Ben-Gvir's dehumanising anti-Palestinian campaign

You've all seen this video. Israeli National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the very person who has pushed policies that have turned Israeli prisons into torture and concentration camps, published a video of him asking Palestinian female prisoners in Damon Prison to tell him about the conditions of their custody.

Unsurprisingly, the prisoners could do little but explain on camera the inhuman and unliveable conditions they have been forced to endure. Ben-Gvir proudly admits that he is primarily responsible for the policies causing the ill treatment of Palestinian prisoners, from starvation to physical and psychological torture and, in some cases, even their killing. He has even openly proclaimed that he is proud of this.

The question is: why is Ben-Gvir releasing a video admitting to the crimes against humanity that he is committing?

Well, that's part of his election campaign.

It is not enough to him to make Palestinian prisoners' periods of detention hell on earth. He is now using these fascist policies as election propaganda because he recognises that these are the policies that Israeli society as a whole is aligned with.

The mainstream Israeli public is not just comfortable with establishing torture camps, surrounding Gaza with deadly crocodiles, or nuking Gaza, or forcing all Palestinians outside the occupied West Bank and replacing them with Jewish Israeli settlers.

The polls confirm that 66% of Israelis identify as right wing, while the current political party map shows that more than 80 Knesset seats are held by politicians identified with the right-wing camp.

This is why we're also not seeing other Israeli political candidates offering anything better. They're not campaigning to end settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank. They're not campaigning to end the war relentlessly, and they're certainly not campaigning to improve the conditions of Palestinian prisoners.

They're promising their public to make life even worse for Palestinians.

Today, Israeli government policy, political campaigns, and much of the political rhetoric surrounding them are built around one thing: the dehumanisation of Palestinians.