In Gaza, Israel Lost What Remained of Its Humanity

 by LEVY GIDEON

The screams rose to the skies. His mother heard them. She’ll never forget them. A terrifying, well-trained dog tore into the flesh of her 25-year old son, who had Down syndrome. The dog ripped and tore and she could not save him. The soldiers drove the mother out of the house by force (an IDF spokesman, who has not lost his sense of humor even in wartime, said they “pleaded” with the family to leave), and she was forced to abandon her son to his screams.

The soldiers promised to call a doctor, but that was the last thing on their mind. They did not call a doctor, nor even a medic. They cleared out, leaving Mohammed Bhar to bleed to death. A week passed before the family could return home to see what had happened to their beloved – a young man who was photographed once as a relative compassionately gave him a drink from a bottle. They found his rotting body.

No one knows how long he took to die, how terrible were his torments and what went through his disabled mind. Someone said that before the dog attacked him, Mohammed tried to pet him. What does he know. The dog’s handlers, apparently soldiers from the lauded Oketz unit, which holds emotional, well-publicized burial ceremonies for each dog killed in battle, abandoned Mohammed to die. They heard his screams and did not lift a finger.

Israelis were supposed to hear Mohammed’s cries, too. A week ago, the website Sicha Mekomit (Local Call), republished the story, which appeared on the news site Middle East Eye. Haaretz published it on Monday. The IDF Spokesperson’s Office confirmed all the details. He spoke about a missile that hit a tank, which was why the medical team could not treat a young man whom soldiers had sicced their dog on. Why didn’t they stop the dog at some point, and why did they abandon Mohammed? These are not questions asked in Israel, he was a Palestinian. The story was left on the pages of Haaretz and Sicha Mekomit. The BBC also reported it. People in the United Kingdom may have been more shocked by it, they’re anti-Semites.

Israel is losing what remains of its humanity. One of the worst things October 7 did to us was to bring on our humanity’s final loss. It’s doubtful that the damage is reversible. From now on, only Jewish lives count. From now on, we can do anything to Palestinians. Even sic dogs on people with special needs. Don’t bother us with our atrocities, we’re busy endlessly wallowing in the atrocities of October 7 that were committed against us, and only them. They allow us to do anything.

At Sde Teiman, limbs of Palestinian prisoners are amputated in an almost industrial manner. That’s what happens when people are handcuffed for months without let-up. Young men dying from torture or from lack of medical care has become routine. According to a CNN investigative report in May, some detainees are fed through straws and wallow in their diapers. Sometimes dogs are sicced on them at night to conduct “searches.”

Were it not for the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, there would be no protest against that in this country. Israel, which 25 years ago was shocked by a CBS documentary about soldiers breaking Palestinians’ limbs with stones on a mountainside near Nablus, no longer even wants to hear about it. Anyone who reports it is an anti-Semite.

Adolf Eichmann was detained in Israel until his trial. Israel treated him humanely. No one imagined shackling or blindfolding him for months. Nor did they sic dogs on him at night. His photographs from prison reflected the face of Israel then. The photographs from Sde Teiman reflect the face of Israel now.

“The face of a generation is like the face of a dog,” says the Mishna, and this has never been so accurate as it is in describing the face of the State of Israel today. The generation is our generation, and the dog is the dog the soldiers sicced on Mohammed Bhar, a young man with special needs from Shujaijeh. They then let him die in agony, which touched the heart of almost no one in Israel in 2024.

P.S.

• Haaretz. Jul 24, 2024:
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-07-24/ty-article-opinion/.premium/in-gaza-israel-lost-what-remained-of-its-humanity/00000190-e62f-d469-a39d-e6bf754e0000