Alwaght- It has been years since the world has come up to the reality that Zionism and all of its assets have a racist and imperialist nature reeking with crimes, massacre, and occupation from scratch. It was in the middle of the second half of the 20th century that the UN as the representation of the international view in 1975 adopted the resolution 3379, labeling Zionism beside the apartheid system in South Africa as a racist system. Today, observing the Zionists’ brutal actions in Gaza, killing women and children, imposing famine and starvation on hundreds of thousands of people, and creating apocalyptic scenes in the Palestinian costal enclave has left no room for doubt in this matter, to the extent that the anger of public opinion has caused criticism against Tel Aviv atrocities to be heard even from the its closest allies among Western governments.
Meanwhile, the considerable point that has taken place in recent days is the so-called Israeli human rights organizations and thinkers criticizing the actions of their government including the genocide and war crimes.
Israeli organizations like “doctors for the human rights” and B’Tselem have recently in reports criticizing the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Israeli military over the past two years of genocidal war has targeted the civilians in Gaza just because of them being Palestinians, causing severe and in some cases irreparable damage to the Palestinian society.
In the reports by these two organizations, crimes like massacre of tens of thousands of women and children and elderly, mass forced displacement, starvation, and destruction of homes and civil infrastructure, and prevention of the Palestinians from rights to education, health care, treatment, and other basic rights are mentioned.
In addition, Holocaust and genocide scholar Omer Bartov has stated: “There is a clear will on the part of the Netanyahu government to destroy the Palestinians as a human group and make life in Gaza impossible.” The professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University believes: “What is happening in Gaza is genocide. Israel’s response to the October 7 attacks by Hamas is disproportionate and even amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
However, the criticism of Israeli human rights organizations against the genocide in Gaza cannot be considered an example of real support for Palestinian rights. Rather, these positions at this historical moment are more a reflection of the conditions and pressures that have forced the Israelis to take such approaches.
Israeli tactic to manage the legitimacy crisis
One of the reasons that has led Israeli organizations and thinkers to point to the Gaza war as genocide is political and media reservations. The reality is that the continuation and intensification of the violent and inhumane actions of the Israeli army in Gaza has severely weakened the historical policy of “Jewish victimhood” that was raised after World War II and based on the alleged Holocaust narrative.
In the past decades, the Israeli regime has used the narrative of Jewish victimhood to legitimize the occupation, suppress the Palestinians, and even receive unconditional support from the West. However, in the era of social media, which has led to the loss of the media monopoly of mainstream narratives, the immediate publication of images of the crimes in Gaza has caused global public opinion to no longer simply accept Israeli narrative. As a result, the image of the Israeli regime has changed from a “permanent victim” to a “war criminal” globally.
Realizing this shift of public opinion, Israeli rights organizations are also trying to repair part of that image by outwardly criticizing the performance of the Israeli army while maintaining their own credibility. These institutions can no longer fully support the actions of the Netanyahu cabinet, which has clearly taken an extremist and racist path, because this support means officially accepting Tel Aviv’s role as war criminal.
These organizations are trying to position themselves in the ranks of human rights advocates with selective and controlled positions before their historical legitimacy completely collapses. Therefore, such an effort is more of a tactical effort to manage the legitimacy crisis in the international arena than a sign of sympathy for the oppressed Palestinian people.
Israel isolated globally
But perhaps the more important factor that can be referred to as the main reason behind the shift of position and tone of some Israeli rights groups about war is the consequences of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, a war that for the first time showed to the residents of Israel the true meaning and taste of war and burst the bubble of the security invulnerability of Israel with thousands of Iranian missiles and drones.
This war marked a turning point in the psychological, military and political equations of the Israelis, because for the first time the residents of the occupied territories experienced the real taste of war not on television but on the streets of Tel Aviv and other occupied areas. With the Iranian missile strikes, the Israelis felt some of the pain and suffering that the Palestinians in Gaza endured and realized that the bitter conditions of the Palestinians for 77 years could be repeated for them.
Relying on the absolute support of the West, especially the US, the Israeli regime has always presented itself as the superior military and political power in the region, but Iran’s decisive and coordinated response to its aggression, which was done with a large number of advanced missiles and drones, shattered this image and disrupted the historical equation.
Most importantly, the Western inability to provide effective support to Tel Aviv clearly conveyed the message to the Israelis that they could no longer rely on the same political and military support they have always had when faced with a great power like Iran. Therefore, the West’s passive stance towards the security of the Israeli regime caused deep concern among the Israelis, prompting them to change their views on the Gaza war.
This war also had a wide impact on world public opinion. Unlike in the past, now global sympathy with the Israeli regime has noticeably decreased, and many users and analysts on social media not only did not complain about Iran’s reaction, but also expressed happiness and satisfaction at the shattering of the Israeli invincibility image. This change in global outlook was a serious alarm for Israeli propaganda structures.
In such conditions, some Israeli organizations that have always supported occupational policies of Tel Aviv now by raising Gaza genocide try to put up an independent and critical face. The main aim of these positions is not to support the people of Palestine but to protect the historical credibility of the Jews internationally and prevent the growing global aversion to Zionism.
These reactions represent an urgent attempt to upend the rapid decline of Tel Aviv’s image in the world’s public opinion. They have realized that their historical and media position as “permanent victims” is no longer as functional as it once was, and that the world is moving past one-sided narratives.
Israeli organizations that blame Netanyahu’s cabinet for all these crises in the occupied territories are seeking to remove Netanyahu and the ruling extremist movement, which have tarnished the historical reputation of Jews in the world, from power by highlighting the cabinet’s crimes. This is because this racist approach of Netanyahu’s cabinet has not only increased hatred and disgust towards the Israeli regime, but has also jeopardized the psychological and political security of Jews in many countries.
Therefore, the main aim of these Israeli organizations is to curb the growing aversion to Israel and stop Israel turning into an official symbol of crimes and rights violation in the eyes of the world public opinion.
