The Israeli Discourse On Al-Aqsa Flood Operation

This article aims to analyze the Israeli discourse towards Palestinians during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation by monitoring statements from Israeli politicians and officials. The Israeli institutions, through its use of a discriminatory discourse towards Palestinians, targeted two distinct external and internal audience groups. The anti-Palestinian racist discourse intended for the Western audience may seem different on the surface from the one directed at the Israeli audience, but they converge in their goal, which is to justify the killing of Palestinians and the harshest forms of violence and destruction against them.

The Israeli discourse directed towards Western Europe and the United States is based on exploiting the prevalence of Islamophobia in the West. According to Edward Said, Islamophobia has been linked to orientalist frameworks that portray Muslims as violent, bloodthirsty individuals who particularly harbor animosity towards others, especially Jews. In this context, we find the Israeli army spokesperson, Doron Spielman, likening the situation in Israel after the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation to the period following the September 11, 2001 attacks that targeted the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in the United States. Simultaneously, Avichay Adraee, the Israeli army spokesperson for Arab media, wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) page, "Hamas and ISIS are two sides of the same coin," describing Palestinian resistance factions as ISIS and terrorists.

The speakers representing the Israeli army strike a chord in the Western collective consciousness, where the scenes of September 11 and, years later, the practices of ISIS resulted in increased Islamophobia in the Western world. The likening of Al-Aqsa Flood Operation to the events of September 11 and of Palestinian resistance factions to ISIS is an extension of an Israeli media strategy that was originally adopted by the former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who compared the former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to the leader of Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, [5] as a justification for getting rid of him. The purpose of this analogy is to imply to Western society a common ground with Israel, which is the fight against Islamic terrorism. The suggestion is that Israel is facing "terrorists" and not a national liberation movement that has emerged in response to decades of brutal occupation. This objective becomes clear in the speech of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressed to the French ambassador after the ISIS attacks in France in 2015, when he said, "We are proud of our values, our friendship, and our freedom... When civilized forces diagnose the problem, there is nothing left for them but to unite to eliminate these animals. These animals have a name, and it is extremist Islam. We are committed to standing together to combat extremist Islam."

We can observe the resonance of the orientalist and racist Israeli discourse in the speech of US President Joe Biden when he described Al-Aqsa Flood Operation as "pure evil" and stated that Hamas is a group with the declared goal of killing Jews. Biden also stated that "the brutality of Hamas brings to mind the worst excesses of ISIS." [7] In this way, we find alignment between the Israeli and American discourse likening Hamas to ISIS in order to justify Israel's violent practices towards the Palestinians.

Internally, the Israeli discourse directed at the Israeli public is based on dehumanizing Palestinians. This is exemplified in the statement by the Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, when discussing an attack on the Gaza Strip. In a public statement, Gallant said, "We are fighting human animals," [8] justifying the cutoff of electricity, water, and food in Gaza. Gallant's statement is part of a long series of Israeli statements aimed at stripping Palestinians of their humanity, likening them to animals and insects. Previously, the former Israeli Chief of Staff, Rafael Eitan, referred to Palestinians as "cockroaches," while former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir likened them to "jackals." Furthermore, Yehiel Hazan, a member of the right-wing Likud Party in the Knesset, described Arabs as "worms."

The racist Israeli discourse aimed at dehumanizing Palestinians and Arabs has merged with the inherited Zionist extremist religious teachings. This is evident in the statement of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of the Shas Party and former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, who said, "When a Jew kills a Muslim, it's as if he killed a snake or a worm, and no one can deny that both the snake and the worm pose a danger to humans. Therefore, disposing of Muslims, like getting rid of worms, is a natural thing to do."

This racist discourse aimed at dehumanizing Palestinians also intersects with the practices of European colonialism, which were built upon a condescending Orientalist perspective towards colonized peoples. European colonizers often regarded the colonized peoples as inferior and dehumanized them, by likening them to insects or animals, in order to justify their killing and disposal.

Conclusion

As observed above, there is an undeniably racist Israeli discourse towards Palestinians. On one hand, they are demonized on a global scale, and on the other hand, they are dehumanized in order to eliminate any sympathy for them and justify violent practices against them. This includes killing through bombings, blockades, starvation, and the destruction of buildings with civilians, including children, women, and the elderly.

When Palestinians are demonized, dehumanized, and collectively labeled as terrorists and extremists, it becomes easier for the Israeli military machinery to continue its violent practices, as if it is not committing any moral transgressions. The targeted victims of this killing, destruction, blockade, and starvation are no longer seen as human beings but as "human animals" and insects to be disposed of without mercy or compassion, regardless of the heartbreaking scenes of children, innocents, and their remains after the shelling of their homes.