When Violence Becomes the Language of the State Israel’s Internal Crisis and the Brutality Long Normalized in the West Bank
The image of prosecutor Salah Khalil Na’ameh’s battered face shocked many Israelis because it shattered a dangerous illusion: that state violence lmk can remain confined to Palestinians indefinitely without eventually consuming Israeli society itself. For Palestinians, especially in the occupied West Bank, such scenes are tragically familiar. A man beaten bloody by armed forces. Masked officers storming homes. Security forces accused of fabricating narratives later contradicted by video evidence. Citizens pleading for protection while police either stand aside or participate. What shocked many Israelis was not merely the brutality itself — but the identity of the victim. Na’ameh was not a villager from Hebron or a shepherd from Masafer Yatta. He was an Arab citizen of Israel. A state prosecutor. A man who worked within the Israeli legal system itself. And even he allegedly found himself helpless before a police force critics increasingly describe as politicized, radicaliz...