Cruelty and Inherent Human Worth

Witnessing 25 months of unspeakable violence and destruction in the first live-streamed genocide has got me thinking about cruelty. Not only the cruelty of the Gaza genocide, the thousands upon thousands of innocents slaughtered, but also the cruelty of masked ICE agents in American cities ripping children from their parents’ arms, separating families, tearing people’s lives apart, sowing fear.

Cruelty is defined as the intentional infliction of pain and suffering on another living creature. I think about the appallingly high rate of traumatic amputations in Gaza – 4800 from October 7, 2023 to the present – the highest in the world. It is estimated during the genocide that 10 children per day lost one or both of their legs. The trauma was compounded by the amputations being conducted, in most cases, without anesthesia. Knowing this is going on and continuing the policies and military practices that keep it happening for 25 straight months, mounting to nearly 5000 amputees, is abject cruelty.

Consider also the case of the gang rape of a Palestinian hostage abducted in Gaza in the notorious Sde Teiman torture camp in the Israeli desert. His torture involved unrepeatable sadistic acts and left him severely injured. The high-ranking Israeli military lawyer, Maj. General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, whose job it was to ensure that Israeli military personnel follow the law, was deeply disturbed by this incident and efforts by the military brass to cover it up. When she leaked the video - in order to dispel the deceitful propaganda surrounding the incident - the response of a majority in Israeli society was not to admire her courage. Instead, they turned on her, branded her a traitor, and threatened her life. She has been accused of undermining her nation. Under house arrest, she attempted suicide. Later, when the indicted rapists entered the courtroom for their initial arraignment, the crowds inside and outside the courtroom greeted them with a standing ovation. Cruelty toward the dehumanized group becomes a shared social value, bringing cohesion. In such settings, voices of conscience who stand up to cruelty are reviled.

David Livingston Smith, in his book, Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others, focuses on the dangerous power of dehumanization. He points out that when a group is dehumanized, they are literally viewed by the dominant group as being subhuman. The Nazis viewed Jews and many other of their victims as “Untermenschen,” literally “undermen” or “subhumans,” “vermin.” Yoav Gallant, Israel’s Defense Minister, described the Palestinians as a group as “human animals.” Blacks in the US were considered 3/5th human. Hutus called Tutsis “cockroaches.” Livingston Smith says that once a group is dehumanized, this creates a permission structure that activates aggression toward them and “excludes the target of aggression from the moral community.”

I am not aware of any other alternative than for the human community to counter the existence of cruelty by intentionally cultivating empathy and compassion. We learn to empathize with others across lines of difference by encountering each other with curiosity and tolerance. We learn respect for the inherent worth of every living being by seeing those values embodied in relationships. Social and cultural and spiritual practices that celebrate the beauty and diversity of being human need to be strongly upheld. We also need to be vigilant about resisting the power of misinformation to appeal to our baser instincts, sow fear, and arouse anger and hatred. Voltaire taught that “those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” Alternatively, we can act together to counter the dangers of dehumanization by upholding the principle of universal human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) enshrines fundamental rights and freedoms of life free of the dehumanization that leads to cruelty, and should be widely taught.