When victims become killers

The Hitlerization of Benjamin Netanyahu and the Nazification of his Likud-led coalition government

THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda |  After years of frustration, I am finally proud of South Africa. It has restored my faith in the goodness of “man.” It has acquired a soft spot in my heart by doing the most moral thing – taking Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for the crime of genocide. What Israel is doing in Gaza is reprehensible. There can be no arguments anyone can advance to justify starving 2.3m people of food, water, electricity, fuel etc. in the name of fighting a group with only 20,000 fighters – Hamas. This is the more depressing because Israel has been bombing hospitals, water treatment facilities, schools, kindergartens, mosques, museums, shops, bakeries, etc. in the name of fighting Hamas. Really?

To make this tragedy even more painful is the fact that in this genocide, Israel is supported, protected, aided, financed and armed by the United States, the most powerful country in the world. The US has always positioned itself as the moral leader of the world. That it can be openly and blatantly involved in aiding and abating genocide is not surprising. America’s own history, like that of Israel, is one of settler colonialism. And like all settler colonialism (add Australia and Canada), it was built on genocide of native peoples and enslavement of African Americans. To this extent, America and Israel share a common history and common values. This war has further exposed America’s self-deluded image of itself as a moral nation.

As South Africa lawyers presented their case before the ICJ, I could see parallels with genocide against Jews by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany and another genocide against the Tutsi by the Interahamwe in Rwanda. Hitler, like the Hutu supremacists in Rwanda, and Israel extremists today, claimed they were involved in a life and death struggle against an enemy intent on destroying them. The genocide was presented to and justified before the people as a form of self-defense in the face an existential threat. In all these cases, the “enemy” was dehumanized: the Jews were subhuman, the Tutsi were cockroaches and now the Palestinians are human animals.

It is this dehumanization that removes moral restraints on perpetrators of genocide. If your “enemy” is subhuman or a “human animal”, then only the worst can be expected from them. And since they are intent on exterminating you, it makes sense to finish them off before they finish you – no holds barred. Because genocide is always dressed in the garb of self-defense, perpetrators feel they are doing the morally right thing. So, they proudly record their activities. The SS kept the records of the number of Jews they were exterminating. The Interahamwe in Rwanda proudly filmed themselves in action. Israel soldiers video record themselves chanting: “There are no innocent civilians in Gaza. We shall finish them all.” In such situations, even babies only months old are fair game.

For me, nothing in all this is really, surprising. I have a very cynical and pessimistic (actually, realistic) view of power – whether it is controlled by the state on an individual. I agree with the ancient Greek historian and general, Thucydides, repeated in one of Plato’s dialogues in The Republic, that, “The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” What America and Israel are demonstrating to us is this very crude logic of power. And because of this reality, South Africa will lose this case. Not because it doesn’t have compelling evidence but because the ICJ is a Western institution meant to protect Western power interests.

Take the example of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. For all of 2022, we were fed on propaganda on Western media – CNN, BBC, etc. about how blood-thirsty Russian president Vladmir Putin is. This was because the Russian army was allegedly bombing schools, hospitals, apartment blocks etc. in Ukraine. We were called upon by our Western masters to condemn Putin. The International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted Putin for war crimes and crimes against humanity in record time. Where are the calls to condemn Netanyahu and his genocidal right-wing government in Tel Aviv? Thanks to Israel, now we can confirm what we have always known, that the ICC is not an impartial international court out to dispense justice. It is just an arm of US and Western power.

How does the West led by the US exercise such impunity and get away with it? First because they are very powerful, no one can speak truths to power. The cost of the West isolating an individual, country or organization are very high. It is better to keep silent or side with them. But they also control the means of mass propaganda. Contrary to the claim of “independent” media and free expression in the West, nearly all mainstream media outlets regurgitate the official policy of their governments. If the government of the US hates Cuba or Iran or North Korea, US media will follow suit. It there is free media in the West it is because it is in bed with state power. There may be some differences between the state and the media in the West. But they are over form, not substance.

Yet the war in Gaza has also made me lose my faith in the wickedness of “man.” I have been inspired first and foremost by Jewish people including scholars across the world and especially in Israel, who have taken to the streets to protest the genocide in Gaza. “Not in my name,” many have marched chanting. To these courageous humans, I can give all the world to thank them. And then, many citizens of Western countries across the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, etc. have taken to the streets to express their anger and to protest the complicity of their governments in this genocide.

Everyone can see that the genocide in Gaza cannot be defended on the grounds that Hamas threatens the existence of Israel. How can a poorly armed “terrorist group” wipe off the surface of the earth a nation with the fourth most powerful army in the world, one which is armed with nuclear weapons. Even a fool cannot buy that story. And this story is advanced by the very people who told us Russia has nothing to fear when neighboring Ukraine hosts the armies and nuclear weapons of the world’s most powerful military alliance, NATO. I think Western leaders and their media take us for fools. Hamas does not pose an existential threat to Israel, its claims to seek the destruction of the Jewish state are just that – hot air.

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amwenda@independent.co.ug