Put a stop to 'killing in the name of'

Not to be facetious about war, but even as Israeli ground troops encircled Gaza City on Friday, after the US urged ‘concrete steps’ to minimise civilian casualties, the ongoing brutality in Gaza-Israel can be seen as extreme brand appropriation with horrific collateral consequences. On one side of the trenches is Hamas, self-styled representative of ‘all Palestinians’ and its project to dismantle the Israeli state. On the other is the Benjamin Netanyahu administration, self-styled defender and deliverer of reprisal on behalf of Israel‘s Jewish citizenry. Stuck in between this pair of appropriators are innocents caught in the tu tu-main main of death and destruction.

Rage Against the Machine’s chilling song, ‘Killing in the Name of’, has the lyrics: ‘Those who died are justified/ For wearing the badge….’ In the West Asian context, popular mandate is considered ‘wearing the badge’, sanctifying the attacks, counterattacks, counter-counterattacks…. Hamas being elected in the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, the last one before it took over the Gaza Strip in 2007, is a fact. As is the 2022 Israeli legislative election result that saw the Likud-led ‘national camp’ come to power in Tel Aviv.

But three wars prior to the ongoing one – in 2008-09, 2012 and 2014 – forced Hamas to negotiate with Israel for humanitarian issues: opening and closing of the Gaza-Israel land freight crossings, financial aid for reconstruction, minimum export quota for Gaza’s agricultural products, etc. The latest Hamas-launched ‘in the name of’ war has dragged the humanitarian aspect back into the Levantine hole, bringing the political (sic) out in the fore with innocents as Abrahamic sacrifice. This ugly prioritisation must be reversed immediately.