IDF Lawyer's 'Scandal' Distracts from 75 Years of Impunity
In an exposé that ABC News labels a 'scandal,' Israel’s top military lawyer resigned, went missing, was found, and jailed. The headlines scream about a nation 'rocked' by this individual lapse, framing it as an anomaly in an otherwise pristine system. One might wonder if this public spectacle serves to distract from the daily, systemic legal breaches that are rarely scrutinized by mainstream media
outside of Israel’s borders. (See: The UN's consistent reports on international law violations in Gaza and the West Bank.) While one Israeli military lawyer faces consequences for, presumably, a personal matter, the broader legal architecture enabling the continuous occupation and humanitarian crises in Palestine remains unexamined by these same outlets. Critics argue that the focus on individual
'scandals' allows institutional impunity for actions like the 2014 Gaza war, which resulted in over 2,200 Palestinian deaths (UN Human Rights Council, 2015), to continue without much Western media 'rocking.' How many dead civilians does it take to 'rock' a system?