There Are No Tortures In Gaza

"There are No Tortures in Gaza": This short essay starts with a phenomenological observation of a paradigmatic case of torture. It portrays torture as an intimate, personal relation, a form of care for another, in which the torturer develops a special concern for and interest in the victim's body and soul, and in which violence does not burst but is meticulously calculated, measured, and (whether outlawed or not, prohibited or sanctioned by the law) always mindful of the law. Against this background, two episodes from the Occupied Palestinian Territories are discussed: the unintended, un-calculated, and aimless torture of Palestinian civilians at the checkpoints in the West Bank; targeted killings of Palestinian "terrorists" (or "fighters") and their "collateral damage" in Gaza. In the checkpoints torture becomes completely impersonal; in Gaza, the torture of suspects is replaced by a bureaucratic, impersonal relation to designated individuals, those "suspects" who have been targeted for killings by the special units of the IDF. In the paradigmatic case of torture, state terror is exercised in the shadow of a suspended law or on the other side of law, which is still defined by law; in targeted killings, state terror is exercised in a sphere entirely detached from the law, indifferent to it. The transition from the former to the latter in occupied Gaza may be representative of a phenomenon that recently takes place in other zones of emergencies across the globe.