Netanyahu isn’t the only one to blame for Gaza war crimes. So are Israelis who kept silent

People check the rubble of buildings hit in Israeli strikes the previous night in Jabalya, northern Gaza, on 16 January 2025

Hanin Majadli writes in Haaretz on 16 January 2025:

We are on the cusp of a cease-fire, and the State of Israel is displaying its accomplishments: the destruction of the Gaza Strip, the killing of thousands of innocent civilians and bombardments whose aftermath is reminiscent of Hiroshima. Israeli soldiers are now the most hated people in some parts of the world, followed closely by Israeli civilians. Abroad, Israelis are called “genociders” and “baby killers.” And after these “accomplishments,” it seems an agreement has been reached that could have been signed a year ago, sparing both Israelis and Palestinians so much suffering.

As always, there are those who blame only Benjamin Netanyahu, saying, “He destroyed Israel’s international reputation.” But we all know that the picture is not one-dimensional, and it’s much less complimentary than it appears. Because it isn’t the prime minister: It’s almost everyone. The people, the “base,” the system. It wasn’t one person who isolated Israel from the world, but rather an ongoing policy that began long before Netanyahu.

It’s convenient to blame Netanyahu for everything, thereby exempting Israeli society and culture from responsibility. Anyone who has followed Israel’s exploits over the years knows that it has a long history of war crimes, injustices and human rights violations. I still remember how the champions of human rights here reacted to Amnesty International’s February 2022 report accusing Israel of apartheid against Palestinians in the occupied territories and within Israel proper: One of the report’s detractors called it “a punch in the gut.”

And when international experts concluded that Israel was committing genocide, Israelis weren’t interested in the genocide, certainly not in its meaning for the lives of Gazans. Rather, they were only interested in regard to how Israel would be perceived in the world. How it would harm its image, what it would do to the ritual of post-army backpacking trips or to politicians’ luxury junkets. The wholesale death, the immense destruction, the permanent trauma: all of these are just a backdrop, scenery that is liable to affect the Israeli self-image.

The ability of liberal democrats, who are fully involved in Israel’s crimes, to distance themselves from this is astonishing. As they see it, the story goes like this: First there was the right, then the settlers came, then we moved on to talking about extremist settlers and their violence. After that it was Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, and now it’s Netanyahu again, and once more Ben-Gvir and once again Smotrich. And what can you do when there are a few soldiers who record themselves enjoying bombing Gaza? In any case, it isn’t us.

The deafening silence from Israel’s liberals during most of the war in the face of the atrocities that have taken place and the brutal actions of the military, and their refusal to understand that they are complicit in the crimes just as much as the people who voted for the right-wing parties, that the atrocities happened right under their noses and before their eyes, will all be remembered as the lowest moments of Israel’s “enlightened camp.”

But the world doesn’t distinguish between “Netanyahu” and “Israelis.” It doesn’t distinguish between “Ben-Gvir and Smotrich” and “the liberals.” From the world’s perspective, what is happening in Gaza is happening because this is how Israel operates in Gaza, the Israel that chose Netanyahu to lead the government and that allows him to continue a futile war.

Therefore, everyone who remained silent, everyone who sent their children to kill other people’s children and didn’t demand an end to the war also shares in the responsibility. When so many Israelis prefer to shoot and then cry about their image, it’s a moral problem, not an image problem. And no, there’s no point in blaming Netanyahu for the fact that soldiers are beginning to be arrested in Brazil, India or the Netherlands. It’s not him, it’s you

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