Gaza as Metaphor and Extraordinary Rendition

Looking at the language and images used by Israelis and Palestinians, as well as their respective supporters around the world, can be a difficult path to tread. The editors and authors of Gaza as Metaphor are to be congratulated for not fearing the likely backlash in order to provide readers with some shocking evidence. All too often, Israelis and their apologists evade the harsh reality that their favoured state has imposed on Palestinians by accusing critics of anti-Semitism. That is a hateful phenomenon — as racism is — and it should not be used to divert attention from the reality of Israel’s occupation and the alternative discourse covered by this book. With the moribund “peace process” going nowhere, it is more important than ever before for the Israeli version of events to be put under close scrutiny. The results of doing so can be shocking. Ariella Azoulay, for example, called her essay “Concentration-place”, a term which ‘clearly recalls the Nazis’ concentration of Jews in Nazi camps in Europe’ (p. 196). The term was coined by Israelis in a 1976 book, Israel, Army and Defence: A Dictionary’ (p. 195); in fact, “place” rather than “camp” was in use by the Israeli authorities from 1948 through to the seventies....