Western hypocrisy never shines brighter than it does when it comes to Palestine.
On Saturday, Palestinian militant groups led by Hamas, which has de facto governed the Gaza Strip since 2007, led a large-scale attack against Israel breaking through the barrier separating the Gaza Strip from the rest of Israel, where the group took control of Israeli settlements and military outposts, according to a Saturday article by Al Jazeera.
A total 1,100 people have been killed with thousands wounded on both sides, according to a Sunday article by AP News.
My question is this, what do people expect when the people of the Gaza Strip have been subjected to live in the largest open-air prison in the world?
It has been more than 50 years of occupation by Israel and 10 years of a land, air and water blockade from Egypt and Israel, with reports that Gaza would become unlivable by 2020, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.
The Israeli Defense Forces have stated that “Hamas has opened the gates of hell on the Gaza Strip,” and that’s exactly what Israel, not Hamas, has done to the area for years.
The Israeli regime is completely responsible for the events unfolding in the past couple of days.
Seven out of 10 Palestinians are registered as refugees in Gaza, and many of these people are descendants of families who had to flee their homes in 1948 when the mandate of Palestine was announced to become the state of Israel, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council report.
Half of Gaza’s population is under the age of 18, with the median age of the population being 19-years-old, according to an Aug. 24, 2014 article by the Telegraph.
In July, the Israeli military conducted a massive assault on the Jenin refugee camp, the same place where the Israeli military shot and killed Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh the year prior, according to a July 4, 2023 Guardian News article.
Every year during Ramadan and Eid, there are violent confrontations by Israeli policemen and settlers at the Al-Aqsa compound, one of the holiest sites in Islam, according to an Apr. 5, Al Jazeera news article.
On April 5, 50 Palestinians were injured and 400 were arrested after attacks during evening prayer at the site during the convergence of the holy holidays of Ramdan, Passover and Easter, according to an Apr. 5 BBC News article.
In May 2021, there were illegal attacks by Israeli settlers who invaded Palestinian homes in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where six families were wrongfully evicted from their homes to make room for settlers, according to a May 7, 2021 New York Times article.
This of course comes with the full support of the U.S. and Israel backing these takeovers of land.
The settlements are declared as illegal by the United Nations, according to its Dec. 23, 2016 press release.
The list can go on.
How much more do Palestinians need to take before they finally say enough is enough?
What is Palestine supposed to do when its population is imprisoned, killed and its lands are consistently being stolen by people who have no right or claims to it?
Of course, the outpouring of support for Israel from the U.S. and other western governments was swift, with President Joe Biden announcing billions of dollars in aid to “help” Israel fight this “invasion” by Hamas.
The response by the Israeli government and military has been brutal.
Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant stated "I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we will act accordingly."
To the Israeli government, Palestinians are animals, not deserving of life or humanity.
Israel controls the food, water and electricity which comes through to the Gaza Strip and that has been completely taken away from the people living in the region.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanathyu is casually posting international war crimes on his X account, sharing videos of air strikes against residential buildings which he says are “Hamas hideouts.”
When in reality, it is just where Palestinians live.
Other attacks from the Israeli military, according to reports from the Times of Gaza, include using banned white phosphorus, a chemical agent used in bombs which along with their destructive explosive power, can spread fire at temperatures up to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, according to WebMD.
It’s time for the media to see these attacks for what it is: genocide.
In just 36 hours, Israel has destroyed 1,210 homes, 13 residential and high-rise buildings, 3 United Nations schools, 3 mosques, 74,000 people in the Gaza Strip have been internally displaced, with over 410 people killed including 79 children and 8 entire families, according to a Monday X post by Muhammad Shehada, a Gazan journalist reporting from the region.
Israel is not the victim, its financial and military power with the full backing of the U.S. and other Western governments do not make it the victim here, but the oppressors backing an apartheid regime which violently oppresses the Palestinian people on their own land.
Israeli violence has formed the backbone of the brutality the region sees on a daily basis.
It's been 75 years of systemic land seizures, routine airstrikes, blockades, arbitrary detentions and checkpoints, targeted killings and family separation - the existence of the Palestinian people is an existence of a slow and painful death under a regime which subjects them to it.
Is it really an invasion when Palestnians have called this their home for centuries?
The Nakba, or “the disaster” was the destruction of Palestinian society and homeland in 1948, when the state of Israel was established, according to a May 15, 2022 Al Jazeera article.
It seems that the disaster continues for Palestinians, while being ignored by media outlets.
The blatant and purposeful hypocrisy is seen with media coverage of the attack by Western news outlets.
BBC World news wrote a headline on X, formerly known as Twitter, which states “More than 500 people have died in Gaza after Israel launched massive retaliatory air strikes, according to Gaza's health ministry.”
Palestinians just magically die, while Israelis are killed.
The passive voice is a small yet loud way of showing the cards are already stacked against Palestinians in news media outlets we all follow.
Sports organizations including the NFL, MLB and the NBA all posted statements of support for Israel, when do you normally see sports organizations vocalize support for specific nations through conflicts? Very rarely.
The European Union attempted to block any aid to Palestine, with Ireland blocking the removal, according to a Monday Reuters news article.
Protests have occurred across the nation in support of Palestine and local governments in cities including New York, have stated they are “watching” the events unfold and the protests have “no place” in our cities, according to statements by New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Major U.S. cities announced they are bolstering security around synagogues as well as mosques after the events on Saturday, according to live updates from NBC News.
It’s ironic that this is the case, when threats and attacks against synagogues in the U.S. have come from white supremacists, not Palestinians.
It’s a dangerous conflation to liken Palestinians to people who already have decided and carried out attacks against synagogues in the country, including the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting on Oct. 27, 2018, where 11 people were killed and wounded six, according to an Oct. 27, 2018 New York Times article.
It’s another dangerous mindset to conflate criticism of Zionism, which is the political ideology to establish a Jewish state and antisemitism, which is the hatred of Jewish people, as one in the same.
For over a century, Jewish people around the world have maintained a strong dissent against Zionism, according to Jewish Voice for Peace, the largest Jewish progressive organization against Zionism in the world.
Haaretz, the largest news organization in Israel, has more diverse articles and opinions on what is happening in the Gaza Strip than most, if not all, news organizations here.
In an editorial by the publication, Haaretz wrote that Netanhyau bears responsibility for the Israel-Gaza War.
Gideon Levy, a writer for the publication, released an opinion article stating Israel can’t imprison two million people without paying a cruel price.
Where is this here in the West with our major publications? How is Israel’s coverage more diverse in support of change than ours?
Other aspects of media are celebrities using their platforms to vocalize their support for Israel.
A more prominent example is actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who in her deleted posts on Instagram, posted a picture of Palestinian children being attacked by the Israeli military writing that therey were Israeli children being attacked by Paletinians.
All of this put together is the machine which keeps U.S. propaganda for Israel strong, hiding the true picture of what actually happens in the region and erasing the plight of the Palestinian people.
I do not care what celebrities think and I do not care what the U.S. government says, a government which pours billions of dollars in aid to Israel and Ukraine, while purposely ignoring the issues which we face here.
A government that was built on the backs of enslaved people and the decimation of the indigenous population in this country, a country that isn’t really ours.
Gazan translator and editor Refaat Alareer in an interview with Electronic Intifada, an independent online news publication focusing on Palestine, said how bleak and dark the situation is, without absolutely no way out.
Alareer said he does not have much to defend himself with, but with what he has if Israeli soldiers come to his door, he will have to.
“This is the feeling of everybody (Gazans), we are helpless, we have nothing to lose,” Alareer said in the interview.
Palestinians have been pushed to the brink of having no choice but to resist and fight back on their land that has been taken away from them, it has been years of brutal subjugation and none of us should be surprised that they are fighting back in any way they possibly can.
