Condemnations continue to pour in for the murder of Ali Dawabshe, an 18 month-old Palestinian boy killed by Israeli colonists when his house was torched last week. Ali’s parents and 4-year-old brother, Ahmad, cling to life in hospital, all in critical condition. The arsonists spray painted the Star of David and the word “revenge” on the walls of the family’s home, apparently signalling that the heinous action was to avenge an Israeli court ruling calling for the dismantling of a small number of illegal Israeli houses located in a nearby colony, to which Ali and his family had no connection.
Meanwhile, Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have rushed to denounce Ali’s murder, despite the fact that just two days before, Netanyahu decried this court ruling calling for the dismantling of the colonists’ houses and vowed to build more illegal colonies. Who would not condemn the killing of an innocent child? Condemnations are easy and come quickly when babies are involved. But they also are cheap and judging by Israel’s past actions, will remain empty rhetoric.
Israel and its news media friends will undoubtedly try to portray Ali’s killers as rogue elements or rotten apples, not acting on direct Israeli orders. Yet the perpetrators are part of a system in which systematic violence against Palestinians is systematically ignored.
Statistics tabulating Israeli attacks against Palestinians speak volumes: just last week, Israeli forces killed four innocent Palestinians, including two children bringing the total number of Palestinians killed to 19 with more than 1,000 injured in 2015 alone. These killings, like the murder of thousands of Palestinians last year, go unaddressed with human rights organisations noting that fewer than 2 per cent of violent acts against Palestinians ever result in any form of criminal accountability.
One need only recall last year’s killing of 16 year-old Mohammad Abu Khdeir, who also was set on fire by Israeli colonists. To date, Mohammad’s killers have not faced justice and may never be punished just as a current council member of the illegal colony of Elon Moreh was never punished for killing two Palestinians and causing the demolition of scores of Palestinian homes.
Incendiary statements
Not only is violence against Palestinians ignored, often it is encouraged and rewarded. For example, some Israeli politicians holding key cabinet positions have boasted about killing Palestinians with one recently having called for the beheading of Palestinians and another posting articles calling for genocide to be perpetrated against Palestinians. These politicians are not called to task for their incendiary statements. Rather, frequently they are welcomed into European and other capitals as statesmen or stateswomen. Let it be said clearly: those who burnt down Ali’s home while he and his family slept are not maniacal fringe elements in Israeli society but part of the fabric that continues to believe that Israeli Jews are superior and that Palestinians are not entitled to live in freedom and dignity in their homeland. This belief in Jewish superiority has allowed Israel to justify the widespread killing of Palestinians, while confining blockaded Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to an open air prison.
Ali’s killers are not merely those who set his home aflame. His killers include those that allow for Israeli immunity from prosecution, whether the perpetrators are colonists, soldiers or officials. Also included among Ali’s killers are those who continue to support Israel diplomatically by shielding it from sanctions. And his killers are those who continue to believe and profess that security for the occupier is of greater importance than security for the occupied.
Ali’s actual murder may have been committed by colonists who have been given the green light to steal Palestinian land for Israeli-only housing and roads and who kill and maim with impunity. But his other killers are those who continue to remain silent in the face of these crimes or, even worse, ask Palestinians to simply accept the colonies for the sake of “peace”. One can only hope that the world will now see the monster it has created and will put a swift and severe end to its horrific crimes before we bury more children.
— Diana Buttu is a Ramallah-based analyst, former adviser to Palestine Liberation Organisation chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian negotiators and policy adviser to Al Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network.
