There are No Innocents: Beita 1988 and the Logic of Collective Punishment
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This episode of *This Is Palestine* examines the 1988 massacre in the Palestinian village of Beita, where Israeli settler Romam al-Dubi shot and killed three people—Palestinian farmer Musa Saleh Ben-Ishemsi, 19-year-old Hatim Faiz Ahmed al-Jabr, and 15-year-old Israeli settler Tirzah Parat—during a hiking incident. Despite the Israeli military’s own investigation confirming that Parat was killed by a stray bullet, not by stoning, the narrative quickly shifted to portray Palestinians as violent aggressors. In response, Israel imposed brutal collective punishment: a four-week siege, mass arrests, home demolitions, forced exile of six residents, and punitive sentencing of villagers. The episode reveals how this pattern of collective punishment—rooted in British-era emergency laws and institutionalized during the First Intifada—has persisted for decades. It draws a direct line from 1988 to 2024, when Israeli forces killed American activist Haisha Noor Ayi during protests against a new Israeli outpost in Beita, underscoring the continuity of violence, impunity, and erasure of Palestinian suffering. The host, Deanna Butu, emphasizes how the Israeli narrative consistently centers settler victims while silencing Palestinian ones, normalizing systemic dehumanization and punishment.
Collective punishment is not an exception but a systematic policy used by Israel to suppress Palestinian resistance.
The 1988 Beita massacre was a pivotal moment where an Israeli settler’s actions led to the destruction of an entire village, including home demolitions, mass arrests, and forced exile.
Israel’s justice system has repeatedly failed to hold settlers accountable, with perpetrators like Romam al-Dubi facing no real consequences despite multiple killings.
The media and international institutions have long perpetuated a distorted narrative by centering Israeli victims while ignoring Palestinian casualties.
The logic of collective punishment—where entire communities suffer for the actions of a few—has remained unchanged from 1988 to the present day.
…and 3 more takeaways available in PodZeus
The Echoes of 1988: A Warning from the Past
“They must be quashed like cockroaches. They are less than animals.”
The Day the Village Was Destroyed
The episode recounts the April 6, 1988, incident in Beita, where settler Romam al-Dubi killed three people, including a Palestinian farmer and a Jewish teen, leading to a wave of collective punishment by the Israeli military.
The Myth of the Palestinian Mob
“Within 24 hours, the Israeli army's own investigation confirmed what the Palestinians had been saying all along: that in his chaotic rage, the guard, Romam, had accidentally shot Tirzah Perat.”
Collective Punishment in Action
“The point is simply to harm. The point is simply to punish.”
The Legacy of Impunity
“In Israel's opinion, the knowledge that he killed a Jewish teen and the publicity surrounding it was enough.”
“From Israel's policies of collective punishment to Israel's collective dehumanization of Palestinians, to Israel's killing with impunity, little has changed since 1988.”
“In Israel's opinion, the knowledge that he killed a Jewish teen and the publicity surrounding it was enough.”
“Within 24 hours, the Israeli army's own investigation confirmed what the Palestinians had been saying all along: that in his chaotic rage, the guard, Romam, had accidentally shot Tirzah Perat.”
Host
Guests
Beita
place
Romam al-Dubi
person
Tirzah Parat
person
Musa Saleh Ben-Ishemsi
person
Hatim Faiz Ahmed al-Jabr
person
Desir Sheikh Zayed Chwesh
person
First Intifada
other
Sari Hilal Hamayel
person
Ariel Sharon
person
Meir Kahane
person
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