radiofree.asia

Israel lets politicians say ‘burn Gaza’ and ‘kill its adults’, but wants us to think Bob Vylan is the problem

Israel’s parliament thinks it’s ok for politicians to call Palestinians “subhumans” and encourage Israeli occupation forces to “burn Gaza” and “kill the adults in Gaza”. And it allows this during a livestreamed genocide. Free speech matters, it says… until musicians in Britain like Bob Vylan dare to call out the war criminals committing that genocide.

Every day a new mass murder. But it’s the perpetrators’ feelings we need to worry about, apparently.

On Monday 30 June, the Israeli occupation forces (IDF) murdered 95 people at a cafe, school, and aid sites in Gaza. These included a journalist and children celebrating a birthday. But it’s not those war criminals facing the wrath of the British political and media establishment. Instead, police are investigating music group Bob Vylan after its frontman said “death to the IDF”. Its agents have reportedly dropped it. The US, without which Israel’s genocide couldn’t have happened, has revoked the group’s visas. And they’ve been facing offensively cynical smears from genocide-apologists.

Without a hint of irony, the Israeli embassy in Britain feigned concern over “the normalisation of extremist language and the glorification of violence”, saying:

when speech crosses into incitement, hatred, and advocacy of ethnic cleansing, it must be called out—especially when amplified by public figures on prominent platforms.

However, genocide-apologists don’t just wish “death to Hamas” or its military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades (which would be the actual equivalent to saying “death to the IDF”). They go much further. They often say “Death to Arabs”, normalising genocidal rhetoric against a whole ethnic group. It’s now a “popular Israeli slogan”. And a chart-topping Israeli song goes further, calling for the deaths of anti-genocide celebrities Dua Lipa, Mia Khalifa, and Bella Hadid. The very “incitement, hatred, and advocacy of ethnic cleansing” the Israeli embassy claims to worry about in Britain is exactly what the colonial power has been fostering and allowing at home.

No more morality lessons from those who incite and commit genocide

Israeli politician Nissim Vaturi called for the IDF to “burn Gaza“. But a parliamentary ethics committee recently rejected a complaint about him on ‘free speech’ grounds. The fact that he was a deputy Knesset speaker made no difference. Earlier this year, meanwhile, Vaturi also gave an interview in which he called Palestinians “subhumans” (the same term the Nazis used during the Holocaust), adding that they were a group of people that cannot be accepted by anyone. He also suggested no Gazans were innocent and encouraged the IDF to “kill the adults in Gaza”, insisting that the war criminals were “being too considerate”. At that point, the IDF had already killed at least one child every hour since October 2023.

Even LBC, usually not a place for left-wing commentary, had to admit how absurd it was that there was so much establishment rage about Bob Vylan and so little about Israel’s words and crimes:

Vaturi isn’t unique either. There is a long, exhaustive list of Israeli politicians who have made genocidal statements. As Al Jazeera reported previously, “people with command authority have been making genocidal statements repeatedly”:

They have dehumanised Palestinians in their rhetoric, and painted the population in Gaza, as a whole, as Israel’s enemy.

Wanted war criminals Yoav Gallant and Benjamin Netanyahu, for example, described Palestinians as “human animals”, “monsters”, and “barbarians”.

Bob Vylan is not the problem

Genocide requires dehumanisation of the target population. Nazis famously did that by portraying Jewish people as rats before the Holocaust, and Zionists have done the same with Palestinians both before and during the current genocide in Gaza. Perpetrators and supporters of Israel’s actions have called Palestinians “roaches” and “rats”, for example. And Western mainstream media outlets have even joined in with dehumanising propaganda to support Israel’s efforts.

This incitement has accompanied and normalised a genocide in which Israeli soldiers have been flaunting their crimes on social media (and even dating apps). There is a now a massive video database of their heinous acts, which include medelacide, scholasticide, ecocide, and genocide.

The genocide-apologists’ bullshit just doesn’t fly anymore.

Featured image via the Canary

By Ed Sykes

This post was originally published on Canary.