Voiding the Palestinians: An Allegory

Category: Middle East, World Affairs Topics: Palestine Views: 6232

"Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense 
that England belongs to the English or France to the French."

Gandhi [1]

"Palestine will be as Jewish as England is English."

Chaim Weizman [2]

On October 29, 2003, a leading Israeli daily, Ha'aretz, reported a rape-murder that occurred more than fifty years ago at Nirim, an Israeli military outpost in the Negev. The victim was a Palestinian girl, in her early or mid-teens, or younger; the perpetrators of this crime were members of the Israeli Defense Force.[3] Six days later, The Guardian also reported this crime, but US papers did not think this was news that is fit for print.[4] In the United States, the media prefers to shield Israel from adverse notice.

What is the significance of a single rape-murder in the long and tortuous history of the dispossession of one people by another? No dispossession ever makes a pretty picture. Moreover, the dispossession of Palestinians is no ordinary dispossession. It is not ordinary because it involved the complete voiding of one people by another: Palestine had to be emptied of its ancient Palestinian population to make room for Jews. It is not ordinary because much of this emptying was telescoped within a few short months (in 1948) rather than over centuries or decades. It was not ordinary because the people doing the voiding had themselves been voided from their spaces in Europe, a people with brilliant accomplishments, voided from the spaces they had helped to enrich. It is not ordinary because the voiding, the violence it demanded, had been carefully planned, orchestrated, justified, explained, excused, and, after it's success, celebrated and glorified in Israeli and Western media.

What is the significance of a single rape-murder - I ask again - in the midst of the voiding of Palestine implemented through the deceit of declarations and the farce of international laws; through repeated wars and grinding repressions; through the backing of great powers and support of the world's organized Jewry; through ethnic cleansings, orchestrated massacres and obliterated villages; through bombings of cinder block apartments, hospitals, schools and workshops; through armed settlements built on hilltops; through house demolitions, curfews, sieges, trenches, and bypass roads dividing communities; through a million daily humiliations at a thousand checkpoints; and now through a gargantuan wall, coiling, advancing, ominous, that dreams of squeezing the last drop of blood from beleaguered Palestinian communities in the West Bank?

Perhaps this single rape-murder is significant. The voiding of a people necessarily involves suffering on a monumental scale. The Zionists built their Jewish state by destroying the lives of millions of Palestinians over three generations. The scale of this suffering has been documented in reports, in statistics of villages destroyed, houses demolished, and men, women and children evicted from their homes, robbed, incarcerated, bombed, shot at, tortured, killed. However, statistics do not tell stories; they will not grip the reader with the pain of the victims. As the Holocaust reveals its hellish intent in images and artifacts, so the narrative of Palestinian voiding must be conveyed in images, metaphors and allegories, each of which contains in miniature, in essence, the great pain that the Palestinians have endured for more than eighty years. 

We must read the Ha'aretz disclosure of the rape-murder in the Negev as an allegory of the fate decreed by the god-like Zionists for an inferior Arab population. Read with understanding, the report reveals the darkness at the heart of the Zionist project, its racism, its moral obtuseness, its blindness to the irony of the grave injustice the Zionists intended to do to the Palestinians. The rape-murder of a nameless Palestinian girl - most likely a minor - by IDF soldiers graphically conveys the unequal contest between the Zionists and Palestinians, as the Zionists sought to void the Palestinians so that they could resurrect a Jewish state that had been dead for some eighteen hundred years. 

The only written record of the rape-murder, before the Ha'aretz report, is to be found in the diary of David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel. He made a terse but telling entry about this episode. "It was decided and carried out: they washed her, cut her hair, raped her and killed her."[5] Ben-Gurion could be describing a military operation, efficiently completed, according to plan, without hesitation, and without any loss of time. His verbs are active verbs: they speak of strong men, determined men, confident of their power to decide, to execute, to wash, to cut, rape and kill. The decisiveness, the finality of their actions is astounding.

On the morning of August 12, 1949, the Platoon Commander at the Nirim outpost in the Negev, Second Lieutenant Moshe, organized a patrol with six soldiers. During their patrol, they shot and killed a Palestinian after he threw down his rifle and was running away. Later, they captured two unarmed Arab men with a girl. The men were driven away with shots fired over their heads, but the girl was taken back to the output at Nirim. The patrol had decided that she was "f...able." On their way back to the outpost, the patrol shot and killed six camels, leaving them to rot.

At the outpost, while Moshe was away on another patrol, the Platoon Sergeant, Michael prepared the girl for rape. He removed her traditional garments, forced her to stand under a water pipe, and washed her with his own hands, while everyone watched. The washing done, he dressed her in a jersey and shorts, and took her back to a hut where he raped her. When the girl complained to Moshe about the rape, he ordered his men to wash her - again - "so that she would be clean for f...ing." The soldiers cut the girl's hair, washed her head with kerosene, placed her under the water pipe, and sent her back to the hut in jersey and shorts. She was now clean.

Later the same day, the soldiers at the Nirim outpost gathered in a large tent for the festivities of Sabbath eve. The Platoon Commander, Moshe, inaugurated the Sabbath by blessing the wine, a soldier read from the Bible, after which there was singing, eating, drinking, jokes and fun. Before the party ended, Moshe asked his men to decide the Palestinian captive's fate with a vote. They had two options: the captive could work in the kitchen; or they could have her. The girl's fate was decided democratically. The soldiers chanted, "We want a f...." Commander Moshe carried out the will of the majority. He and his sergeant went in first, leaving the girl unconscious.

The next morning, when the Palestinian girl protested, the Platoon Commander threatened to kill her. And, indeed, later, he ordered Sergeant Michael to execute the girl. They stripped her before execution; a soldier wanted his shorts back. The Sergeant, accompanied by a medic and two soldiers, took the girl out in the desert and shot her in the head as she ran. Overcome by pity, just in case she was alive and in pain, a soldier pumped a few more bullets into the girl's body. Washed clean, her hair cut, raped repeatedly, the Palestinian captive now lay dead in a shallow grave.

Second Lieutenant Moshe drove down to Be'er Sheva later that same evening to watch a movie. At the theatre, he met his Battalion Commander, Major Yehuda Drexler, who had ordered that the Palestinian captive be taken back to where she had been found. When the Major asked his subordinate if he had done so, Moshe replied: "They killed her, it was a shame to waste the gas." A Palestinian's life is not worth a gallon or half of gas.

When Captain Uri, the Company Commander, asked Second Lieutenant Moshe to explain what had happened to the Palestinian girl, this is what he wrote in his report:


That was all. It was dismissive in its terseness, as if to say it would be a waste of our time discussing the rape-murder of a Palestinian. However, if you insist on a report, here it is: We found an Arab girl, raped her, and "I saw fit to remove her from the world."

It is that last phrase that is so haunting, imperial, Biblical, even divine. It sums up the ethos of a whole age, an imperial age that took pride in its superior race and its civilizing mission. An age in which various Europeans nations "saw fit" to conquer, colonize, enslave, exterminate, displace, 'liberate' or 'educate' the rest of humanity, anyone different from them in color or religion. No matter what injury the Europeans inflicted on the natives, it had to be good for them. Nothing but goodness could flow from such superior beings. Zionism and its fruit, Israel, are but late flowerings of that Imperial age. 

At the trial for this rape-murder, which was held in secret the same year, Second Lieutenant Moshe denied raping the girl. "Morally speaking," he argued, "it was impossible to sleep with such a dirty girl." Most likely, he knew that this was an argument that would carry weight. It is a basic premise of the civilizing mission. "The native is always dirty, his clothes filthy, his manners crude." There is an added twist here. "It isn't raping an Arab girl that would have been immoral, but that she was dirty." The Court acquitted Moshe of rape, though he received a sentence of 15 years for murder.

Moshe offered a second defense. He told the Court repeatedly that Captain Uri, one of the Company Commanders in the battalion, had told him in private that when it came to the Arabs, he should engage in "killing, slaughter." The Court rejected this charge with its own psychoanalysis. The Judges wrote: "The court believes that the words "killing, slaughter" originate in a psychosis that seems to have taken root in the officer's blood, to the effect that Arabs were to be massacred indiscriminately." The Court chose not to cross-examine Captain Uri on this point.

Sergeant Michael pleaded that he was merely following orders when he executed the girl. The judges rejected his plea, but passed a "very light" sentence of five years in prison because of extenuating circumstances. "At the time there was a general feeling of contempt for the life of Arabs in general and infiltrators in particular, and sometimes wanton events occurred in this sphere. All this helped to create an atmosphere of 'anything goes.' We are convinced that this atmosphere existed at the Nirim outpost too (emphases added)." The judges at the Nuremberg trial too could have urged the same extenuating circumstance when passing sentences on Nazi criminals. After all, the Nazis too operated in a general climate of deep hatred against Jews, a hatred that had been bred for close to two thousand years. Thankfully, the judges at Nuremberg did not use this argument.

In addition, when Moshe accused Captain Uri of urging "killing, slaughter" against Arabs, the judges dismissed this is as the invention of a psychotic mind. Yet, in arguing for a reduced sentence, they use the argument that there existed at the time "a general feeling of contempt for the life of Arabs in general." Were the judges at the murder-rape trial of the Palestinian girl schizophrenic? Or, were they only protecting their own kind?

Those who are familiar with the tragedy of Palestinian dispossession will have read - as I have - in the events of August 12 and 13, 1949, at the Nirim military outpost in the Negev, an allegory of that dispossession. In two days, this nameless girl, a minor, was made to suffer the degradation, shame, abuse, rape and, eventually, death, which has been the fate - figuratively, and, in many cases, concretely - of the Palestinians and their homeland for more than eighty years. We observe several striking parallels between the two gory narratives. We see it in the girl's capture by a platoon of soldiers; in the Commander's decision to decide her fate by a vote; in the question about the girl's fate that is put to vote (use her as a slave worker or sex slave); in stripping the girl of her traditional garments, washing her, cutting her hair; raping her, the officers going in first; in the order for her execution when she protests; in the secret trial held; in the officer's language ("I saw fit ..."); in the acquittal from rape charges; in the light sentences; and in the judges' use of extenuating circumstances. 

And now the parallels are being pushed towards a final convergence - in the final obliteration of the national existence of Palestinians - with the building of the strangulating wall; with levels of unemployment among Palestinians reaching 70 percent; with malnutrition among Palestinian children reaching famine levels; with the acceleration in the pace of ethnic cleansing; the unashamed American backing for the war-criminal, Ariel Sharon's extreme right-wing policies; and growing demands for a final round of ethnic cleansing to rid historical Palestine of all Palestinians. At least, that is the intent of the Neo-conservatives, Christian Zionists and Israel's right-wing Likudniks. It is an intent that all right-thinking people - including right-thinking Americans and Israelis -- must oppose before the American-Israeli warmongers, with their fingers on nuclear buttons, push the world over the precipice. 


1. Mohandas K. Gandhi, Harijan, 74, November 20, 1938: 239-242.

2. Chaim Weizmann, Trial and Error (Greenwood: 1921/1972).

3. Aviv Lavie and Moshe Gorali, "I saw fit to remove her from the world," Ha'aretz, October 29, 2003: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/ 355227.html

4. Chris McGreal, "Israel learns of a hidden shame in its early years," The Guardian, November 4, 2003: http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/ 0,2763,1077148,00.html

5. Lavie and Gorali, "I saw fit to remove her from the world."

M. Shahid Alam is professor of economics at Northeastern University. His last book, Poverty from the Wealth of Nations, was published by Palgrave in 2000. He may be reached at [email protected] Visit his webpage at http://msalam.net. M. Shahid Alam

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  16 Comments   Comment

  1. W.A. from Uk

    Assalam-alaykum, isn'it strange how the organisations that decided it was ok to choose 'Palestine'as the land for the jewish people that had atrociteis carried out on them in Europe?Isn't it odd that these people having sufferred under a cruel regime are carrying out similar acts just as evil or more so to the 'Palestinian' muslims?

  2. Dr Smita from India

    being a women ,i am filled with revulsion for those men. hell would be for them.disgusting impotent men.Inshaallah the day would come when muslim would triumph.

  3. To Mike C (another professional Zionist) from H.A. from Transgressor County, USA

    My dear brother...calm down!!!...Mother Eve does not like to hear her sons and daughters screaming ...ME! ME! ME! MINE!!! MINE!! IT'S ALL MINE!!!

    Let me saturate your mind with the right historical facts...The Jews and Christians lived in that part of the world with MUSLIMS peacefully for eons. Only when the Zionists started to scream "ME! ME! ME! MINE!!! MINE!! ITS ALL MINE!!!" that's when things gotten out of control. Dear brother!!! Grow up!!!

    Stop your "Self-defense slogan". That's is indeed a crappy slogan. People on this Earth are not STUPID.

    Stop displacing one group of people (Native Palestanians) to accomodate another group (foreign Jews)!!!

    May be I should to come your house and forcefully make you and your family stand outside in the cold for few nights and I make myself enjoy all the delicacies and fruit cakes. Then you'll probably grow up.

    STOP LIVING IN A TEST TUBE!!! Mature up!!

    I know you will not be happy with any offers!!! but, Why don't you meet me on 42nd st NY, I have a good offer!!! I will make you the owner of the Milky way galxaxy in an official manner simply to make you calm down! Mother Eve says its ok; No need to get permission from God.

    Mother Eve says just calm your brother down! Hence, H.A. desires to see brother Mike soon.

  4. Rahshee Abdul from U.S.A.


    this story/fact in history is a horrid reminder of the crimes of oppression (as noted in the article's comparison to the European ills pre & post WWII). As a Muslim, as a Black American, this act of malice is an 'oh too familiar' reminder of the plight of the american slave to 'true' citizenship. So, my passion and compassion is highly invested. As muh'minun, it is our duty to combat oppression. I would like to suggest an overhaul of worldwide islamic support to our brethren in Palestine. We should not allow our people's fate to be determined by the hands of hypocrites and kafrs. WE Should develop a worldwide fund and support system by all muslims, wherein we directly distribute assistance(food,finance,education,product development); a fortified foundation with the building blocks to a stucture of independence and self-suffiency is paramount. If the kufr wants to isolate and segregate, let us produce, maintain, and excell by our own standards ... while separated. Just as the U.S. sends so many rations and finances to support the Israeli front. Let us support our own in a better fashion. We can use their evil blueprint as the headway for our own islamic success, in-sha'Allah. I have been to Israel(Palestine)... i spent time in Gaza... So, i have first-hand experience/sight of the nature of our people's situation. WE MUST USE EVERY MEDIAN OF COMMUNICATION TO INSTILL THE IMPORTANCE OF NON-AGRESSIVE SUPPORT; i.e, USING OUR RESOURCES TO TAKE CARE OF OUR OWN (importing and exporting to our brethren). If i have relayed this message in any way that is miscommunicated or in error, i ask for pardon...in humility. If anything conveyed is of substance and dutifully acurate, praise be to Allah (al-humdu-il-Allah).


  5. Alex V from USA

    It does not matter whether or not you believe in the term "Palestinian," the exact ethnic origin of the Arab peoples in the occupied terrorities, how the Arab peoples used the land prior to Zionization, nor does it matter the geographical exactitudes of what "Palestine" referred to. These are all arguments used by people to justify the ethnic cleansing and oppression of the Palestinian people -- the strategy being to erase the Palestinian people's history, and thus erase their right to live on their land.

    Some say that Jerusalem has no significance to Islam. Mmmm, tell that to muslims who have been turned away at the Al Aqsa mosque, and tell that to the Islamic world, which views the Al Aqsa mosque as one of its holiest places.

    Israel does a lousy job of avoiding civilian colateral damage -- in other words, the IDF kills a lot of innocent people. People aren't colateral damage, they're people. Don't use that term. Stories about Israeli army actions are rife with accounts of innocent children and elderly people being killed by the "crack" Israeli army. Why do you think more and more IDF soldiers are rebelling at serving in the territories?

    Don't compare the practice of Muslim governments to what is happening in Palestine and the occupied territories. One has nothing to do with the other. Don't make blanket judgements on the Muslims (and Christians) of Palestine for what governments in other countries do.

    Arafat is corrupt, do doubt. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other groups indeed practice terrorism no doubt. I don't defend them. But the countless humiliations and violence that Israel showers upon the Palestinian people is also wrong, and unjustified. Both sides are very much to blame for the tragedies.

    But the Palestinian people are just that -- people, with a right to live as human beings and not as animals.

  6. Mike C from USA

    Some historical facts. There is no Palestine. There is no such thing as a Palestinian. The Arabs in Israel have as little claim to that land as the Arabs and Muslims who are in the demographic majority of Paris have to the Eifel Tower. Palestine is a name given to Judea by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, named after the Phillistines of the Bible, to disposses the Jews of their land. At that time there were no Arabs or Phillistines in Judea. Neither the word Palestine nor the Phillistines are of Arabic origin.

    Prior to Zionist settlement in the late 1800's The land was barren, unwanted, and sparsely populated. Prior to the establishment of the artifical state of Jordan, Palestine referred to a region that encompasses both Israel and Jordan. Israeli Arabs enjoy representation and civil liberties unheard of under the Hashemites, yet only Israel is costantly pressured into suicidal land concessions.

    Jerusalem has no significance to Islam. In all the time that it was under Ottoman or Jordanian rule, it was neither an economic, political, religious, nor cultural capital of either government. With the exception of the the Hasemites, Arabs have never ruled the land. Why then should Jerusalem be the capital of "Palestine".

    Israel acts in self defense and targets combatants, going to great lengths to avoid civilian colateral damage. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Al Aksa Martyrs, etc. especially target civilians. No terrorist after being arrested has ever been put to death in Israel. Muslim governments practice brutal repression against their own people and execute for alcohol possesion, Christian missionary work, blasphemy against government or religious figures. The Saudi monarchy defecates on gold plated toilet seats, yet is oblivious to starving Arab masses all over the Middle East. Arafat embezeles money given to him to develop a working infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank. School children are raised to be suicide bombers. Yet Israel is portrayed as the oppressor.

  7. Natalie from USA

    As-salaam Alaikum. The dissection in detail of individual human rights violations is always heart breaking. But please place this and all of the Palestinians' issues in perspective: look geographically at this area. "Isreal", the once British granted statehood of a nomadic people, is a tiny insulated area surrounded by huge Arab states. The governing bodies of those Arab states aside, there is no excuse on earth why we as Muslims have allowed the suffering of our own to continue for so long and with our acute knowledge of it. Abandon your tears and intellectual discussions, we are accountable. Wasalaam.

  8. H.A. from Transgressor County, USA

    Is Mr. Duncan who has posted comment here a new revert to Islam?

    Anyways, I like the FIRE within him and his style. NOPE I am not a ______, but a Homo Sapien. I wish all the laid-back Muslims who got the religion (Islam) for granted displayed similar characteristics.

    It is so sad that you see only a handful of Muslims at the mosque EVEN during evening prayers (forget Asr and Dhur). They only show up on Fridays and during Ramadan as if to SCORE/GRAB BIG POINTS. Yeah!!!...can't missed those points!!! They are extremely crucial for entry into Heaven.

    Hmmm....want Allah to assist in your whatever endaevour? Not assisting....Don't blame anyone but yourselves...

    Note: H.A.'s is NOT ascribing purity to himself. H.A. is full of impurities. Need evidence!!! just read my comments that have been posted here on this site. It'll make your blood boil. Hence, I call myself HULK Agitator or Hulk Annoyor. & My dear brother John Norman from U.K. (who used to be a regular comment poster here on this site) completely disappeared ONLY due to my annoyance.

    That's the truth. Don't be afraid to tell the truth.

  9. chowdhury from UK

    It breaks my heart to read of the cruel events that took place and is still taking place today. I believe that such issues need to be publicised in order to bring about awareness.

  10. Sam Ganam from USA

    Continued from the previous comment:

    As far as Israel's intent to exterminate the Palestinian aspirations for a home-state, I see that the Palestinian leadership is as much responsible for the status-quo. Yasser Arafat is a corrupt leader who has his wife and daughter on $100,000 month salary in Paris while the majority of Palestinians are on the verge of famine and destruction. The latter live in filth and degradation while their leader is second to England's Queen Elizabeth in wealth. How can the Palestinians expect anything from a man who is the embodiment of instability and larseny. It is a joke after all. Allah (SWT) will never guide those who do not want to guide themselves. Let us clean our house first.

  11. Sam Ganam from USA

    If the story is real, then our conclusion should be that justice ought to have been executed accordingly. Since, justice was never administered appropriately, the perpetrators will and without a doubt be accoutable for their abuse before the Majesty of the Almighty. There will be no escape from His Ultimate justice. The Day of Reckoning is awaiting every dead and live soul. God has promised fair and square justice; we have yet to see His Ultimate justice. Having said that, I still have to emphasize that thousands of rape cases go unreported throughout the Arab World every year. The rich and the powerful keep victimizing the poor and the unreprented with no regard to Islam, the faith they proclaim to be theirs and upon which they have to build a just and accountable world.

    I have been to almost every Arab country and the truth is that the rich and the famous take advantage of the poor girls' socio-economic conditions. I am an Arab and a Muslim and proud to be as such; nevertheless, the rape which is perpetrated by our own people far exceeds that committed by the Jews or the Christians. Let us take Saddam Hussein and his two heinous sons who were raping and murdering people, their own. God! Where is the justice here and how can anyone justify this? If we have to protest against the Jews, we have to protest against our own demonic and evil-spirited Arabs and so called Muslims who do worse. Until when are we going to protest against the actions of other peoples when we are not even paying attention to our own who are abusing and raping our daughters, sisters, and mothers? It is a sad reality.

  12. khair begum from usa


  13. Yahya Bergum from USA

    Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji-un.

    I am grateful to Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala) for the work of those who search for the truth and share of it what Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala) permits them to. In particular, I am grateful for the work of the author, Shahid Alam, for relaying this story. I am especially grateful for the work done by the staff and associates of Ha'aretz - without whose efforts most "outsiders" would likely never hear about this sort of savagery (as committed by many who inexplicably seem to enjoy America's unwavering support).

    Jazak Allahu khair.

    Assalamu alaikum.

  14. To: john norman from USA

    Inshaallah by the mercy of Allah this girl will be in paradise. And I pray her victimizers will meet their Lord to experience the justice of God. I wonder how Mr. Zionist (Norman) will justify this.

  15. Joshua M. Duncan, of one God only, Muhammad his Prophet, the Holy Koran the only Book for me. from United States of America

    This should be known to all the world created by God. God knows all these infractions. I follow the recitations of the Prophet contained in the Holy Koran. No book written since the coompilation of the Koran, regardless of what nonappointed Ayatolla, Sheik, or other teacher say's should be heard in the Mosque. All law is covered in the complete book "Holy Koran", and needs only the people be taught how to read. Arabic of the Prophets time is the most acceptable, but not the only reading. Is Jordan part of Palistine?


  16. Sad girl from canada

    It's extremely sad to hear this. It breaks my heart!

    Question is : Is this a trial/test from Allah? Or Have we really gone wrong (with ourselves & our deeds & the disobeyance of the Lord)that these sort of tribulations & punishments are seen upon our ummah?

    May Allah help all Muslims every where ameen!Surely, we are in the most difficult times!

    Lord is watching.