A Dehumanizing Assault
Photo: Hamde Abu Rahma
by Jonathan Kuttab
I just returned from a week-long trip to Alaska celebrating the birthday of my cousin Mubarak Awad—a true vacation in which I deliberately stayed away from the computer, the internet, and all news.
Upon my return, I began scrolling through my Twitter newsfeed and came across a shocking tweet about a night time raid in Hebron in which Israeli soldiers used police dogs to separately force five Arab women to undress completely; the acts were carried out by masked Israeli female soldiers. In one instance, after a woman rightfully refused, the soldiers released the dog to the point that it nearly reached her, to intimidate her into undressing before her frightened children. She eventually obeyed the orders, pleading with them to take the dog away as it was frightening her screaming children. The four other women, her three daughters in their twenties and her daughter-in-law, were each separately forced to completely undress before the soldiers.
The story was so bizarre, and unlike any other I had heard, that I immediately searched the internet for corroborating sources (Israeli, Palestinian, and foreign) to see if it was reported or confirmed by any other source. My hope was that this was not a real story, but some exaggeration. I also tried contacting friends on the ground to see if they had heard anything about it. Common practice has been for the Israeli army to be very careful in dealing with Palestinian women, particularly those from Hebron who come from a very conservative society, to avoid (or at least minimize) mixing sensitive issues of “honor and shame” with an already volatile political situation.
As it turned out this outrageous story was not covered by any other news agency, but it was in fact documented by the reputable B’Tselem human rights organization and reported in an editorial by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. According to Haaretz, the police had not denied the story nor were they surprised. Apparently, similar stories had been reported in recent months. A friend reported that the Arab community was perhaps trying to keep the story secret, to spare the women the embarrassment, but that details were beginning to leak out.
Apart from the sheer cruelty and sadism of the act (as well as the unforgivable silence by the rest of the media or any official sources), I could not get the story out of my mind. Clearly, such an act served no operational “security” or even political function. It was solely an act of humiliation and dehumanization.
What were these soldiers thinking? Clearly, they were not in any way frightened by their victims, nor were they seeking revenge for any act of resistance. It is doubtful that they were carrying out specific orders by their superiors, such as searches or “asserting presence,” which is often the rationale given to night time raids. The soldiers did separate the men from the women and the children, as is their practice during raids, and the men were searched separately (but not stripped of their clothes). But, why insist on strip searching the women, even after they had taken off their outer clothes and were in their underwear? And why use dogs? I am not a psychologist, but there must be some deep-seated reason for this bizarre behavior by the female soldiers nonetheless.
Perhaps their actions were intended to mark clearly the distinction between the soldiers and their Palestinian subjects, to cut off any possibility of human interaction between them. Soldiers often need to feel not only superior but also that their victims are of a fundamentally different species in order to rationalize the regular humiliations and demonization meted out against them.
Perhaps it is part of the new wave of settler violence against Palestinians and the impunity with which they have been attacking Palestinian lives and possessions.
Perhaps the soldiers were trying to provoke Palestinians to violence, in order to justify further repression or even the “Second Nakba” that Ben Gvir has been threatening. Palestinians remember how fear over family honor was a major factor in the Nakba and the mass exodus of Palestinians in 1948.
In all cases, and whatever the reasons, these incidents do not augur well for the future. Night time raids, terrifying children, and humiliations of men and women cannot provide security, nor prepare the grounds for a peaceful future. Palestinians and Israeli Jews are destined to live together in the same land. Such behavior only breeds hatred, hostility, and the desire for revenge; nor does it provide a basis for a peaceful future for Jews and Palestinian Arabs in the Holy Land.
Take Action!
Release the MOU, Protect the Rights of Arab Americans
(Arab American Institute) Israel is seeking entry into the U.S. Visa Waiver program, which allows reciprocal, short-term travel between member states and the U.S. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed by the U.S. and Israel laying out criteria for Israel's entry into the U.S. Visa Waiver Program.
Instead of ensuring that the rights of all Americans are respected, the MOU allows Israel to continue to implement biased travel procedures against American citizens based on their ethnicity, national origin, religion, and personal beliefs. In signing it, our government has agreed to continued, blatant discrimination against Arab Americans, especially Palestinian Americans, and others who advocate for Palestinian human rights.
To add insult to injury, the Administration has not released the full MOU to the public. While we continue to strongly oppose Israel's entry into the Visa Waiver Program because their treatment of our community violates the spirit and letter of the reciprocity requirement of the law, we are also demanding that our government release the actual agreement that allows Israel to deny our U.S. citizenship.
Please join us in insisting that Secretaries Blinken and Mayorkas officially release the Memorandum of Understanding.
Get Involved!
We invite you to join us in the following events and activities:
September 10: Online
VFHL Film Salon: Erasing Palestine from US School Curricula
Where is Palestine? What are the occupied Palestinian territories? What is the Palestinian-Israeli struggle about?
Do teaching materials in US public schools and Jewish private schools provide accurate answers? Probably not.
People who seek to maintain US support for Israel, both within the Jewish community and in the larger US population, have profoundly shaped the teaching of Israel and Palestine. VFHL examines this issue through two films. Between the Lines presents interviews with students and teachers at American Jewish day schools about “Israel education.” The Fight Against Israeli Propaganda in Virginia Textbooks reveals the behind-the-scenes efforts of an Israeli affinity group to erase Palestine from US public school teaching materials and reduce Palestinians to peasants and terrorists.
Watch the film for free at your convenience; Join the Q&A Discussion
Ali Kriegsman: filmmaker, author, entrepreneur, and small business leader
Ezra Beinart: Jewish day school senior; facilitator of on-line discussions between US Jewish teens & Palestinians
Susan Douglass: educator, author, outreach director for the CCAS at Georgetown University
Faedah Totah (moderator): Associate Professor, School of World Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University
You must register to get the free film link and to participate in the Q&A discussion.
September 13: Online
MFSA and UMKR Present: Storytelling as Resistance: Palestinian Identity and Resilience in Literature for Young People
10am PT, 11am MT, 12noon CT, 1pm ET (US, Canada)
5pm GMT / 8pm Palestine
Register: www.palestine.events/13Sept2023
Talking about Palestine with our friends and family can be difficult for many of us. In this webinar, we will hear from a diverse panel of professionals - Christian, Muslim, and Jewish - who through their teaching and writing about Palestine for young people, convey a challenging subject in engaging and educational ways that overcome the all-too-common erasure of the Palestinian people and their story.
Topics will include the importance of representation and truth-telling and how children can learn about difficult subjects in age-appropriate ways. Booklists, curriculums, and other resources will be shared that can help us learn how best to convey the Palestinian story to children. Our discussion and resources should provide valuable insights and learning for Palestine-related conversations and communications with adults as well.
Panelists include Hannah Moushabeck, Nora Lester Murad, and Abeer Ramadan-Shinnawi. Moderated by Lisa Bender.
September 15th: Berkeley, CA
"The Developers" and the Land/Life-Grabbers in Palestine: Between Silwan and the Armenian Quarter
On Friday, September 15th at 3:00pm, join NorCal Sabeel at University of California Berkeley to hear from Dr. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian as part of a special fall lecture series.
Weekly
Sabeel Prayer Service. Join Sabeel every Thursday (6pm Palestine) for online Bible Study, discussion, and prayer. Examine scripture in light of the ongoing realities confronting the Palestinian Church and the pursuit of Palestinian liberation.
Wave of Prayer. Subscribe to receive Sabeel's Wave of Prayer, enabling friends of Sabeel around the world to pray over issues of critical concern to the Holy Land on a weekly basis.
Kumi Now! September 10 to 17 - Bethlehem. Kumi Now is an online gathering every Tuesday (6pm Palestine) with a guest speaking on the weekly topic. Register here.
Rachel’s Tomb, at the north end of Bethlehem, is of religious significance for Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike. But Israel has illegally annexed the tomb area, enclosing it with a wall and denying Palestinians access. Israel approved plans to enclose Rachel’s Tomb on September 11, 2002. As we mark this travesty of what should be a Palestinian cultural and religious site, open to all, here’s what you need to know about the effects of occupation and Jewish settlement on Bethlehem and what you can do so that together we can rise up.