The Most Moral Army

”[Our] army is the most moral army in the world”.

The prelude to this “moral army”’s passing is a bombed-out wasteland, a wasteland in which half of the population are children. A wasteland of husks of concrete where civilians are the main targets of genocide and forceful relocation under the guise of hunting terrorists.

And yet, to Netanyahu, his army is the world’s most moral.

An army from a nation which runs ghastly mobile gaming adverts about its indignity, or where influencers and families perform a dancing mockery of the hellish conditions that Palestinians have to try and endure in the waterless and powerless dust of wreck and ruin.

But this is all just and right, according to Netanyahu, and any critics of it “do not have a single drop of morality”.

Not the kind of morality where the moral army aim for the journalists who try to observe the war on the ground. Where Reuters reporters are actively targetted along the Lebanon border, or how journalists and their families are hunted on the ground of the strip.

Remember Shireen Abu Akleh, for she was (according to Netanyahu) shot dead in the head by the most moral army in the world.

I disagree with Netanyahu. Avid readers of these here my Wasted Words know full well the umbrage I take with the apartheid of Zionism. I’m well on record disliking occupation and subjugation on a categorical level. Killing a journalist doing their job is about the most clear draconic sign you can find in a regime, and that’s not even taking into accounts the numerous violations of International Law that Israel makes itself guilty of even in so-called peace time, much more so when at full scale war against a civilian population.

But right this second I disagree with Netanyahu not just on policy or politics, but on a fundamental philosophical level:

There is no moral army. Morality, like truth, is a first casualty in any war. There may be right and wrong, clearly cut, such as in Ukraine’s defence of its sovereign borders, or Europe’s resistance to Nazi Germany’s desire for Lebensraum, but (despite what Peter Sellers said) there’s no space for morality in the war room. Atrocities are endemic to the very idea of war; the industrialized cruelty of political will against another. No matter which side you root for (or against), there is not an armed force upon this earth, past present or likely future, which runs on morality.

If there was, we wouldn’t have need for International Law or the Rules of War.

If there was, the Law of Armed Conflict as part of the United Nations Charter would not be violated on such regular basis as it is.

There may be a moral side to a war every so often. There may even be plenty of moral soldiers in the ranks of either side. But there has never, is not, and will with all likelihood never be, a moral armed force.

And even if I’m wrong, it’s demonstrably not yours, Netanyahu, no matter how loudly you chant.

/Sebastian Lindberg 31/10-2023

When Noble Labours Reap Savage Rewards

Last week, on May 11, Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot in the head by Israeli Defence Forces in the occupied West Bank.

Israel’s Bennett and Gantz tried to shift the blame to Palestinian militants, but the camera evidence and AFP witness accounts of the IDF’s blame is solid. To salt the wounds, the IDF went on to attack Shireen’s funeral convoy and beat the living shit out of mourners. Because that’s what oppressors do.

This isn’t the first time the IDF has targetted – hunted – journalists reporting on apartheid Israel’s genocidal occupation. Turkish state media Anadolu Agency account for 15 killed journalists since 1992, while Qatari Al Jazeera and the Palestinian government account for some ~50 journalists targetted and murdered since 2000. I guess definitions of “journalist” vary…

Journalism gets a bad rep these days. Truth be told, it’s always been popular to hate on journalists. Because they tell the stories that Power doesn’t want told. Anything else is advertisement. And though the line between journalist and private citizen has been blurred with the advent of social media, the profession, in my mind, has become more invaluable than ever. Not less so. A journalist takes on the inhuman task of trying to set aside bias and get to roots that, sometimes, absolutely no one is comfortable exploring.

Good, brave, defiant journalism is a fundamental of not just democracy, but any kind of society. Good journalism keeps liars honest, crooks accountable, and despots despairing. Which is why journalism is such a dangerous profession. Regardless if you’re plying your trade in occupied Palestine, war-torn Ukraine, or quasi-dictatorial Philippines. Not because you work at high altitudes or face down landmines for a living, but because Power will want to have you silenced. Which is probably also why a vast majority of journalist murders go unresolved. Because Power is always happy when journalists die.

When Power wants you dead, you’re doing something right with your life.

I’m biased. I think journalism can be one of the noblest labours upon this planet. When done right. The details of what “right” means also varies, but whenever one speaks truth to Power and is hated for it, hunted for it, it is inalienably right.

I mourn not just for Shireen and her peers of later day secular martyrs, but for this our current circumstances; where one of the highest awards one can receive for one of the noblest labours in history is to be murdered by Power.

/Sebastian Lindberg 17/5-2022