
In some of these selfies from the front, Israeli soldiers enter private homes, destroying everything, and look surprised to find drawers full of fine lingerie, as if they had just discovered that Palestinians have erotic lives. There are several images of soldiers unfurling the garments around them or putting panties, bras, and stockings on over their uniforms. The footage leads to the conclusion that the Israeli army’s actions are not only in response to the military logic of putting an end to Hamas, but also to quench the Israelis’ thirst for revenge after the brutal attacks of October 7, 2023 (over which this documentary passes too quickly).
In addition to the footage captured by Al Jazeera and that of the Israeli soldiers themselves, the documentary brings together the opinions of international experts in humanitarian law, witnesses to the horror, and Palestinian intellectuals. Some of the war crimes committed in Gaza are detailed here: the collective punishment of an entire people, the torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners, the use of hunger as a weapon of war, the systematic attacks on health workers and aid workers such as those of World Central Kitchen or the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which has been outlawed. There is much insistence that Israel has the unconditional support of the United States and the United Kingdom. It is clear what the main problem for the West is in the eyes not only of Arab public opinion, but of the entire Global South: the loss of credibility in the face of the double standards applied in the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the lack of consistency in the defense of human rights depending on where they are violated.
A Palestinian woman weeping amid the rubble cries out to the camera: “Who cares about us?” This is not an impartial, cold, neutral, and equidistant report, nor could we have expected it to be. But the images that are placed before our eyes are as real as they are disturbing.
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