How to Dehumanize Palestinians

When Palestinian fighters kill 764 Israeli civilians, world leaders like Joe Biden insist it is their desire to “annihilate” Israel.

But when the Israeli military kills at least 28,000 Palestinians, overwhelmingly civilians, world leaders like Biden do not claim Israel’s desire is to annihilate the Palestinians, instead Biden insists Israel’s desire is merely self-defense, even though Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu twice likened 2.3M Palestinians in Gaza to Amalek, Amalek being the people the Biblical Israelites were instructed to annihilate. In other words, when Israeli leaders declare their intention to annihilate Palestinians, and then proceed to annihilate the tens of thousands of Palestinians, proceed to destroy 70% of the homes in Gaza, proceed to starve millions of Palestinians in Gaza, Israel is apparently acting in self-defense. 

When Palestinian fighters take Israelis into captivity, they are called hostages. And, because the victims are Israelis, their suffering captures the world’s attention. Nearly every major US media outlet, including Foreign Policy, Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN publishes multiple gut wrenching interviews with the families of the Israeli hostages. 

In a statement made by Biden marking 100 days since Oct. 7th, the President cried out for the Israeli hostages. “For 100 days, their families have lived in agony, praying for the safe return of their loved ones. And for each of those 100 days, the hostages and their families have been at the forefront of my mind as …I have worked non-stop to try to secure their freedom.” In 331 words, Biden made no mention of the Palestinians at all. Forget about the Palestinians being at the forefront of Biden’s mind. 100 days of genocide, and its victims were completely erased by the most powerful person in the world.

But when the Israeli military takes Palestinians into captivity in similar circumstances (the victims are not told why they are taken, they are not charged with anything, and their imprisonment is renewable indefinitely) they are not called hostages, they are called administrative detainees. As of early February 2024, Israel was holding at least 3,484 Palestinians hostage. That’s 32 times as many hostages as the Palestinian fighters have taken. This includes Diala Ayesh, a human rights lawyer dedicated to advocating for the freedom and fair treatment of Palestinian political prisoners. Now the human rights lawyers defending Palestinian hostages are themselves being taken hostage.

When Americans are taken hostage by Palestinian fighters, Biden meets with families of the victims. Yet, when the Israeli military takes Americans hostage, such as Samaher Esmail, who was taken on Feb 5th, without being told why they are taken, without being charged with anything, not a single US government official so much as issues a condemnation of the crime, let alone meets with the families of the victims.

When the State of Israel claims that .0004% of UNRWA's staff were involved in the Oct.7th attacks, allegations that UK Channel 4 have said are baseless after seeing the “evidence”, more than 16 countries cut their funding to UNRWA at a time when it is providing life-saving support to hundreds of thousands of genocide survivors. 

Yet, when the world’s highest court, International Court of Justice, rules that Israel is plausibly carrying out a genocide, the US Senate passes a bill to send Israel another $14 billion in military aid to the state carrying out the plausible genocide. And, in the case of Israel, it’s not .0004% of Israel’s leaders who are allegedly involved in a plausible genocide, it’s 100% of them, and it’s not just that they are involved as participants, they are involved as commanding officers issuing the genocidal orders. 

When the Israeli army uses human shields in military operations in dozens if not hundreds of incidents, the US government remains silent. When Israeli soldiers disguise themselves in civilian garb to carry out extrajudicial executions inside a hospital, of all places, the US government remains silent. 

Meanwhile, Biden and Blinken accuse Palestinian fighters (1, 2) of “using Palestinian civilians as human shields” as matter of fact, without citing any evidence, as if it's part of the natural order of the universe.

When Israeli witnesses to the Oct 7th attacks like Raz Cohen repeatedly change their stories, their testimonies are nevertheless reported as facts by the New York Times. In Cohen’s first two interviews on Oct 9, he neglects to mention having witnessed any sexual assault or rape at all. Then, in his third interview on Oct 10, Cohen now saw many women raped, then on December 19th, it was just a single woman raped. None of this made any difference to the paper of record, which reported the rape allegations as fact on December 28th. 

And yet, when Palestinians report violence, humiliation, torture, sexual violence and murder in Israeli prisons, there are no blockbuster front page New York Times articles. At least six Palestinian hostages being held without charge have been murdered inside Israeli jails. This point is mentioned in the last graph in a Nov. 21, 2023 New York Times article titled, “Who Are the Palestinian Prisoners Who Could Be Released in a Hostage Deal?” Thank you, New York Times, for showing us how to dehumanize millions of Palestinians.

The double standard among media outlets and among our elected representatives with regard to Palestinian violence and Israeli violence is shocking, but not surprising. It has the effect of providing Israel cover fire to carry out a genocide against the Palestinian people.