Recycled playbook: How Israel uses Gaza genocide justification in Lebanon

Against the backdrop of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, these phrases thrown at Hezbollah and Lebanon sound eerily familiar – accusations of using “human shields”, denial of statehood and claims of missiles hidden in civilian homes.

But then, those making the allegations are the same people.

On September 24, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared a short video statement addressed to the Lebanese people.

“Israel's war is not with you, it's with Hezbollah. For too long, Hezbollah has been using you as human shields,” Netanyahu said.

Barely a couple of months earlier – on July 24, to be exact – the Israeli prime minister made a very similar statement in his address to the US Congress, though that time it was aimed at Palestinians, with Hamas being the accused party.

“The IDF has dropped millions of flyers, sent millions of text messages, made hundreds of thousands of phone calls to get Palestinian civilians out of harm's way,” Netanyahu said. “Hamas does everything in its power to put Palestinian civilians in harm's way.”

The “human shields” narrative remains a recurring justification used by Israel for its atrocities, although subsequent media reports exposing Israel’s use of Palestinians as human shields led to its partial erosion.

“Human shields have become the key legal defence for the crimes Israel is carrying out against civilian populations in both regions,” Israeli academic Neve Gordon from Queen Mary University of London tells TRT World.

Gordon, co-author of the well-researched book titled ‘Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire’ with Nicola Perugini, argues that there is a noticeable migration of Israel's “human shields” argument from Gaza to Lebanon, with Israel portraying all civilian infrastructure in Lebanon as shields.

The Jewish state is following the same playbook today, as it shifts the blame over 500 Lebanese civilian deaths that have resulted from Israeli airstrikes, and those yet to come, onto Hezbollah.

‘No-state’

Israeli officials have repeatedly questioned the viability of Palestinian statehood, aiming to undermine international discussions on its sovereignty.

“There is no such thing as a Palestinian people,” Israeli Minister of Settlement and National Missions Orit Strook said on February 22, 2023.

“There will never be a Palestinian state in the land of Israel,” he added. "Every cultured person in the world knows that this land is ours, for the Israeli people and only for us.”

This same approach is currently being applied to Lebanon, which is an internationally recognised sovereign state, with a government, defined borders, and political institutions.

In a series of social media posts on September 22, Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli claimed that Lebanon does not meet the definition of statehood. He said that this was because of three reasons: the Lebanese government's lack of control over Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah's 'unprovoked' territorial war against Israel, and Lebanon's failure to enforce UN resolutions 1559 and 1701.

Chikli went on to assert that, by the same logic, Syria and Iraq also fail to qualify as legitimate states.

The far-right minister added that “in light of these facts” Israel had the right to “seize control” of areas in Lebanon from which missiles could be fired into Israeli territory, suggesting that Israel is entitled to undermine the territorial integrity of a recognised state in clear violation of international law.

“It's the right and most just thing to do, from a security point of view and a political and moral one.” Chikli wrote.

Civilian homes as "legitimate targets"

The accusation that missiles are hidden in civilian areas has been central to Israel's military justifications in densely populated areas of Gaza.

For instance, the Israeli military has consistently claimed that Hamas stores rockets and weapons in hospitals across Gaza to justify air strikes on such locations, despite international concerns about the growing civilian death toll.

The Israeli military has now extended these claims to Lebanon.

“Hezbollah stores strategic weapons in civilian buildings, knowingly using the population as human shields and endangering them,” Israeli military spokesperson Danial Hagari said in an official statement on September 23.

On the same day, Israeli air strikes on Lebanon killed over 500 people, including at least 50 children, in the deadliest bombardment of the country since the 2006 war.

Israel’s ministers have recently become increasingly outspoken in their demands for direct military intervention against Lebanon.

Last week, Israel’s Education Minister Yoav Kisch made a similar comment to a Likud Party lawmaker, when she had declared that Gaza should be “erased from the face of the Earth” on November 1.

This time however, the focus was on Lebanon.

“There is no difference between Hezbollah and Lebanon. Lebanon will be annihilated. It will cease to exist,” Kisch said.