Power turned inward: IDF violence against civilians gave birth to 'seniority games' | Orit Lavie-Nashial

There is nothing in the name 'seniority games' that can mask the cruel reality behind the charges of severe abuse of soldiers by older soldiers against younger ones. This is not a game, but a profound moral distortion by those who believe that seniority in service permits the unleashing of dark impulses.

The indictments recently filed in this matter describe offenses of abuse, physical and mental violence, humiliation, and causing health damage over a long period. The 'rules of the game' included, among other things, punishments—punches, lashes, and kicks that the abusers called 'Hitlers'. There cannot be a more shocking name. It turns out that this is a continuous pattern of behavior and not isolated cases, and while the victims bore their pain in silence, those in the know kept quiet.

The 'tradition' of abusing young soldiers is not new; such incidents have occurred in the past. The seemingly innocent names, 'seniority games' or 'initiation rites', are a form of consciousness engineering that characterizes the Israeli-military facade. This happens in the same army that prides itself on being the 'most moral army in the world' and seeks to maintain the image of an 'enlightened occupier'.

It is hard not to wonder about the connection between these things. A society that has become accustomed for decades to using force against a civilian population, setting up checkpoints, controlling the lives of others, and applying norms and standards different from the usual to an occupied population, must ask itself how the use of force also affects it and what it does to its norms.

Violence has a diffuse property; it knows no boundaries. The abuse of young soldiers on IDF bases did not arise in a vacuum. There are reports of cases of violence, bullying, and abuse of Palestinians by soldiers and by members of the territorial defense forces. Not to mention the 'hilltop youth'.

Entire regions in Lebanon and Gaza have become ruins during the never-ending war. Hundreds of thousands of people have been uprooted from their homes, tens of thousands have been killed, including many civilians. All this while the majority in Israeli society wraps itself in its silence like the three monkeys: it does not see, it does not hear, and it does not speak. It also does not take an interest and does not ask itself if in every single case there was indeed a real security need, or if perhaps power-tripping, revenge, and destruction have often become the goal.

It seems that six decades of occupation and violent conflict have seeped deep into Israeli society. The prolonged control over the other and the frequent use of force have disrupted the moral compass. And when the moral compass is disrupted, there is no reason for the violence to stop at a checkpoint, a fence, or the Green Line. Ultimately, it returns home as a 'game'.