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To the Palestinians, March 30 is known as Land Day or Yom al-Ard. This day is observed as a symbol of resilience and love for their homeland, while commemorating Palestinian history and the hardships endured by its people. Fifty years ago, six unarmed Palestinians were met with lethal force by the Israeli military and over a hundred more were injured while protesting Israel’s planned confiscation of nearly five thousand acres of Palestinian land. Today, Palestinians gather to remember the fallen by planting olive trees and marching against the deadly occupation imposed by Israel. This year, however, the day takes on an entirely new meaning.
On the fiftieth anniversary of Israel’s deadly attack, the Israeli Parliament passed a law that would allow and systematize the hanging of Palestinian prisoners convicted of lethal attacks. The timing of this vote is by no means a coincidence; it is a statement that couldn’t have been made any clearer. With Israeli military courts exclusively trying Palestinians and resulting in a 99.74% conviction rate, this law reads as a way of turning a completely unjust legal system into a mechanism for state-sanctioned executions that will be applied solely to a single race.
This decision was made by a significant majority of the Israeli Knesset, with 72 members voting in favor and 42 against, underscoring that it wasn’t a close outcome but one backed by a broad portion of the country’s political leadership. This is the same political leadership that celebrated by cheering and shaking bottles of champagne as Knesset member Limor Son Har-Melech announced the ruling while grinning from ear to ear. Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and several of his colleagues were also seen wearing symbols of their support for the execution of Palestinian prisoners in the form of gold noose pins attached to their suits. This atmosphere of excitement and support for the outcome of this vote by Israel’s lawmakers proves just how deeply Palestinian lives have been devalued in the eyes of those shaping its policy.
This desensitization to the horrific treatment of Palestinians is hardly an issue that ends at government leadership. It instead reflects a larger systemic issue that dates back to the founding of the nation and has become deeply embedded within Israeli culture. In Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education, Israeli scholar Nurit Peled-Elhanan studied 17 Israeli school textbooks (specifically 10 history textbooks, 6 geography textbooks, and 1 civics textbook) and came to the conclusion that these grade school teachings play a major role in shaping the negative way in which young Israelis view Palestinians. She found that these textbooks portrayed the Palestinian natives primarily as threats, terrorists, and primitive figures, a framing which contributes to the narrative that these aren’t real people with families and lives but threats needing to be removed.
These propagandized views are instilled into the Israeli youth long before adulthood, particularly before compulsory military service at the age of 18 which most are required to serve. While far from excusable, it is very telling as to why headline after headline of atrocity committed by the IDF is downplayed not only by the media, but by the very people meant to hold these soldiers accountable. According to the human rights organization Yesh Din, the likelihood of accountability for violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank is exceptionally rare. Complaints alleging harm caused by Israeli soldiers result in indictments only 1.5% of the time, while the cases involving the killing of Palestinians lead to indictments in just 0.4% of incidents. Even more striking is that only 30% of complaints regarding suspected offenses by soldiers against Palestinians in the West Bank result in any investigation at all.
If these statistics prove anything, it is that this isn’t an institution where accountability is merely inconsistent; it is horrifyingly uncommon. Unfortunately, culpability among the soldiers is no better at the detention camps where thousands of Palestinians are held, many of whom will soon face execution under the newly passed law. These facilities, which hold roughly 10,000 Palestinian detainees have long been the subject of allegations involving torture and human rights violations. According to the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, there have been hundreds of abuse allegations since October 2023 and yet only two indictments have been filed, neither of which resulted in any charges or prison sentences.
These are the same detention camps where in 2024, five Israeli soldiers were caught on camera sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee so severely that upon admission to a hospital, the doctor initially believed that the injuries were caused by a rival armed group. Despite how severe the allegations were and the absolute evidence, charges against the soldiers were later dropped. With cases involving torture and sexual violence failing to result in any meaningful consequences, it only reinforces the system that not only enables such abuse, but normalizes it.
Israel’s detention camps expose just one piece of a much broader pattern defined by the complete and utter devastation of Palestinian life. Genocide is a word that many are reluctant to use, yet the scale of destruction, displacement, and loss of life make it impossible to describe what is happening as anything else. When seven respected genocide and Holocaust researchers from around the world, spanning six countries including Israel, were interviewed by the Norwegian Refugee Council, each of them characterized Israel’s actions towards Palestine as genocidal. These experts also mention how their colleagues share the same views as them which highlights the growing consensus between genocide professionals that what is occurring in Palestine is an intentional killing of the native people.
It is hard not to get emotional when looking at recent photos coming out of Palestine. Rafah, a city along the southern Gaza Strip near the Egyptian border, is now described on websites like Wikipedia as “a largely destroyed and depopulated city.” Just in 2023, Rafah was a vibrant and colorful place filled with life and culture but now, not even three years later, the city has been reduced to nothing but dirt and rubble. Rafah’s destruction has resulted in hundreds of thousands of Palestinians being displaced, with tens of thousands more either dead or buried beneath what seems like a nonstop landscape of wreckage and destruction. The city that was once considered the final refuge for civilians has now been flattened into yet another spectacle of unimaginable devastation with a population forced to flee with nowhere that can realistically be labeled safe.
Years of watching the systemic erasure of Palestinian life within their own colonized borders make this new law feel like a step towards Israel’s final solution to the Palestinian question. How does one look at the footage of lawmakers celebrating and toasting to the legalization of killing without feeling the full weight of this dystopian horror? The law is not intended to target enemies, it is designed for nearly 10,000 human beings being held in a constant cycle of torture and abuse. The cheering that happened in Israel’s halls of power is a shameful reflection of a government that has been glorifying suffering while cementing the dehumanization of an entire culture. After 59 years of occupation and over 2 years of genocide, when will this sickening injustice finally be brought to an end?
