Structural Impunity in Occupation: Israeli Military Culture of Dehumanisation and the Erasure of Palestinian Civilian Lives in Gaza
Original framing: “‘My unit killed many unarmed men’: Israeli soldiers recount Gaza war crimes” — Middle East Eye
The testimonies from Israeli soldiers echo historical patterns of dehumanisation in occupation regimes, such as the Roman treatment of Judea, the British in Ireland, or the French in Algeria, where civilian populations were systematically targeted to break resistance. The 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre, where Israeli-backed militias killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians, was a direct continuation of this historical pattern, yet it was never fully investigated by Israel. Similarly, the 2008-2009 Gaza War saw Israeli forces target civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and schools, a tactic that has been documented in UN reports but rarely addressed in Western political discourse. These historical precedents demonstrate that the current violence is not an anomaly but a predictable outcome of occupation and settler-colonialism.
Text: The testimonies from Israeli soldiers in Gaza reveal not just individual acts of violence but the systemic dehumanisation embedded in Israel’s military culture, which is deeply rooted in the historical patterns of occupation and settler-colonialism.
This dehumanisation is not an accident but a deliberate strategy, as evidenced by the 'Dahiya Doctrine' and the systematic erasure of Palestinian civilian deaths in military reports. The cross-cultural perspective underscores that this is not an isolated phenomenon but part of a broader colonial playbook, where occupation forces rely on legal exemptions, geopolitical protection, and the marginalisation of marginalised voices to justify violence. The trickster lens exposes the absurdity of how these acts are framed as 'necessary' for security while obscuring the structural violence that has defined the occupation since 1967. To break this cycle, international accountability mechanisms must be established, trauma-informed peacebuilding processes must be implemented, and economic and political divestment from occupation must be systematically pursued. The synthesis of these dimensions reveals that the path to justice lies not in isolated 'war crimes' prosecutions but in dismantling the structural mechanisms that enable occupation and dehumanisation in the first place.