Mainstream Media Discovers Bodies Are 'Negotiating Chips'
The Financial Times piece, 'The bitter bargain over Israeli and Palestinian bodies,' details how human remains become 'negotiating chips' in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. What they omit from this 'bargain' is that for decades, Israel has systematically withheld Palestinian bodies, often for years, from their families as a punitive measure or for leverage. This isn't a mutually agreed 'bargain'
but a coercive state practice, a form of collective punishment that violates international law, which human rights groups like B'Tselem have documented extensively since at least the First Intifada. It's a calculated tactic by an occupying power, not an equal exchange. Painting this as a shared 'bitter bargain' glosses over the fundamental power imbalance and the systematic dehumanization inherent
in such policies. One might wonder what other 'bitter bargains' the FT might euphemize: perhaps the 'strategic relocation' of civilians in Gaza, or the 'energetic landscaping' of Palestinian neighborhoods? They call it a 'conflict where remains have long been negotiating chips,' making it sound as an unfortunate, symmetric outcome rather than a direct consequence of Israeli policy. Where's the
'bargaining' when one side holds all the cards, and the other's dead are simply inventory?