Lots has been written about the crisis facing liberal Zionism. You can read it about it here, here and here. Essentially, liberal Jews in the diaspora, mainly American Jews, are having a harder and harder time reconciling their liberal values and their support for Israel. Peter Beinart observed a few years ago that when faced with the conflict between their liberal values and their support for Israel, older American Jews would park their liberal values at the door, but younger American Jews were choosing to park their support for Israel at the door.
Ordinarily, events in Israel bring the conflict of liberal Zionism into focus, with the latest instance of this being the Gaza war.
But now the front page news in America that should be making liberal Zionists uncomfortable. The two stories dominating the news this week are “Black Lives Matter” and the Senate report on CIA torture.
Of course, if you’re a good liberal in America, you’re with the protestors in Ferguson, New York and elsewhere. You may not be with them on your feet, but you certainly are in your heart. And you’re aghast at the actions of the CIA, which went far beyond all norms of human decency, and was illegal and ineffective to boot.
So, what do these stories have to do with Israel? A lot.
“Black Lives Matter” is an abbreviation. It’s short for “Black lives matter as much as white lives do.” Anyone who fails to grasp that is, well, racist. But if Black lives matter, then Palestinian lives matter too. And, just like Black lives matter as much as White lives, Palestinian lives matter as much as Jewish lives.
Except in Israel, they don’t. In Israel, Jewish lives matter more than Palestinian lives. A lot more. And if you think American cops are getting away with murder (they are), it’s nothing compared to what Israeli cops and members of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) get away with. Remember the Palestinian kid from Tampa who got the crap beat out of him while his hands were zip tied, Tarek Abu Khdeir? That was at the hands of Israeli police.
As badly as Blacks are treated in America today, I doubt many would trade places with Palestinians living in Israel, regardless of whether those Palestinians are living in Israel proper, the West Bank, or Gaza.
In his book, The General’s Son, Miko Peled tells of the actions of the IDF forces patrolling the Mediterranean off the coast of Gaza. A Palestinian fisherman is ordered at gunpoint to jump from his boat, which the IDF then destroys, while telling the fisherman to tread water while counting to 100. When he finishes, he’s ordered to do so again, and again. Eventually, he runs out of strength, and drowns. Why is this done, Peled inquires. “We have to show them who’s boss” is the response.
And our friends in Israel are right up there with the CIA on torture. Visit a website like Mondoweiss or Electronic Intifada and enter “torture” in the search function and you’ll find hours of reading material. Here’s Allison Deger of Mondoweiss reporting earlier this year in Conviction Rate for Israeli interrogators who use torture: 0%:
In Israel torturing Palestinian prisoners is against the law, but since 2001 there has not been a single conviction—even when the state admits its use. Over the past 13 years Palestinian detainees have filed over 800 petitions to criminally prosecute and in 15 percent of those trials, the state admitted to the abuse. That’s right, zero.
The issue of criminally prosecuting interrogators will be discussed in the High Court later this month. From the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel:
“The State admits that ISA interrogators tortured Mr. Abu Ghosh and the medical reports support his testimony. Some of his injuries affect him for the rest of his life. The Ministry of Justice is well aware of the details of this case yet still refuses to open a criminal investigation into this case while refraining from giving legal grounds for its refusal. More than 800 complaints against ISA torture were submitted since 2001 and in 15% of them the Sate actually acknowledges that the torture described took place. Despite this the number of criminal investigations ISA interrogators remains at ZERO.” [Emphasis in original]”
The Palestinian prisoner legal rights group Addameer described some of the most common types of torture:
“Physical torture also includes the denial of food and starving the prisoners, which is a phenomenon we have seen as well. They also use isolation as a form of torture. Beatings, as well as slapping, kicking, shabach and shackling in different ways which cause pain in different places in the body, as well as holding the prisoners in dark, small areas such as cabinets or between narrow walls of concrete.”
The “shabach” position mentioned above is when a prisoner is shackled to a chair, handcuffed, bagged and left for hours, It was discussed in a 1999 Israeli High Court decision, which deemed torture illegal and allowed for criminal prosecution against officers. The ruling allowed for one exemption, the “ticking time bomb” scenario, where upon approval from a high-ranking official some forms of physical duress are allowed. Still officers who use abuse are not immune to criminal charges. Here’s a description from the judges of the “shabach” position:
“He is seated on a small and low chair, whose seat is tilted forward, towards the ground. One hand is tied behind the suspect, and placed inside the gap between the chair’s seat and back support. His second hand is tied behind the chair, against its back support. The suspect’s head is covered by an opaque sack, falling down to his shoulders. Powerfully loud music is played in the room.”
Last year the Palestinian prisoner Arafat Jaradat died in Israeli prison after suffering from a heart attacked that was caused from “extreme torture” during interrogation. The Palestinian Prisoners Club also reports 95% of prisoners experience physical and psychological torture. Yet until today, officers who use torture continue to do so with impunity.
Thus the struggle for liberal Zionists. Beinart is correct about younger liberal American Jews abandoning their support for Israel. But older ones are as well. I even know a few of them.