On October 9, two days into the present Israel-Hamas war – by which the Israeli military seems intent on semi-obliterating the Gaza Strip – the web site of the New York-based journal Ladies’s Well being printed some tips on “How To Cope With The Trauma Of Violent Photographs And Movies Of Hamas’ Assault on Israel”.
It’s unsurprising, in fact, that the potential for trauma has been detected solely as a response to Hamas’s shock assault on Israel and to not, say, the previous 75 years of Israeli violence and ethnic cleaning of Palestine – the cumulative wicked barbarity of which is what prompted Hamas’s actions within the first place.
In spite of everything, Israel’s fastidiously crafted monopoly on victimisation and the attendant dehumanisation of Palestinians implies that footage of the continued Israeli terrorisation of Gaza has by no means compelled US media retailers to prescribe “steps to guard your psychological well being”.
And but the Ladies’s Well being intervention constitutes a novel type of twist on the victimisation theme, by which even the vicarious trauma that’s allegedly intermittently skilled by US audiences trumps the unmitigated trauma suffered by the folks upon whom Israel wages perpetual battle.
The article quotes a scientific psychologist in New York on why it may be so upsetting to come across violent photos in a single’s social media feed: “We’re empathetic folks. We are able to image ourselves in another person’s footwear.”
However selective empathy will not be empathetic in any respect. That is significantly the case when “empathy” for Israel occurs to be so politically expedient by way of justifying obscene portions of US army help to that nation and the slaughter of oldsters whose existence complicates the US-Israeli imaginative and prescient of the world.
In the US, my estranged homeland, the very emotion of empathy has been underneath sustained assault by a politico-economic system that thrives on alienation and the eradication of communal bonds. When empathy could be weaponised, nonetheless, leaders from throughout what passes as a political spectrum within the US come out in droves to “stand with Israel”.
To make certain, the Israeli monopoly on victimisation defies logic and actuality – and casting the state of Israel within the position of pre-eminent sufferer is a bit like granting the standing of victimhood to an assault rifle.
Recall that the foundational episode of the entire “Israeli-Palestinian battle” consisted of Israel’s violent self-invention on Palestinian land in 1948, which entailed the destruction of some 530 Palestinian villages, the killing of 15,000 Palestinians, and the expulsion of three-quarters of one million extra.
And the bloody sample has solely continued since, with Palestinians persistently dying in disproportionate numbers even whereas being solid because the aggressors and victimisers. Take Operation Protecting Edge in 2014, when the Israeli military killed 2,251 folks within the Gaza Strip in 50 days, together with 299 girls and 551 youngsters. Six Israeli civilians have been killed and 67 troopers.
In Operation Pillar of Defence in November 2012, the Israeli military killed 167 Palestinians whereas struggling six fatalities in return. In Operation Cast Lead, which Israel launched in Gaza on the finish of 2008, greater than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed, primarily civilians. Amongst them have been 400 youngsters. Three Israeli civilians have been additionally killed together with 10 troopers.
After the 2012 Israeli assault on Gaza, Israeli journalist Gideon Levy took to the pages of the Haaretz newspaper to remind readers that, “for the reason that first Qassam rocket fell on Israel in April 2001, 59 Israelis have been killed – and 4,717 Palestinians”. Noting that this proportion was “horrifying”, Levy ventured that “it must disturb each Israeli”.
After all, “ought” remains to be the operative phrase. However to be “disturbed” by the horrifying context by which Palestinians have now existed for greater than seven and a half a long time would require empathy – which might in flip require an acknowledgement of Palestinian humanity, reasonably than the propagation of a pernicious US-backed narrative affirming the infinitely superior worth of Israeli over Palestinian life.
Additionally extremely disturbing is that, whereas this narrative dehumanises Palestinians to the purpose of successfully denying them the best to emotional and psychological struggling, Israel performs up its emotional casualties as a method of garnering extra empathy.
Following Operation Forged Lead, for instance, the Israeli Ministry of International Affairs broadcast a complete of 770 Israeli casualties, of which no fewer than 584 have been victims of “shock and nervousness syndrome”.
Equally, following the 34-day Israeli battle on Lebanon in 2006 that killed some 1,200 folks in that nation, the Israeli Well being Ministry reported that out of the 4,262 Israeli civilians who had been “handled in hospitals for accidents” a full 2,773 have been affected by “shock and nervousness”.
Whereas the Israeli state’s obsession with air raid sirens and apocalyptic discourse is little doubt helpful in serving to to generate common nervousness, a tally of “shock and nervousness” victims within the Gaza Strip would presumably produce a quantity within the neighborhood of two.3 million, the present inhabitants of the Palestinian enclave.
As former Oxfam spokesman Karl Schembri as soon as mused: “How will you speak about post-traumatic stress interventions in Gaza when individuals are nonetheless in a relentless state of trauma?”
Fixed anguish has been ensured by all method of exterior stimuli, together with the asphyxiating Israeli siege of Gaza, common Israeli massacres, the pulverisation of condo buildings and neighbourhoods, and the usage of drones and sonic booms to obliterate any potential for even a second of peace.
Now, because the Israeli military goes about carpet-bombing Gaza and a horrifying quantity of blood stays to be spilled, “empathy” stays firmly entrenched in Israel’s arsenal – and it’s a lethal weapon certainly.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.