The Persistent Plunder Of Palestinian Homes By Israeli Soldiers Since Nakba

The Israeli soldiers fighting in Gaza were not shy about posting videos on social media, gleefully documenting their wanton destruction of buildings and humiliation of Palestinian detainees. The video clips they posted on their social media accounts were also presented at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in South Africa’s genocide claims against Israel. The constant humiliation of the Palestinian people has been a regular scene. However, there is yet another issue that has received less media attention and condemnation despite its prevalence: the constant looting of valuables from Palestinian homes.

A report from Hamakom Hachi Ham Bagehenom, an online magazine, compiled numerous testimonies of theft allegedly committed by members of the Israeli army. These included large sums of cash, jewellery, electronic devices, and even vehicles. There are videos posted on social media in which soldiers are seen using the looted items. In a TikTok video posted by an Israel Defense Force (IDF) soldier, Palestinian singer Hamada Nasrallah discovered that the soldier was using the guitar Nasrallah’s father had bought 15 years earlier. In other videos, IDF soldiers were seen boasting about finding wristwatches, unboxing someone’s collection of soccer shirts, and stealing rugs, groceries, and jewellery. According to a recent report, the estimated value of the stolen items amounts to $25 million.

Read also: ‘BBC Is Responsible For Anything That Happens To Me’: 13-Year-Old Abdullah Al-Yazouri

Shockingly, a new investigation report has revealed that all the looted valuables are later sold through various platforms, such as Telegram channels, Facebook Marketplace, and public sales. The report further states that Israeli senior officials are not concerned with the thefts and that some have even participated in the looting. What began as collecting souvenirs has escalated into widespread theft.

According to the report, soldiers are supposed to report to superiors regarding the ammunition or money they have found, who would then notify the Booty Clearance Unit of the army’s Technological and Logistics Directorate. After one month into Israel’s war on Gaza, the unit reported confiscating five million shekels from the enclave, depositing the amount into the regime’s treasury.

In order to bring this to the public’s attention, rights groups operating in Gaza have documented these criminal acts based on first-hand information and testimonies collected from victims, families, and eyewitnesses. However, this phenomenon is more than an open secret, as many Israeli media outlets have uncritically reported on it. Meanwhile, rabbis from the Religious Zionist movement have been answering soldiers’ questions about what is permissible to loot according to Jewish law.

The practice of looting by Israeli soldiers is not new, as they have been doing it since the Nakba. According to historian Adam Raz, rugs, books, pianos, clothing, furniture, and food are just some of the things Israeli soldiers and civilians have stolen before and after the creation of Israel in 1948. The looting and theft during and after the Nakba were so widespread that Israeli soldiers were sent to deter looters; however, many soldiers joined in the theft. “Such pictures were known to us. It was the way things had always been done to us, in the Holocaust, throughout World War II, and all the pogroms. Oy, how well we knew those pictures. And here—here, we were doing these awful things to others,” Netiva Ben Yehuda, a former Zionist militia member, said.

Read also: Israel Refuses Talks On Second Phase, Plans “Tighter Control”; Hamas Remains Committed To The Deal

Looting, pillaging, and theft by military forces are prohibited by international law and constitute it as a war crime. Spoilation, the act of removing items belonging to vulnerable communities and civilians, is also considered illegal. However, such violations have been normalised among the Israeli public, as some of the most recent cases involve theft from houses in the occupied West Bank during military raids.