Ben-Gweer's plan to build a moat with crocodiles around the prison «keziot» It demonstrates the increasing brutality applied to Palestinians since October 7, writes Yoav Litvin.
Yoav Litwin, writer, photographer and doctor of psychology/neuroscience
Since October 2, 2023, the Israeli government has experienced a kind of relief. It decided that it should no longer pretend to care about the Palestinians as human beings and could openly seek their destruction and dispossession. This was made possible by two factors: international impunity, guaranteed by US imperial support and the obedience of Western governments, and Israel’s domestic genocidal enthusiasm, cultivated for decades and pervading society.
Support for deprivation of property is based on the division cultivated by the ruling class. «their own» and «stranger»Intimidation and propaganda, and the system of rewards for aggression — material benefits in the form of land and other resources, elevated social status and impunity for violence against «stranger» groups. This manipulation of fear and reward prepares society to perceive genocide as something normal, even righteous, because it is a human being. «tune in» Theft on a neurological level.
Moat as a political spectacle
The latest example of this dynamic was Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gwir’s proposal to surround the prison. «keziot» A moat of Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus) to guard Palestinian prisoners.
Who knows, maybe crocodiles will be attracted by a welfare package like the one offered to newly arrived settlers. — Both are recruited to strengthen the Zionist border.
Nile crocodiles have exceptionally powerful jaws, are opportunist predators, can reach 6.1 meters (20 feet) in length and weigh more than 450 kilograms (1,000 pounds). They usually attack the victim at the watering hole, and then commit «slippery»It is designed to kill large animals (including humans). Since crocodiles are not able to chew food, this tumble serves as the main mechanical tool for crushing bones, tearing flesh and tearing the victim into pieces convenient for swallowing.
Ben-Guire proposal echoing Donald Trump's failed project «Alcatraz aligator»Tragically far from satire. What’s more, the Department of Homeland Security has allocated about $7 million for the construction of these moats, which has already begun, including long-term plans to maintain and care for reptiles.
For now, however, the plan is on hold. — not out of concern for the Palestinians who may be subjected to these barbaric punitive measures, including «slippery»This is because of concerns for the welfare of the animals themselves.
Appeal to «reptilian»
The crocodile proposal opens a revealing window into how systems of domination and dehumanization habituate societies, especially those lower in the hierarchy within. «his» To take satisfaction from the cruelty that serves to steal the ruling class.
Like many Israeli policies adopted after October 7, it functions as a political theater designed to reward the most primitive impulses associated with the emotional/limbic brain system and related pathways. — «reptilian»Dominance, fear, humiliation, revenge and gloating (the pleasure of someone else’s misfortune).
While the Zionist ruling classes indulge in the theft of land and resources in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, Ben-Gwir appeals to those for whom humiliation and mockery of people perceived as «lower»It gives a psychological boost, strengthening the sense of superiority.
The attraction of crocodiles also creates a political spectacle aimed at collecting votes. — It's a kind of dopamine reward system for the Israeli public, trained to see cruelty as a virtue. In this genocidal atmosphere, Ben-Gvir reigns supreme, rising up the Israeli political hierarchy with a view to becoming prime minister.
As Richard Smith points out in the book «The joy of pain: gloating and the dark side of human nature»A recurring motive among those who cause suffering to others — Many of them have been mistreated in the past and have sought revenge. In Israeli society, however, this extends to society as a whole: people are encouraged to accept a victim mentality, reinforced by a mix of Zionism and Judaism appealing to the historical experience of world Jewry. — From the Holocaust to the decompensation of Palestinian resistance to Zionist oppression and colonization taken out of context.
Indeed, gloating is a cheap reward for aggression that caters to the theft of land and other resources by the ruling class, as reflected in the shameless and joyful sadism displayed by Israeli soldiers, especially after October 7. — Because imperial and domestic impunity promises a lack of accountability, and thus permits and even encourages such behavior.
Photos of linked and blindfolded Palestinian civilians alongside smiling Israeli soldiers have even become a kind of thing. «social currency»including on dating apps.
Dehumanization and the path to healing
Franz Fanon, Martinique’s psychiatrist, writer, and revolutionary thinker, analyzed how colonialism dehumanizes both the oppressed and the oppressors, the dehumanization of the latter through the humiliation and bullying they inflict on the former.
Participation in the destruction of indigenous society embodies the dehumanization of the oppressor who destroys the physical humanity of the oppressed while destroying his own humanity by rejecting what makes him human. — Empathy across constructed racial, gender and other boundaries.
Эпизод с крокодилами отражает степень, в которой израильское сионистское общество отказалось от своей человечности ради воровства, и то, как его правящий класс подавляет сочувствие, апеллируя к примитивным «рептильным» нейронным процессам страха и вознаграждения для обслуживания своей жажды наживы.
Почти три года сионистское безумие безжалостно уничтожает любые остатки сочувствия к палестинскому народу, заменяя их усиленной дегуманизацией, отвращением к их культуре, истории и самому их существованию, а также радостью от их страданий. Остаётся лишь бесконечное падение в моральную деградацию и жестокость, где расизм, колониальное воровство и капиталистический индивидуализм воспеваются как сама основа идентичности, а побег из этой конструкции активно отбивается угрозами суровых социальных и физических наказаний.
Именно на этом держатся системы господства: убедить людей, что то, что было привито им воспитанием, — это «естественно», а значит, не может быть изменено, иначе… И всё же то, что было привито, можно отучить, а то, что было «настроено» на господство, можно перенастроить на сочувствие, солидарность и совместное сопротивление, перестроив социальные иерархии, поддерживающие это господство.
Это центральный тезис моей готовящейся к выходу книги, написанной в соавторстве с историком Иланом Паппе, «Настроены на воровство: сионизм и формирование западного мышления»: исследование поведенческих и нейрологических механизмов, посредством которых системы господства, включая сионизм, приучают людей участвовать в лишении других имущества и даже получать от этого удовольствие, — и показывающее, как эту установку можно преодолеть.
