A Wall in the Road to Peace

Jordan Kreager

The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 shortly after the Holocaust wherein about 6 million Jews were systematically exterminated complies with a consistent pattern seen throughout history. This pattern is made up of a long string of degradation and deprivation, as the racism seen in European mentality continues to undermine the efforts of human rights movements around the world still to this day. The Holocaust left millions of peoples’ lives in shambles, and the sense of entitlement that ensued in the minds of these victims calls for something that cannot realistically be fulfilled. And in effort to make Jewish victims content, Palestinians are still to this day coping with the aftermath of the Holocaust as they are dehumanized in a variety of ways. An average day in the life of a Palestinian, depicted by the film, Paradise Now, and the novel, Palestinian Walks, demonstrates the deplorable conditions experienced by Palestinians, and yet this treatment is seemingly justified to most European-influenced nations all over the world. Symbolic violence helps to perpetuate, subconsciously and consciously, the constant and endless despair faced by Palestinians of the last several decades. Through naturalization, evil becomes socialized, accepted and thus normalized. This seemingly infinite string of violence appears at the foundation of the socio-cultural framework reinforced by the Israeli government and military. This conflict between Palestine helps fortify a state of exception within these same confines, becomeing enculturated through ideology Westernized political perspectives.

Allegations that Palestinians are victimized are deemed preposterous in Israel, and this perspective has been adopted by most of the Western world. When the foundation for the State of Israel was being laid, it was forcibly laid upon the Palestinian way of life by way of brute militaristic force and excessive violence. Incidentally, Palestinian freedom fighters are labeled as terrorists by the Westernized nations. Symbols, like the word ‘terrorist’ can perpetuate violent conflicts tremendously. ‘Terrorist’ can be defined as someone who spreads fear and enacts terror strategically, however, this word can characterize all European colonizers or the Israeli Defense Force as well, so in its modern application it can be reduced to just propaganda.

Etymologically, terror derives from the Latin infinitive terrare meaning: to cause fear or panic, to frighten. While its application is logical based on its original meaning, the distribution of the word historically seems to reflect political motives exclusively. For instance, one would not typically call a wild panther, a terrorist, despite the fear one might easily experience if confronted by one. While war undoubtedly presents systematic terror on either side, the use of the word only has a modern application for 'othering' or even to discriminate. Many things cause terror and to imply that the word only applies to specific militant forces, but not all, only serves to discriminate and segregate. To ‘thingify’ a group of people as terrorists runs parallel with Hitler’s thingification of Jews as rats. The checkpoints upon entry into Israel provide another clear cultural symbol that preludes to violence, and incidentally so do the guns equipped by the soldiers who guard the gate. As explained by Nangenhast in Inncoulations of Evil, “By symbolic violence, I mean what Bourdieu (1977;191) calls the ‘censored but euphemized’ violence that is part of daily hegemonic practice, but in ‘disguised and transfigured’ form. These are the multitude of everyday violences that can be found in the workplace, in schoolyards, in jails, and in the media...”(Nangengast, 326) While Nangengast’s essay is more focused on the US-Mexican Border Region, any territorial dispute that leads to the construction of a wall offers a clear symbol of violence in that of itself. Referred to ironically as the Apartheid Wall or Berlin Wall by Palestinians, the ‘defense barrier’ as Israelis proscribe, illustrates that the symbolism associated, can vary significantly depending on which side of the wall is in contemplation. As seen in the film, Paradise Lost, once entry is gained into the other side of this wall, Said can detonate the explosive device which is strapped to his chest. This naturalized state of warfare and violence is the norm for Palestinians and Israelis who integrated these idioms of violence into their cultural apparatuses, leaving both sides feeling terrorized at every instance.

Incidentally, the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians exhibits the banality of evil and demonstrates its fortification of the corresponding symbols, while it manifests into a society, an endless downward spiral of violence. As referenced by Scheper-Hughes, “Adorno and the post-World War II Frankfurt School suggested that participation in genocidal acts requires a strong childhood conditioning that produces almost mindless obedience to authority figures.” (Scheper-Hughes, Coming to Our Senses, 368) This observation seems to fit the situation in Israel as well, and while violence towards Palestinians is not popularly regarded as genocide, another look into Scheper-Hughes adds clarification to this association, “The continuum refers to the human capacity to reduce others to nonpersons, to monsters or to things that gives structure, meaning, and rationale to everyday practices of violence.” (Scheper-Hughes, Coming to Our Senses, 369) It would also be a fair assessment to say that differentiating between ‘genocide’ and ‘violence’ only symbolizes the euphemization of acts of dehumanization by disguising them with political attire, which in turn helps to justify these violent events as they unravel. In the film, Paradise Now, ‘suicide bombing’ is accepted, enculturated, and therefore justified in the minds of young male Palestinians. This idiom is passed down from oppressed generation to the next, symbolic of heroism and honor, while signifying religious ideology by rite of passage to many. In order to ensure ascendance into the heavens, sacrificing one’s own life to the cause helps dignify the hero, his family’s name, and seems to guarantee spiritual transcendence. The continuum of violence or genocide is revealed all over the world, and certainly throughout the Middle East. The integration of acts of war into Palestinian and Israeli culture reflects the state of exception which facilitates this continuing cycle.

In regard to Agamben’s, The State of Exception as a Paradigm of Government, a link between Nazi Germany and Israel arises.

“The Third Reich can be considered a state of exception that lasted twelve years. In this sense, modern totalitarianism can be defined as the establishment, by means of the state of exception, of a legal civil war that allows for the physical elimination not only of political adversaries but of entire categories of citizens who for some reason cannot be integrated into the political system.” (Agamben, 2)

Sixty-four years and counting, Israel upholds a similar state of exception represented by pressures faced by Palestinians including the bare rights, lack of work, loss of land and estate, hunger, poverty, fear, all of which lead to actions derived from notions of anger, bewilderment, fear, guilt, hopelessness, injustice, retribution, sadness, and/or wrath. These are all present as seen in the quote extracted from Paradise Now,”Life here is like imprisonment. The crimes of the occupation are countless...A life without dignity is worthless.” This depiction presented by the film’s main character, Said, gives clear insight into a normal day in the life of a Palestinian, whose family name has been tarnished due to his father’s collaboration with Israeli forces. Said, completely dehumanized since his exit from the womb, has grown up without rights, but his capacity to handle these stresses has finally pushed him over the edge to feel justified to trade his life for the death of a few enemies. In this state of exception, the dehumanization occurring still to this day remains invisible to the uninformed eye, and compels individuals to take extreme measures for the sake of retribution.

Unfortunately, the Israeli occupation of Palestine exemplifies the routinization of violence into everyday life for Palestinians and Israelis. Symbols of violence, which perforate the overall cultural landscape surrounding this territorial dispute, perpetuate the continuum of violence that occurs daily. This facilitation is catalyzed by the totalitaritized state of exception that is the State of Israel, to which Palestinians seek retribution. If this is not a textbook example of genocide, then dehumanization easily fits this semantically unfulfilled space. European influence on the rest of the world has led to the death of millions of nonwhite people since history has been recorded, and many white people as well for that matter. The continuum of violence, genocide, dehumanization, colonization, imperialism,and totalitarianism, whilst propagated in different contextual landscapes around the world, all yield similar harvests of death and destruction continually. Euphemization and propaganda are the pollen which enables these idioms to spread and sprout like weeds into the cultural ecologies of Westernized civilization. The irony of this conflict is revealed in the fact that the Holocaust triggered the establishment of Israel by hostile takeover, but the Palestinian Liberation Organization are deemed terrorists for resisting, despite the terror they must have felt when they were forced out of their homes and on the other side of a giant wall at gunpoint. The use of words like 'terrorist' is a form of propaganda that blatantly ignores that Palestinians' willingness to sacrifice their lives is caused by the terror they have experienced for decades, dehumanzing them to the point of feeling as though their life is not even worth living to begin with.