Accountability is only for Israelis, not Palestinians

Who knows if there will ever come a day when a single accepted version of what happened on Oct. 7, 2023, gets a consensus? The main elements are known: the killing of about 1,200 people and the taking of more than 250 hostages. But much is still subject to furious debate both inside Israel and beyond. Many Israelis want a full national inquiry.

An Israeli military investigation reported its findings last week. Its unsurprising conclusion was that the military failed to protect civilians. Yet the findings in this 19-page report do bear further examination.

Israel underestimated Hamas at all levels. When you have a dehumanized view of the people you are occupying, this can be the case. The Israeli military had long since ceased respecting the capabilities of Hamas and was complacent. This is the underlying attitudinal reason why it failed to believe that more than 5,000 Hamas fighters could break through into Israel.

The report reveals an enduring misreading of a population under occupation — that it would be cowed by pressure. “The belief was that Hamas could be influenced through pressures that would reduce its motivation for war, primarily by improving living conditions in the Gaza Strip,” it stated. But Palestinians living in Gaza, not just members of Hamas, had very little to lose.

A key area of dispute is how many Israeli civilians were killed by Israeli forces. “There was significant difficulty distinguishing between troops, civilians and terrorists,” the report found. One media investigation attributed at least 19 Israeli deaths to the Israeli military and police, while arguing that the figure could be higher.

The most furious debates and arguments have been over the extent of sexual abuse and rapes carried out by the attackers. This may never be determined but a March 2024 report by the UN concluded that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence — including rape and gang rape — occurred.” The trouble is that certain accounts were debunked but not all. Many accuse Israel of atrocity propaganda, trying to maximize support for the slaughter in Gaza through such stories. Far less attention has been paid to the sexual abuse and rape perpetrated against Palestinian detainees.

Yet, whatever the truth of these debates, the reality is that Hamas committed mass atrocities on Oct. 7. They were war crimes. In Gaza, one can debate the number of innocent Palestinian civilians Israel has killed, but there can be no debate about the war crimes and crimes against humanity Israel has perpetrated. For example, the siege Israel has just reimposed is collective punishment of a civilian population under occupation, which is a war crime.

These crimes have taken place, yet who carries the can? In terms of the Oct. 7 failings, the Israeli military’s chief of staff has stood down. Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi admitted his responsibility. The Israeli military’s intelligence chief also resigned last April. Others may fall on their sword.

But the question many Israelis ask is: when will a political leader accept responsibility? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to. He will not countenance a national inquiry until after the war ends, which by the looks of things could be years, not months.

But the PM has been at fault. He and his extremist coalition were concentrating on expanding settlements in the West Bank and pushing Palestinians off their land. Israeli military resources were diverted there to assist the settlers in intimidating the Palestinians.

Netanyahu has for years been only too happy to use Hamas as a tool against the Palestine Liberation Organization and Fatah. Adopting a divide and conquer approach, he refused to countenance any form of resolution to the wider conflict, not least a Palestinian state.

Israel hits Gaza hard, continually. But its leaders miss the big picture. Smashing Gaza creates eternal enemies, not friends.

Chris Doyle

What the military report does not deal with is the decades-long Israeli failure in Gaza. Some Israelis, Netanyahu included, considered it to be a success. Palestine was divided demographically, geographically and politically. Yet this was only ever a mirage.

Israel hits Gaza hard, continually. But its leaders miss the big picture. Smashing Gaza creates eternal enemies, not friends. It undermines security rather than building it. New generations of Palestinians will not hesitate to join groups that will arm and train them to fight Israel. With no jobs, no horizon and no future, young men in Gaza will take little persuasion. This is why Israel has been fighting Hamas since 1987.

While Israelis can review this military investigation into Oct. 7 and demand a full national inquiry, who in Israel is demanding an inquiry into the atrocities perpetrated in Gaza? This will not happen, save for perhaps a propaganda stunt. Hamas will certainly not mount an inquiry into its actions.

In earlier Israeli wars on Gaza, international powers used to demand a proper international investigation. Aside from those principled states that have backed South Africa’s case under the Genocide Convention at the International Court of Justice, barely a single leader of a major power has demanded such an investigation this time.

Justice and accountability are for Israelis only. Palestinians can only dream that someone may one day be held to account for the murder of their loved ones.

• Chris Doyle is director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding in London. X: @Doylech