Mowing the Lawn: The Genocide Industry
In July 2014, Israel dropped leaflets into Shujaiya, a densely populated residential neighborhood in Gaza City, warning that the IDF would be attacking soon and residents should evacuate.
11 artillery battalions—at least 258 artillery pieces—rained down over 7,000 explosive shells (nearly 5,000 were within seven hours), alongside a ground assault supported by armored cavalry, helicopters firing rockets, and F-16s firing bombs.
“The only possible reason for doing that is to kill a lot of people in as short of a period of time as possible,” said one senior U.S. military officer quoted by Al Jazeera America. “It's not mowing the lawn. It's removing the topsoil.”
On July 20, nearly one hundred people were killed in Israel’s attack. Eran Efrati, a former Israeli soldier, was arrested days later after sharing details gleaned from interviews with soldiers there who claimed the military was deliberately targeting civilians as “punishment” and “retribution” of the deaths of fellow Israeli soldiers.
The IDF took to Twitter that day. In one thread, it insistedthe assault was necessary because Shuja’iya was a “neighborhood for civilians, fortress for Hamas terrorists.” Earlier, the IDF had tweeted “Days ago, we warned civilians in Shuja'iya to evacuate. Hamas ordered them to stay. Hamas put them in the line of fire.”
https://logicmag.io/policy/the-genocide-industry-mowing-the-lawn/