Why are Israeli soldiers sharing snuff videos from their genocide in Gaza?
Decades of impunity, not only for the Israeli regime but also for Israeli individuals guilty of war crimes, has led us to this point.
Even those who support the Israeli regime seem to be shocked at the brazenness with which Israeli soldiers are sharing these videos. British broadcaster Piers Morgan, for example, asked on X, formerly Twitter: “Why do Israeli soldiers keep filming themselves doing this kind of crass, insensitive thing? Why don’t their commanders stop them? Makes them look callous when so many children in Gaza are being killed.” For Morgan, it seems, the problem is not what the soldiers are doing but rather that they are filming themselves doing it.
People less informed on the context might find it strange that these soldiers are implicating themselves in such horrific crimes without a second thought. But those with deeper knowledge of the Zionist settler colonial project in Palestine know that decades of impunity not only for the Israeli regime but also for Israeli individuals guilty of war crimes has led us to this point.
Indeed, the Israeli regime has yet to face any serious consequences from third states for the crimes it has been committing against the Palestinian people since its inception. Rather, it enjoys exceptional diplomatic and trade relations with much of the Western world and has been the largest recipient of United States aid. Rather than being shunned from global institutions and events, it is included and celebrated from Eurovision to the Olympics.
And there is another aspect of Israeli impunity that is often overlooked: Israeli soldiers routinely admit to horrific crimes they commit against the Palestinians to clear their conscience and absolve themselves of personal responsibility but never face any accountability.
Israelis themselves describe the practice as “yorim ve bochim”, which translates from Hebrew as “shooting and crying”. . .
The reality is that over the last seven and a half decades, there has been complete impunity for brutalising and slaughtering Palestinians. The ongoing genocide in Gaza and the way in which it is being so brazenly shared on social media by the perpetrators is a manifestation of that impunity. The only way to make sure that it stops and never happens again is to hold not only those who have taken part in the genocide accountable but also those who are complicit.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
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