The phrase “Israel has the right to defend itself” has been incessantly repeated in recent weeks on television screens across the Western world. It has become the mantra of every Western leader who unequivocally supports what is, essentially, an ethno-supremacist state in Israel.
What Israel is currently doing in the Gaza Strip, a small piece of land often described as an open-air prison, cannot be defined as self-defence but rather amounts to open season on ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. The hatred is even more openly voiced in Hebrew by some of the more radical members of the Israeli government.
As of the writing of this article, the death toll in Gaza is approaching approximately 10,000 people, with about 4,000 of them being children. Israeli spokespeople and US neo-conservatives justify the carnage by claiming to destroy the “barbaric” Islamists of Hamas. Hamas is a problematic organization and has not helped the Palestinian cause. Its barbaric attacks need to be condemned vehemently but they do not justify Israel consistently causing multiple times more civilian casualties each time the two sides clash.
The American government and its western allies hypocritically champion the rules-based world order. They condemn Russia for its aggression in Ukraine and call out China for human rights violations, but they have little to say about the human rights violations committed by allies like Israel. The conditions in Gaza have been dire for decades. Dehumanization has been used as a tactic to justify war crimes, and Islamophobia is employed to instill fear in Western residents, generating support for collective punishment of civilians.
It is appalling that the west is turning a blind eye to the fact that their unequivocal support for Israel’s retaliation is amounting to this veiled ethnic cleansing narrative. The hunt is on for Hamas hence Palestinians need to run for their lives: They do not deserve water to drink, food to eat, anesthesia for surgeries, or an escape from their current hell. The United States, which provides billions to Israel each year, supports these actions rather than putting conditions on protection of civilians.
What sets this Gaza operation apart is the growing pushback. People are no longer buying into the narrative. Protests are taking place worldwide, from London to New York. Even significant portions of the Jewish diaspora are saying, “Not in our name.” Hopefully, this will bring about change, and humanity can collectively agree that all life is precious, and the children of Gaza can finally have something that many of us take for granted: a future.
