Is this the Wild West or the Middle East?

GEOFF SIFRIN

For South African eyes and ears, pictures of demonstrators being shot evokes memories of one of South Africa’s greatest traumas – the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, when some 6 000 unarmed black people protesting the pass laws converged on police. Many were shot, some in the back as they fled, resulting in 69 dead and 180 wounded.

The contexts of these two events are so fundamentally different that the comparison is absurd – unless one considers the mere existence of Israel to be equivalent to apartheid.

South African black people were never aiming to destroy the South African state, but rather, to destroy the apartheid system. The Palestinian goal, expressed clearly by Hamas, is the destruction of Israel.

While that is true, Sharpeville’s effect on South Africa’s political landscape was profound. If the Palestinians’ March of Return gathers momentum and more are killed, it could reignite severe focus on Gaza and Israel’s role.

It seems that under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s response to “trouble” from the Palestinians is to quickly resort to massive force rather than a non-violent approach. Diaspora Jewry is repelled by this, even if seen from their situation of relative privilege.

An American Jew in the safety of his California home cannot imagine American soldiers firing on a crowd of unarmed demonstrators. Why, they ask, should Israel do it? The answer is that Israel shouldn’t be doing it; there are other means.

Diaspora Jews’ existential dangers are nothing like Israel’s. But from where they sit, Israel seems to be unnecessarily choosing lethal means over non-lethal ones. It seems the hawkish Netanyahu is not interested in how the Diaspora sees him. But even high-profile, respected right-wingers in the Diaspora, such as Ronald Lauder, are beginning to speak against him.

Some people on the right claim Israel’s record is as clean as a whistle compared to the sickening Syrian violence – the latest outrage being a gas attack by dictator Bashar al-Assad on his opponents. And that the world should stop complaining about little Israel.

But Syria is not the standard by which to judge the Jewish state. The value of human life is a Jewish precept, including a Palestinian demonstrator’s life. How to control riots without killing demonstrators?

The March of Return, which Hamas has exploited for its own agenda, is expected to continue for weeks. Thus far, there have been close to 20 fatalities and hundreds have been wounded. Some Hamas members have tried to plant rudimentary explosive devices across the border fence.

Israel’s failure to develop non-lethal methods to disperse demonstrators at relatively long distances has been discussed in security circles for many years; the State Comptroller explicitly commented on it in 2003 and 2017.

The historical background was that, at the height of the Second Intifada in 2002, Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers under the Gaza Division operated under flexible rules of engagement, which allowed them to shoot at anyone approaching the border fence from Gaza.

Even then, this was not accepted by all officers. For example, the current IDF chief of staff, Gadi Eisenkot, who was a young division commander at the time, objected to these open-fire directives. He instructed his soldiers in armoured battalions to ignore them and not routinely approve shooting at a person approaching the fence before their intentions were known.

Netanyahu should not be allowed to become the face of Israel today. A trigger-happy Israel loses not only the soul of the Zionist project, but also the support of Diaspora Jewry.

Read Geoff Sifrin’s regular columns on his blog sifrintakingissue.wordpress.com