In the initial depiction of these nightmarish Olympics–where indebted individuals compete for money and their lives, only to be murdered by masked guards–we see humans exploited like racehorses for the amusement of a clique of ultra-rich sociopaths, who bet and watch for entertainment.
In the following part, there’s a twist: the wealthy sponsors of this spectacle have the opportunity to become the masked guards themselves, experiencing the thrill of killing losers at the end of a game, much like elephant hunters in Africa.
The show’s overarching themes include the deep inequality in South Korea, the tough choices capitalism forces individuals to make, and the overmilitarisation of Korean society, often portrayed in a surreal, almost far-fetched setting. However, it may not be as distant from our own world as we think.
The Guardian reported that, “Prosecutors in Milan have opened an investigation into Italians who allegedly paid members of the Bosnian Serb army for trips to Sarajevo so that they could kill citizens during the four-year siege of the city in the 1990s,” adding that “Groups of Italians and other nationalities, so-called ‘sniper tourists,’ are alleged to have participated in the massacre after paying large sums of money to soldiers belonging to the army of Radovan Karadžić,” a convicted war criminal.
One only needs to look at all of human existence to see that, despite our individual desire for peace and survival, we are inherently wired and conditioned for war and the thrill of victory, driven by a constant fascination with death. From uniformed warriors to serial killers, murder acts as a drug to many.
We need to think about Sarajevo and the genocide committed against Bosniaks, not just because all victims deserve this memory, but because it is of renewed relevance given the genocide in Gaza.
The Yugoslav wars were complex, but let’s review some basic facts. Bosnian Muslims experienced a genocide as socialist Yugoslavia disintegrated into nationalist chaos. Muslims faced ethnic cleansing by fighters from the Serbian constituent republic and also from Republika Srpska, a sort of Serbian pseudo-state existing within Bosnia.
Think of it this way: You have the state of Israel, officially existing within its 1967 borders, but it envisions itself expanding into Palestinian territories, the West Bank and Gaza. Jewish nationalism rebrands the former Judea and Samaria to reflect its exclusivity for one people, while reports emerge that Israelis are crying out, “Make Gaza Jewish again.”
Religious settlers have already established a solely Jewish mini-state in the West Bank, and the Israeli far right is openly seeking to make Gaza a Jewish territory.
In both cases, the dominant military force justifying the eradication of civilians claims it is part of self-defence and self-preservation.
The siege of Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, was horrifying to witness because the world saw a city surrounded, helpless, while snipers shot people like fish in a barrel. The city was deprived of medical supplies, food, and heat during the winter. Gaza is very similar, but with more devastating physical destruction of the landscape.
We will find out more as this investigation goes on, but even in the early stages, it is proof that nationalism requires a sense of sadism to carry out its mission.
A Serb might feel compelled to take up arms and follow orders, but who leaves Italy to take shots into a city under siege? Did they want to cleanse a corner of Europe of Muslims?
We have some clues. Spanish newspaper El País reported that “Ordinary citizens, with ties to far-right circles and passionate about weapons, allegedly hired this service as a kind of human safari in the besieged city.”
Consider also the young Jewish Americans who leave their comfortable suburban lives and choose to fight in the Israel Defence Forces.
They are not defending a vulnerable statelet against external invaders but rather joining a sophisticated and well-funded Western army to terrorise a surrounded, isolated, poor, and poorly armed civilian population.
Take, for example, the case of Daniel Raab, an Illinois man accused of shooting “an apparently unarmed 19-year-old Palestinian in the head in Gaza”, as he “was part of an Israeli military sniper unit unofficially known as the ‘ghost’ squad that was found to have shot six family members — killing four — in one day in November 2023 during the war in Gaza”, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The Chicago chapter of the Council on American‑Islamic Relations demanded a federal investigation into Raab, which, given the nature of the current US regime, will likely not happen any time soon. The group’s Los Angeles chapter wanted a similar investigation into IDF vet and US citizen Sammy Ben.
Israel is home to many dual nationals. More than 50 Britons have served in the IDF during the genocide in Gaza, reported Declassified UK. Two French-Israeli soldiers were also investigated for war crimes in Gaza.
Members of Canada’s National Democratic Party warned that Canadians participating in the Gaza slaughter should be held accountable.
The European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights filed a criminal complaint about an IDF member “originating from Munich” who may have been involved in war crimes in Gaza, adding that “Germany has a fundamental obligation to investigate alleged perpetrators of core international crimes – particularly if the accused persons were born in Germany or are German nationals.”
Now think of Israeli settlers, who act as an overly religious state-within-a-state. Years ago, the Times of Israel found that “roughly one out of every 10 people who arrived to Israel from the US made their way to a West Bank settlement”.
The recent mosque burning is only the latest example of out-of-control settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied territory. As documentaries like No Other Land and The Settlers show, total conquest is at the heart of the Jewish settler movement.
To be clear, there are legitimate reasons for foreigners to volunteer in armed struggles. Europeans and Americans alike have joined Syrian Kurdish forces to defend a stateless population and help with this group’s eventual liberation, fighting against Da’esh.
That is a noble fight for liberation and against a fundamentalist religious menace. More importantly, it’s a fair, scrappy fight on the battlefield.
The accused sniper tourists in Bosnia and anyone coming from the outside to join Israel’s war in Gaza are something different, something more like the rich enthusiasts of Squid Game who want all the gore and excitement of war and none of the risk, and more importantly, want a context where they will always have the upper hand over someone below them.
They want to, quite simply, play God.
The sniper tourism investigation is all the more reason why the situation in Gaza has many precedents, including the Bosnian example.
The world legally pursued the criminals in Bosnia, not simply to inflict punishment but to put all the atrocities on record so we could understand why these atrocities happened.
We will have to treat Gaza the same way.
Photograph courtesy of Wikimedia. Published under a Creative Commons license.
