Israel cannot cover up soldiers’ horrific abuses against Palestinians

It is not easy to commit crimes and get away with it. It requires legal expertise and a degree of sophistication, especially when it is necessary to deal simultaneously with public opinion, both local and international.

And no, I am not talking about the reservists suspected of raping a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman army base. I am talking about the State of Israel and its sophisticated whitewashing mechanisms. These mechanisms have loyally served the Israeli system for generations. But it seems that they have finally reached their expiration date and are now collapsing under the weight of the internal contradictions they had previously managed to contain.

For decades, the Israeli system has perfected its ability to use brutal violence against Palestinians without having to pay any price for it. This is a critical issue. After all, it is impossible to oppress millions of people for decades without violence on a horrific scale. But it is also impossible to continue to put those who employ such violence on trial, because who would agree to rule by force if they will later be denounced as criminals?

So what do you do? You engage in a typical Israeli bluff – but a sophisticated one.

Bluff is the operating system that has worked so well so far. Masses of complaints are received from anyone who bothers to complain. Palestinians, human rights organizations, UN agencies – please just complain. Paperwork is generated, but nothing is seriously investigated.

Every incident is treated as if it were, at most, a violation by the lowest levels. Politics and higher levels are never investigated. And the whole process proceeds very slowly.

This has been going on for so long that in the meantime, everyone forgets. Attention moves on, and years pass. And at this point, who cares about some Palestinian teenager that soldiers shot in the back and killed somewhere near the separation barrier many years ago? But nevertheless, we can say, “We investigated.”

As part of this system, a low-ranking person is indicted once every few years, and a big fuss is made about it. Such an indictment almost always happens when there is incontrovertible video footage or forensic evidence, so what can you do? And then, it’s a scandal. There’s international attention. Shock.

Think of Border Patrolman Ben Dery in Beitunia in 2014 or Sergeant Elor Azaria in Hebron in 2016. In both cases, there was unequivocal video evidence, so there was no choice but to put them on trial. Both killed a Palestinian. Both were convicted. But neither served even a year in prison.

The penalties were certainly ridiculous. But they were useful. Look: we investigated; we took action. Now we can comfortably close all other cases. This is how Israel managed to maintain its image as a normative country, while neutralizing the risk of international trials.

It is precisely this method that the entire Israeli political, military and judicial establishment is preparing to repeat with that sacred and sweet mantra: “Investigations protect soldiers.” Think about how many times you have heard this ignorant phrase in recent months: from the prime minister and the head of the opposition, from the current chief of staff and former chiefs, from legal advisers and former judges. And the intention is explicit, so that it is not misunderstood: if we “investigate” here, then those anti-Semites in The Hague will not investigate there. So we better “investigate” here, wink. Got it?

And despite all the Israeli bluffing, you have to admit that it didn’t turn out too badly. Think, on the one hand, of all the bodies, all the torture, all the ruin and all the other crimes. Then think, on the other hand, of the number of Israelis who have so far been brought to trial abroad. Tens of thousands on one side, zero on the other. The method works.

Until it stopped working, both locally and internationally. On the local scene, the political cost of investigations and the rare trial became too high, because the public would not even accept this meager and decrepit shield. Like nation-state law and other similar phenomena, the current political bon ton is Jewish supremacy from above. It is a supremacy that has refused over the years to accept even a show of pretense of responsibility for the killing or abuse of Palestinians.

In the international arena, too, the bluff gradually stopped working. After years of repeated reports from human rights organizations, it became harder to deny what was really happening here – and yet, that was not enough. Eventually, however, changes in international public opinion, Israel no longer caring about keeping up appearances, and the scope and duration of the violence – all interrelated – combined to make the risk of an international tribunal in The Hague real. This risk, in turn, reduced the political will in Israel to continue the charade of the “investigation.”

Because what is all this for, anyway? Despite all the show put on by the High Court of Justice, the attorney general, the state attorney general, the complaints and the mountains of paperwork – even rare trials – it still looks like The Hague will issue arrest warrants. If that is the case, then this is “evidence refuting the adage that our judiciary is our shield against the courts of justice abroad,” as Simcha Rothman explained. Rothman, chairman of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, was reminding us that the only apparent value of the legal system here is instrumental.

Which brings us to Sde Teiman—and The Hague. Parts of the Israeli establishment are still trying to operate under the old activation code. They do so hesitantly, out of weakness, as if they are forced to, out of fear of the mob and also of the prime minister himself. The prime minister and his mob are already operating from on high, using the new activation code. But those who cling to the old code do so not to serve justice or because it is the proper and morally necessary thing to do. Even in the face of the most horrific acts, their purpose was and remains instrumental. As IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi was quick to explain: “These investigations protect our soldiers in Israel and abroad, and help protect the values ​​of the IDF.” After listening to all those politicians and officials this week, one might conclude that the only terrible things that happened, if anything, were civilians storming Sde Teiman and obstructing the military’s ability to “investigate.” No one would care, God forbid, about the atrocities inflicted by soldiers on the detainees in their care.

This investigation that exploded this week is just the tip of the iceberg. More investigations await not only the lowest echelons in Israel. For a change, real investigations abroad are reserved for very high-ranking figures. Questions about Sde Teiman cannot help but rise all the way to the military attorney general herself.

And questions about the policy of using military force in Gaza, with its tens of thousands of dead, will not be answered by symbols. And we have not yet said a word about Israeli policy in the West Bank, which is rife with war crimes — crimes that are, essentially, crimes of policy, the result of decisions made by administration after administration. International arrest warrants will come, and they will not target low-level officials in the Housing Ministry.

These intersecting forces are the result of the intersection between Israel’s system of government – ​​pure and obvious Jewish supremacy – and reality. It is the reality of a norm-breaking state that cannot avoid international legal risks. The old activation code has expired. Keeping it in use is not the way to fix what is broken.

By Hagai El-Ad