"The Killing of Gaza: Reports on a Catastrophe" -- The Importance of Gideon Levy's Book

Part I

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Gideon Levy was one of the first Israeli journalists I began reading with regularity when I subscribed to the English version of Haaretz five years ago. He never failed to report uncomfortable truths and continues to defy Israeli hasbara in his columns, which cover the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank-- his beat for thirty-six years. Not one to shy away from asking the hard questions, at the center of his manuscript is the theme, "Can a society exist without a conscience?"

The Killing of Gaza is divided into two sections. The first part is broken down by years, 2014 through 2023. The second begins with October 2023 and delves into each month through June 2024. By the time Levy reaches April, the subheading is, "In Six Months in Gaza, Israel's Worst-Ever War Achieved Nothing but Death and Destruction."

The book's tone is anger and frustration, laced with sarcasm. Levy traces the series of missteps and bad choices that he posits have dogged Israel's leaders from its earliest days.

Levy begins by grounding his readers into his whereabouts on that fateful October 7. It was a warm Shabbat coinciding with Simchat Torah. He was out for a run in a park near his home in the northern district of Tel Aviv. As he sits down to write his column for the Sunday edition in response to the initial reports of an attack, his first thoughts are about the fall of Berlin. However, after being informed by his editor of the murders and abductions of Israeli citizens, he shifts his premise.

He writes: "Behind all this lies Israeli arrogance; the idea that we can do whatever we like, that we'll never pay the price and be punished for it. We'll carry on undisturbed."

Levy last visited Gaza eighteen years ago, before the government prohibited Israeli journalists from entering. He had been a regular visitor from 1987 through 2006. His goal was to serve as an interlocutor on "life and death under Israeli occupation-- where freedom and basic human rights were denied."

Since June 2007, Israel has imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip (with the collaboration of Egypt), isolating two to three million people. Levy observes that when Hamas gained power, "the closure took on a new form, tighter and crueler."

Levy takes the reader down the path of actions and attitudes that he sees as laying the groundwork for October 2023. He questions why Israelis believe that the inhabitants of Gaza would accept their living conditions and the blockade indefinitely. When referencing an operation put into play, named Protective Edge, Levy employs his acerbic wit to emphasize that the undertaking gave "no protection and no edge." Rather, he underscores that in Israel's continuous forays, "Nobody seems to learn anything, and nothing changes except the weapons." When Levy outlines the devastation wrought by the military action, he adds as a postscript, "But that, too, prompted nothing more than a big yawn."

Calling Hamas "a despicable organization," Levy doesn't step away from "the crimes committed by the invaders." Yet, he emphasizes that there is a clear distinction between Hamas and the people of Gaza." His mission is to underscore the humanity of those Gazans who have repeatedly been "dispossessed and expelled," living under seventeen years of a blockade and seventy-five years of misery. As the months go by, Levy stresses that "the war has lost all reasonable proportion required for punishment, revenge or future deterrence." He criticizes the absence of an endgame of strategy for "the day after."

Levy references the 2012 United Nations report Gaza in 2020: A Livable Place? By January 2020, one to two million people lived where the norms were worse than the study had predicted. Levy writes, "There's a Chernobyl in Gaza, an hour from Tel Aviv." He also calls out the global community for their recurring no-teeth commissions of inquiries, which do nothing to help Gazans who are left to survive amid rubble while suffering from malnutrition. In February 2024, Levy called upon the international community to force peace on Israel.

Using individual stories as illustrations of facts on the ground, Levy points to how Israelis ignore the fate of Gazans unless "Gaza is shooting." A combination of polluted water, sewage emptied into the sea, and limited electricity are the realities of everyday life in Gaza. The concept formulated in 2006 by Dov Weissglas of putting "Gazan residents on a diet" has reached the level of starvation. Levy defines the ongoing distress caused to Palestinian families that are separated because they live in different territories and are broken apart by Israeli laws. He writes of the father and brother who are both incarcerated in Israeli prisons, and recounts stories about Palestinians denied timely access to permits over crossings when they desperately need medical attention. Demolitions of civilian homes and buildings by missiles occur when the Shin Bet decides that there is a viable reason. One young, confused Palestinian asked when interviewed by Levy, "Why do they bomb us with missiles, especially when I am an ordinary resident and don't belong to any party or organization?"

Throughout the book, Levy asserts that Gaza exemplifies the original sin of the expulsion of Palestinians in 1948 and "shapes its [Israel's] moral profile." Exactly because Gaza is occupied, Israel is responsible for its fate. Levy calls for the Gaza Strip to be opened up and reconnected to the West Bank. Levy mocks the fence built around the Gaza Strip and the military bigwigs who attended the unveiling. The cost was astronomical, which Levy compares to the pittance of 3,200 shekels that the nation pays out to its disabled citizens.

"Israeli security" is the catch-all phrase for the reasoning behind the separation wall costing billions. Levy mocks the "security cult," which has created Gaza as a cage. He lays out his solution: "The only way to deal with the threat from Gaza is to give Gaza its freedom." He asks, "Who knows how much more Israel will entrench itself, surround itself with walls, fences, and barriers, and imprison its neighbors even more."

Levy posits that Israel could have taken a different route post-1948. Compensation, rehabilitation, and assistance to counterbalance the expulsion of Palestinians from their lands. "Violence is always brutal and immoral," Levy intones, whether it is by "terrorists" or by "state-sanctioned uniformed violence." The first section ends with a series of questions posed by Levy. His top inquiry to his fellow Israelis is, "Do we want to continue living like this?"

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