Spreading
the Virus of Occupation: Spitting as a Weapon in the Hand of Colonial Israel
Spitting at someone is a
universal insult. In Israel, however, spitting at Palestinians is an entirely
different story.
Now that we know that the
deadly coronavirus can be transmitted through saliva droplets, Israeli soldiers
and illegal Jewish settlers are working extra hard to spit at as many
Palestinians, their cars, doorknobs, and so on, as possible.
If this sounds to you too
surreal and repugnant, then you might not be as familiar with the particular
breed of Israeli colonialism as you may think you are.
In all
fairness, Israelis have been spitting at Palestinians well before the World
Health Organization (WHO) lectured us on the elusive nature of the COVID-19 disease
and on the critical need to apply "social distancing".
Indeed, if you Google the phrase "Israeli spitting", you will
be inundated with many interesting search results, the like of “Jerusalem Judge to Jews: Don’t Spit On Christians“, “Christians in Jerusalem want Jews to Stop Spitting on Them“, and the more recent, “Israel Settlers Spitting on Palestinian Cars Raises Concern over
over Attempt to Spread
Coronavirus”.
Interestingly, most of these
coverage throughout the years has been carried out by Israel’s own media, while
receiving little attention in Western mainstream media.
One could easily classify
such degrading acts as yet another example of the Israelis’ false sense of
superiority over Palestinians. But the deliberate attempt at infecting occupied
Palestinians with the coronavirus are beneath contempt, even for a
settler-colonial regime.
Two particular elements in
this story requires a pause:
First, that acts of
spitting at Palestinians and their properties, by both occupation soldiers and
settlers have been widely reported in many parts of occupied Palestine.
This means that, within a
matter of days, the Israeli army and settlers’ cultures so swiftly adopted their
pre-existing racism to employ a deadly virus as the latest tool in subjugating
and harming Palestinians, whether physically or symbolically.
Second, the degree of
ignorance and buffoonery that accompany these racist and degrading acts.
The power paradigm that has
governed the relationship between colonial Israel and colonized Palestinians
has, thus far, followed a typical trajectory, where Israel’s bad deeds often go
unpunished.
Those racist Israelis who
are deliberately trying to infect Palestinians with the COVID-19 are not only
criminal in their thinking and behavior, but utterly foolish as well.
When Israeli soldiers
arrest or beat up Palestinian activists, they are as likely to contract the
coronavirus as they are to transmit it.
But, of course, Israel is
doing much more to complicate, if not entirely hinder, Palestinian efforts
aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus.
On March 23, a Palestinian
worker, Malek Jayousi, was tossed out by Israeli authorities at the Beit Sira
military checkpoint, near Ramallah, after he was suspected of having the
coronavirus.
Video footage of the poor
worker huddling near the checkpoint, after he was "dumped like
trash", has gone viral on social media.
Of course, the Palestinian
workers were not tested for the virus but had merely exhibited flu-like
symptoms, enough to make Israel dispose of them as if their lives did not
matter in the least.
Two weeks later, the
Palestinian Governor of the occupied city of Qalqiliya, Rafi’ Rawajbeh, told reporters that the Israeli army
has opened several wastewater tunnels near the northern Palestinian city, with
the aim of smuggling Palestinian workers back to the West Bank, without prior
coordination with the Palestinian Authority.
Without testing hundreds of
those smuggled workers, the PA, already operating with limited capacity to
confront the disease, will find it impossible to contain the spread of the
virus.
Palestinian claims of
Israel’s deliberate attempt at worsening the spread of the coronavirus in
Palestine was further confirmed by the Geneva-based Euro-med Monitor, which,
on March 31, called on the international community to investigate
the "suspicious behavior" of Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers.
During Israeli army raids
on Palestinian homes, soldiers "spat at parked cars, ATMs and shop locks,
which raises fears of deliberate attempts to spread the virus and cause panic
in the Palestinian society," Euro-Med stated.
Article 56 of the Fourth
Geneva Convention does not say anything about the need for members of the
Occupying Power to stop spitting at occupied and subjugated communities; most
likely, because it is a given that such sordid behavior is completely unacceptable
and does not require a separate textual reference.
However, Article 56, as was
recently emphasized by UN Special
Rapporteur for the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory,
Michael Lynk, does require Israel, the Occupying
Power, to "ensure that all the necessary preventive means available to it
are utilized to ‘combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics.’"
Israel, however, is failing
its legal mandate, and horribly so.
Even the Israeli mayor of
Jerusalem, Moshe Leon, has himself stressed the inequality in the
official Israeli response to the spread of the coronavirus.
In his letter of April 7 to
the Israeli Health Ministry Director-General, Moshe Bar Siman Tov, Leon warned
against "the serious shortage of medical equipment at (Palestinian)
hospitals in (occupied) East Jerusalem, particularly protective equipment and equipment
to conduct coronavirus testing."
Despite the severe shortages in East Jerusalem and West Bank hospitals,
the situation in the besieged Gaza Strip
is simply disastrous, as Gaza’s Health Ministry has declared on April 9 that it
has run out of its coronavirus test kits, which never amounted to more than few
hundred, in the first place.
This means that the many
Gazans who are already under quarantine will not be released any time soon, and
that new cases will not be detected, let alone cured.
We have repeatedly warned
in the last few weeks that this terrifying scenario was going to happen,
especially as Israel is using the coronavirus as an opportunity to further
isolate Palestinians and to barter potential humanitarian aid with political
concessions.
Without immediate and
sustainable intervention from the international community occupied Palestine,
and especially impoverished and besieged Gaza, could become a hotbed for
COVID-19 for years to come.
Israel will never relent
without international intervention. Without being held accountable, even a
deadly virus will never alter the habits of a vile military occupation.
Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five
books. His latest is These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of
Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons (Clarity Press,
Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for
Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website
is www.ramzybaroud.net.
He is the author of five
books. His latest is These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of
Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons (Clarity Press,
Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for
Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website
is www.ramzybaroud.net.
