Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine) 02.12.2025
Will you say that German civilians who knew that the Nazi regime is killing Jews, Gypsies, and others because they did not belong to the right race and believed that the killing is justified were innocent? Will you say that the Roman who sat in the Colosseum watching how the lions killed the Christians were innocent?
If you think so, you must believe that the Israeli civilians are innocent. Today, Noa Limona writes in Haaretz:
“Two Palestinian children were killed yesterday in an IDF attack in Khan Yunis. Two brothers, Fadi and Juma’a Abu Asi, aged 10 and 12, were shot by a drone. In the accompanying photograph, you can see them standing side by side at the house’s entrance, smiling at the camera above them. The angle of the photograph emphasizes their smallness. The little brother is barefoot, holding markers in his right hand. They are similar. Their beautiful faces radiate innocence. And what’s the wonder? After all, they are children.
The IDF Spokesperson said that forces of the Kfir Brigade identified two suspects who crossed the Yellow Line, “carried out suspicious operations on the ground and approached the forces in a manner that posed an immediate threat to them.” Afterwards, it was reported, “the air force, under the direction of the forces on the ground, eliminated the suspects in order to remove the threat.”
The gap between the descriptions is shocking: children are replaced by “suspects” and “threats,” gathering firewood becomes “suspicious actions on the ground,” and “approaching the forces in a way that poses an immediate threat to them.” The two children and their bright, radiant faces are now dead, but this unimaginable tragedy is erased with the words, “Eliminate the suspects in order to remove the threat.”
Although the IDF Spokesperson’s response is shocking in its opacity, after the killing of more than 20,000 children in Gaza, this is not surprising. There are almost no Jewish Israelis who will be harmed by the wording. Nor are there Israelis who will demand an investigation.
Since the ceasefire began, an average of two minors have been killed in Gaza every day. The military, as evidenced by the events documented in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, is increasingly showing contempt for open-fire procedures. The concept of “purity of arms” seems to be obsolete. And why can we even expect a place where the shooting of Palestinians who gave up is rewarded with professional promotion? In a place where minors – including teenagers with special needs – are held for months and years in administrative detention?
In general, military language is designed to erase differences and obscure subtleties. She solves things by force. It reflects a rough perception of reality. A concept that is necessary on a battlefield consisting only of soldiers and enemies. It has suspects, threats and assassinations. It’s cold and metallic, distant.
But in Israel, everything is mixed. Our battlefields are full of civilians, full of children. And Israeli society, as the sociologist Baruch Kimmerling said before, we deteriorated to this day, is a society mired in civil militarism. Thus, language and military thinking also dominate civilian discourse and culture.
The thousands of comments on social media about the killing of the two children testify well that military thinking, even in its most cruel form, has been wholly absorbed into civilian thinking. She, too, no longer sees the children through suspects who pose a threat.” Many of the reactions are vindictive, rejoicing. After all, a Palestinian child – if he is not a terrorist now, he is a terrorist in the future. Other comments blame the children’s parents for sending them to the dangerous area, and who knows, maybe the two really plotted to plant explosives or attack the soldiers, and of course, no one argues with their “sense of threat.”
Military thinking is characterized by the perception of the enemy as evil from his youth, as one who understands only strength. There is no place for humanity in it. In today’s Israel, there is no longer a difference between military thinking and civilian thinking. The move is complete. We don’t have any more emotion”[i]
For Palestine, red and free from the river to the sea!
Endnotes:
[i] https://www.haaretz.co.il/opinions/2025-12-01/ty-article-opinion/.premium/0000019a-d509-dfc2-af9f-d74949fd0000