Normalizing the extremism on Israeli public television
People wave flags on the day of a conference about resettlement of the Gaza Strip, Be’eri, southern Israel, 21 October 2024
Hanin Majadli writes in Haaretz on 24 November 2024:
Since October 7, Israel’s Palestinian citizens have upgraded their 76-year-old defense mechanism, adding more layers to their psychological defense systems and resilience.
These defense mechanisms have helped us survive under a discriminatory, racist regime that treats us as the enemy and deprives us of budgets and land. How can you live alongside openly active fascists, alongside those who publicly call for your destruction?
Racism was always a central part of the Israeli DNA. A racial state ends up being a racist state. And a state that is defined on a religious basis ends up being religious. It’s simple math.
Even though Arab citizens are used to it, since October 7 the most racist, inflammatory statements, even for genocide and ethnic cleansing, have been allowed free rein in the media, government, Knesset, academia, workplaces, television talk shows, advertisements, stand-up comedy shows, social media and everywhere else.
A film on Kan 11, the public broadcaster, is a case in point. Prof. Amoz Azaria of Ariel University established the Elei Aza outpost at the Erez Checkpoint, about two kilometers from the Gaza Strip. Its goal is to encourage resettlement of the enclave.
The interviewer asks Prof. Azaria: Do you plan to resettle all of Gaza? The interviewee: In principle, Gaza needs to be emptied of the enemy, they simply have no right to be there. The interviewer: So, you want to expel all two million Arabs there? The interviewee answers in the affirmative: Yes, yes. The interviewer: In order to carry out your plan, it will mean sacrificing Jews and Jewish soldiers, hundreds of thousands of Arabs will certainly be killed. The interviewee: It really doesn’t bother me that Arabs will be killed. If they’re not willing to leave, it’s their problem.
A senior professor calls for ethnic cleaning and transfer in Gaza and also in Lebanon, is given a platform and a sympathetic interview on state television. He will not be expelled from his workplace, and no police complaint will be filed against him. He will not be denounced or receive threats on his life. His citizenship will not be revoked. When Palestinian Arab academics or students express a complex opinion, or share posts against genocide, any or all of these things do happen to them.
Will the public broadcaster ever ask who is responsible for the brilliant move of “providing a platform” for incitement to genocide under the guise of “opinion”? I still remember that videos like this used to be justified because they offered an insight into a marginal culture, a racist fringe. But these days the fringe has become the consensus. Ethnic cleansing and transfer are common sense for many Israelis.
What’s frightening is not only that extremist positions like these are so widely held and have an audience. That has been the case for years, but it was “hush-hush.” But a media that loves clicks and traffic promotes such views, and the result is that they have become completely normalized.
The Israeli media cannot evade its responsibility. Just as it normalized Itamar Ben-Gvir and other Kahanists with frequent and sympathetic interviews, it is now normalizing resettlement of the Gaza Strip. It has taken a central role in promoting and mainstreaming opinions bereft of conscience and all moral inhibition.
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