THE GENOCIDAL STATE THAT IS STILL ACCEPTED AS ‘NORMAL’

image from Sky news

How abysmal does Israel’s human rights record have to be before Western governments take meaningful action to address it? On the face of it, there are no limits to what atrocities, human rights abuses, mass murder, or destruction Israel can commit without incurring any penalty beyond verbal rebukes.

Take the latest outrage of Israel’s mistreatment of 430 pro-Palestine activists from 44 countries who were on the aid flotilla to Gaza in May of this year. Kidnapped by Israel’s navy from international waters, they were taken to Israel and forcibly detained. Israel’s sadistic security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, was filmed mocking them as they were made to lie face down on the ground while soldiers beat and kicked them.

Variations of this Israeli assault have befallen every one of the eight aid flotillas to Gaza since 2008, all of which were peaceable civil initiatives, but were all similarly intercepted by Israeli thugs who abused the activists on board. In 2010 the Turkish Mavi Marmara flotilla lost nine people to Israeli fire.

Shocking as they are, these abuses are but a pale shadow of Israel’s record of torture against Palestinians. Mostly hidden from view, only the most egregious examples have made it to public attention. In the West Bank Israeli soldiers and settlers routinely use sexual torture to pressure Palestinians into leaving their homes. This includes stripping women naked, urinating on Palestinian captives, and sexual harassment of girls. Women have to endure painful internal searches, and zip ties are frequently applied to men’s genitals.

The abuse of prisoners at the notorious Sde Teiman prison in the Negev is particularly lurid. Rape of male Palestinian prisoners is regularly practiced by prison guards and soldiers, and even sometimes by Alsatian dogs specially trained to do it. In July 2004 one prison inmate was gang raped by Israeli reservists so violently his rectum was ruptured, his lungs damaged and his ribs broken. He had to be hospitalised in a critical condition. There was a popular outcry when the perpetrators were arrested. Regarded as heroes by many Israelis, they were eventually freed.

In addition to this list of horrors has been the continuing genocide in Gaza through bombing, starvation and disease, making life for the inhabitants a living hell. In February 2026 Israel, along with the US, started an unprovoked war with Iran, killing between 6 and 9,000 people, and making 3.2 million homeless. Intensive US/Israeli bombing inflicted enormous damage on Iran’s buildings and infrastructure, which will take years to repair

In April 2026 Israel invaded Lebanon, killing over 3000 Lebanese and making more than a million homeless. Much of southern Lebanon has been destroyed by relentless Israeli assaults, and the demolition of irrevocable historical sites has been devastating.

With such an extreme record of destructive violence, one would have thought that the Israeli state would merit a strong counteraction. At the popular level, there has indeed been a global outcry against Israel, but at the official level western acceptance of the Jewish state has been largely unaffected. Israel remains part of the western system, an accepted member of the world community of nations, with a seat at the UN, enjoying wide diplomatic acceptance, as if it were a state like any other.

Far from exacting any penalty from Israel for its crimes, it is Israel’s critics who have been punished instead. Zionist propaganda equating opposition to Israeli behaviour with support for Palestine has been highly successful in muzzling the Palestinians and their friends by smearing all defence of the Palestine cause as antisemitic.

This is an extraordinary situation: a state that commits genocide without compunction, tortures and abuses civilians at will, brutally attacks its neighbours, and has apartheid as its national ethos is nevertheless recognized and accepted. The point is not that Israel is unique in its brutality. Many other states commit barbaric acts. But they are not normally accorded recognition, acceptance or freedom from censure. Israeli impunity is truly unique. It is a phenomenon, which needs explanation.

I would like to invite my readers to respond by putting forward their ideas about this phenomenon. To what do you attribute the total impunity Israel enjoys? What makes Israel so special it must be protected at all costs from punishment or even criticism for the crimes it commits, however barbaric or sadistic?

Commonly stated answers to these questions include the following: enduring guilt over the holocaust in Europe; Israel’s valuable role as an agent of western imperialism in a resource-rich Middle East; the influence of powerful pro-Israel lobbies operating in western countries to protect Israel; and the part Christianity, especially among evangelicals in the US, plays in promoting Israel as the rightful place for Jews to which it is natural for them to ‘return’.

Do you have any additions or comments on this list? I welcome your thoughts on an issue which in my view is one of the most important of our time. Understanding and countering it is an urgent imperative.