Humiliation and Underwear: Examining IDF Soldiers’
Social Media Posts
By Helena Wilkins
Word Count: 2348
Abstract
The paper attempts to answer the question of how social media posts by Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldiers from Palestinian homes convey humiliation, particularly a feminised humiliation. Accordingly, by analysing posts from IDF soldiers during their attack on Gaza, this essay outlines how such images and videos uploaded to social media by the IDF soldiers are serve to humiliate, signify (military) dominance and carry distinct threats of (sexual) violence. Moreover, dynamics of racialised, sexualised and gendered violence are relevant in the discussion of these photos taken and posted on social media during a time of intense conflict.
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There has been a proliferation of images coming out of Gaza in the last few months, as journalists and everyday citizens have been documenting what is happening under the Israeli attacks. These images, crucially, share what is being done to the people of Palestine, specifically Gaza, with the world. Many of the emerging pictures do not ‘only’ show the atrocities of the Israeli military forces’ indiscriminate bombing and attacks, but frequently display Palestinians being humiliated by IDF (Israel Defence Force) soldiers (Salaman, 2023). Surprisingly, not only journalists publish such content; IDF soldiers themselves have been directly sharing images of their war crimes on personal social media accounts (Toler et. al., 2024). Many of the images and videos, such as those that show IDF soldiers pretending to teach in bombed out classrooms or stealing women’s underwear to pose with it, can be seen as mocking the Palestinian people and their plight (The New Arab Staff, 2024; Shirbon & Grzanka, 2024). I argue that these posts exacerbate the (mental) harm done to Palestinians by contributing to their humiliation and dehumanisation at the hands of their oppressors. Thus, this essay will ask the question how do posts by IDF soldiers from Palestinian homes convey humiliation, particularly a feminised humiliation? In order to answer this question, I will begin by outlining the concept of humiliation (within political conflict) and the different relations at play. Then, I will use descriptions of images posted by IDF soldiers to specify the effects of (feminised) humiliation. Lastly, this essay will close with a short conclusion.
Conceptualising Humiliation
Humiliation is inherently social and relational. Indeed, while emotions may be felt at the individual level, their expression will typically be “in relation to others” (Fattah & Fierke, 2009, p. 70). The relations at play within humiliation involve different power dynamics, the presence of witnesses, and self-image. Humiliation can be understood as a form of subjugation “that strips away a person’s pride, honour and dignity through a forced lowing of that person or their group” (Linder et.al., 2006, p. 100). Here, the importance of the sense of self, particularity self-esteem, comes in, as humiliation strips away the sense of dignity supposedly afforded to every human being, thus having a dehumanising effect (UN General Assembly, 1948). Humiliation will involve “an attack on the victim’s honour and will also aim to “undermine the respect that others have for that person and [their] sense of self-worth” (Frevert, 2020, p. 12). These definitions show that humiliation is intimately connected to an individual’s self esteem, dignity, and standing.
Being humiliated does not only serve to undermine the respect of others. Indeed, in terms of power dynamics at play in militarised conflicts and world politics in general, humiliation serves a specific political purpose: “stabilising existing power relations or establishing new ones by show-casing the powerlessness of others” (Frevert, 2020, p. 9). Within this definition, humiliation can be seen as a strategy to assert power, particularly in the realm of international politics. How does this work? The public humiliation of an individual puts the perpetrators’ power over the Other on display, exemplifying the power of the perpetrator over the individual and the group the individual belongs to. This provides some sense of explanation as to why humiliation is such a widely used strategy in militarised conflicts, often in the form of direct and humiliating torture; It can serve to break morale and the psyche of the Others, be that of the individual or the collective group.
Both aforementioned points indicate the relational nature of humiliation, There is another important relation, namely to the witness, whose existence emphasises the public dimension of humiliation. Although shameful feelings can be felt in private, the type of shame tied to public humiliation is deeply tied to the presence of witnesses (Fattah & Fierke, 2009; Frevert, 2020). Furthermore, the type of witness present will influence how the humiliation is felt, as there is a relational difference between (hostile) strangers, a family member or someone under the individual’s care.