While Israeli soldiers stormed Jenin and killed 10 Palestinians, members of Israeli registered professional cycling teams were training on roads in and around Geelong in the lead up to the .
The sponsorship of professional cyclists is one way the Israeli state tries to divert attention from its human rights abuses. Sports-washing apartheid to avoid accountability for denying basic human rights to Palestinians sits alongside Israel鈥檚 art- and culture-washing (remember that Eurovision Song Contest win from a few years ago?).
Eurovision and bike races aside, the latest attacks on the camp where journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was murdered in 2022 confirm that Israel鈥檚 new ultra right-wing government has permanent punishment of Palestinians as a .
The Jenin raid was carried out in daylight, rather than the middle of the night, which is unusual and troubling. While Jenin is allegedly a 鈥 which Israel used to justify its actions 鈥 the daylight raid on a Palestinian refugee community sends a signal that raids can occur at any time as part of Israel鈥檚 鈥渨ar on terror鈥.
The broader implication is that Palestine/Palestinian equals terrorism/terrorist and anything that has to be done to eradicate that is perfectly reasonable. Whether intelligence agencies had knowledge of an imminent plot by jihadists is almost beside the point. Palestinian refugees are living under violent occupation and any action to push back against that is seen as terrorism. From Israel鈥檚 perspective, people who object to living under apartheid are terrorists before they鈥檝e even opened their mouths.
The youngest victims of the massacre were . The pattern of injuries and fatal wounds suggests a shoot-to-kill approach 鈥斅爊ot some routine security sweep with the option of arresting a suspect or two. Live rounds were fired at people鈥檚 heads, chests, abdomens and legs. If you鈥檙e not immediately killed after that, you鈥檙e incapacitated and you need urgent treatment. But the capacity to treat the injured was severely hampered by and the denial of access by ambulances.
Predictably, the mainstream media trotted out the 鈥渢errorist鈥 line in response to the shootings in Jerusalem that claimed nine Israeli lives. In initial reports, they didn鈥檛 even bother using 鈥淧alestinian鈥 to describe the shooter, because they could safely assume anyone watching would already be doing that.
Israeli government ministers鈥 calls to expel or 鈥渘eutralise鈥 Palestinians under the guise of stamping out terrorism 鈥 or give Israelis the means to do so without consequence 鈥 are reported by the media without blinking. Israel can confidently assume that there will only be token demands for both sides to calm down/step back from the brink/be willing to compromise/negotiate etc, because it can pull out the terrorism card and everyone knows that it鈥檚 heroic to fight terrorism.
Against a background of in January 2023, Benjamin Netanyahu returned as Prime Minister with a cohort of even more . National security minister Itamar Ben Gvir doesn鈥檛 hide his wish to make the Palestinian problem 鈥渄isappear鈥. At the convened after the Jerusalem shooting, Gvir and Netanyahu decided that Israelis should be allowed freer access to more guns with which to kill Palestinians and that relatives of 鈥渢errorists鈥 should be denied access to social security.
It鈥檚 also fair to suspect that punishments such as 鈥溾 (i.e. demolishing more Palestinian homes) will increase in parallel with the expansion of illegal settlements. Gvir is previously on record as advocating for the 鈥 against Palestinians.
Israeli soldiers鈥 actions in Jenin and Israeli politicians鈥 actions afterwards make it very clear that they will continue to do exactly that and do it even more aggressively 鈥 as long they are safe from being held accountable.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of al Nakba (the catastrophe) when thousands of Palestinians were expelled from their homelands to establish the state of Israel. If the international community is genuinely interested in solving the conflict between Palestine and Israel, then we need to see real demands on Israel to stop the ongoing theft of Palestinian land and stop the collective punishment of Palestinians and real consequences for ignoring those demands.