וידוא הריגה

This short article aims to trace the social and cultural meanings of the commonly used phrase “verification of death.” It highlights two contradictory ways of using the phrase. One is technical, in the sense that it functions to report an operational practice and give it legal (rather than moral) justification. The second is critical, and aims to deny the legitimacy of the use of state violence. In the context of the 2023-2024 Gaza war, various actors bring the two senses of the phrase to their radical conclusion, which also sheds light on the fracture the war has caused within Israeli society.