2026년 5월 9일 21:15:29 UTC
Israeli Settlers in the West Bank Refuse to Let Dead Palestinians Rest in Peace
Soldiers securing settlers who visited the previously evacuated West Bank settlement of Sa-Nur in 2025. Credit: Gil Cohen-Magen
We had thought that kidnapping bodies and the abominable trade in these were the gravest symptoms of Israel's necrophilia. At least that's what we thought up to this weekend
Gideon Levy
Follow11:53 PM • May 09 2026 IDT
Necrophilia is a sexual deviation characterized by an attraction to corpses. According to psychiatry's bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, necrophiles suffer from complex mental and sexual disorders, deriving pleasure from engaging or watching sexual acts with someone helpless: a corpse unable to resist. The medical literature does not consider it an epidemic and there are no written records describing cultures or entire countries that have suffered from this affliction.
Along came Israel. A state that, for its twisted purposes, kidnaps and keeps hundreds of corpses is a state that's been afflicted with a serious illness.
A deviation has become the norm. The taboo has been legitimized. It's possible that when discussing the ills of the State of Israel and the ills of the occupation, one needs to use the DSM to diagnose an acute case of state necrophilia.
The beginnings were more promising. When Israel destroyed 418 Palestinian villages in 1948, expelling their residents in every direction and wiping any trace of their memory off the face of the earth, it took care to leave their graveyards intact.
In the parking lot of the Shin Bet security service headquarters there is still a fenced-in and neglected graveyard that belonged to the Palestinian village on which the building was erected – a last monument, entrance to which is prohibited. Seeking an image of enlightenment and of being considerate to others' feelings, the young Israel respected the dignity of dead Palestinians. When it came to living ones – much less so.
The ceremony in honor of the arrival of Sa-Nur's settlers in April. Credit: Tomer Appelbaum
Much blood has flowed since then in the trenches of wars and occupations – who can remember what we did in 1948 – and graveyards have lost their immunity. In Gaza, Lebanon and other sites of destruction, there is no advantage to being a dead Palestinian.
Dignity for the dead is for Jews alone, meticulously providing them with "a Jewish grave." We'll raise hell over the remnants of a Jewish corpse until it is brought for burial, while leaving behind sites of destruction under which hundreds of Palestinian bodies lie, prey to birds of the sky and dogs of the earth.
We had thought that kidnapping bodies and the abominable trade in these were the gravest symptoms of Israel's necrophilia. At least that's what we thought up to this weekend.
On Friday, settlers from the settlement of Sa-Nur forced villagers from the West Bank village of al-Asasa to exhume a freshly-buried body with the claim that it was "too close to the settlement."
Haaretz reporters Matan Golan and Bar Peleg described how right after the funeral, which had been permitted by the army, the necrophiles came to the grave armed with digging tools and started to dig in the ground with the intent of exhuming the body.
Israel Defense Forces soldiers were photographed watching these death-obsessed individuals without lifting a finger, joining in the necrophiles' excitement. Finally, they forced the grieving villagers to take the body and bury it elsewhere.
Palestinians remove the body from the grave near Sa-Nur in the West Bank, on Friday. Credit: Used in accordance with Section 27a of Israel’s Copyright Law
One may assume that the settlers believed that the corpse of a Palestinian defiles their sacred settlement, which is why it was their obligation to immediately remove the abomination. If they could have, they would have thrown it on a garbage heap. For what is a Palestinian life worth to these scum, and what value does his corpse have? Just imagine Palestinians digging around in a settlement graveyard and exhuming a sacred Jewish body.
The re-establishment of the Sa-Nur settlement in the northern West Bank is the biggest abomination in this story. This beautiful stretch of land, with its fertile fields and flowering vegetable gardens, was the only place to have escaped the uprooting of trees, the torching and the looting.
Related ArticlesHolding Palestinians' dead: Once strategy, now retribution | Haaretz Editorial
While all eyes are on Iran, Jewish terrorism is rising in the West Bank | Haaretz Editorial
In country that sanctifies death, missing pilot's wife is breath of fresh air | Sebastian Ben-Daniel (John Brown)
We knew that the return of Sa-Nur to its stolen land meant an end to this special and breathtaking area. But we couldn't have imagined the settlers starting their abuse with a necrophilic act.
The dead person was buried somewhere else, his or her loved ones were totally humiliated, and the deceased's dignity was trampled on. The settlers celebrated another achievement. The IDF, as usual, was fully complicit in this outrage. One may assume that the settlers and soldiers drew all possible pleasure from this act: digging, exhuming a body and removing it. Just what they like to do to the living villagers as well.
In the parking lot of the Shin Bet security service headquarters there is still a fenced-in and neglected graveyard that belonged to the Palestinian village on which the building was erected – a last monument, entrance to which is prohibited. Seeking an image of enlightenment and of being considerate to others' feelings, the young Israel respected the dignity of dead Palestinians. When it came to living ones – much less so.
The ceremony in honor of the arrival of Sa-Nur's settlers in April. Credit: Tomer Appelbaum
Much blood has flowed since then in the trenches of wars and occupations – who can remember what we did in 1948 – and graveyards have lost their immunity. In Gaza, Lebanon and other sites of destruction, there is no advantage to being a dead Palestinian.
Dignity for the dead is for Jews alone, meticulously providing them with "a Jewish grave." We'll raise hell over the remnants of a Jewish corpse until it is brought for burial, while leaving behind sites of destruction under which hundreds of Palestinian bodies lie, prey to birds of the sky and dogs of the earth.
We had thought that kidnapping bodies and the abominable trade in these were the gravest symptoms of Israel's necrophilia. At least that's what we thought up to this weekend.
On Friday, settlers from the settlement of Sa-Nur forced villagers from the West Bank village of al-Asasa to exhume a freshly-buried body with the claim that it was "too close to the settlement."
Haaretz reporters Matan Golan and Bar Peleg described how right after the funeral, which had been permitted by the army, the necrophiles came to the grave armed with digging tools and started to dig in the ground with the intent of exhuming the body.
Israel Defense Forces soldiers were photographed watching these death-obsessed individuals without lifting a finger, joining in the necrophiles' excitement. Finally, they forced the grieving villagers to take the body and bury it elsewhere.
Palestinians remove the body from the grave near Sa-Nur in the West Bank, on Friday. Credit: Used in accordance with Section 27a of Israel’s Copyright Law
One may assume that the settlers believed that the corpse of a Palestinian defiles their sacred settlement, which is why it was their obligation to immediately remove the abomination. If they could have, they would have thrown it on a garbage heap. For what is a Palestinian life worth to these scum, and what value does his corpse have? Just imagine Palestinians digging around in a settlement graveyard and exhuming a sacred Jewish body.
The re-establishment of the Sa-Nur settlement in the northern West Bank is the biggest abomination in this story. This beautiful stretch of land, with its fertile fields and flowering vegetable gardens, was the only place to have escaped the uprooting of trees, the torching and the looting.
Related ArticlesHolding Palestinians' dead: Once strategy, now retribution | Haaretz Editorial
While all eyes are on Iran, Jewish terrorism is rising in the West Bank | Haaretz Editorial
In country that sanctifies death, missing pilot's wife is breath of fresh air | Sebastian Ben-Daniel (John Brown)
We knew that the return of Sa-Nur to its stolen land meant an end to this special and breathtaking area. But we couldn't have imagined the settlers starting their abuse with a necrophilic act.
The dead person was buried somewhere else, his or her loved ones were totally humiliated, and the deceased's dignity was trampled on. The settlers celebrated another achievement. The IDF, as usual, was fully complicit in this outrage. One may assume that the settlers and soldiers drew all possible pleasure from this act: digging, exhuming a body and removing it. Just what they like to do to the living villagers as well.
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