On October 27, the Ministry of Education in Palestine announced the end of the 2023-24 academic year. The reason: most, if not all, of the school-going children had become victims of the Israeli genocide. The unfortunate part, however, is that this is only a fraction of the atrocities being committed in the occupied Gaza Strip. Pseudo-liberals assume that their artificially curated “peace for all” movements discharge them of their inherent duty as humans: to condemn, protest and speak out. Here is the truth: this will not be the first time the world turns a deaf ear to the call for help, but it will certainly be the last before everyone becomes part of the collateral damage.

Since the beginning, the West has undertaken a blatant charge of the global political landscape. With its never ending thirst for power, it has deepened the webs of financial dependence and socio-cultural doctrines that entrap relatively weaker economies, forcing them to seek aid and thereby, make sacrifices that ensure they are always subverted. The poli-science-worthy MUN speakers will know this definition of banana republics by heart, but it hardly matters. To know a name, and not ask why, is another morally deceased take. As Christiane Amanpour said,

“There are some situations one simply cannot be neutral about, because when you are neutral, you are an accomplice.” 

The Middle Eastern diaspora dates back to the twentieth century. This region has seen its fair share of revolutions, conflicts, and massacres. It is essential to understand that while these terms are used interchangeably, they are all distinct, and none the same to the status quo. The mass-scale extermination of an ethnic group consisting of Muslims, Christians and Jews, cannot be called a ‘war’. A war calls for an armed conflict between two states; the only weapon the Palestinians have is their faith. In 2017, a UN survey found that about seventy percent of them rely upon foreign aid to fulfill their basic needs. Gaza was predicted to become ‘unlivable’ by 2020.

The case of the West’s structural violence lies in the desire for a “perfect victim”, that they take and take, lose their homelands, their dignity, their identity, and eventually, their lives. The moment they retaliate, they cease being victims, and the world is happy to label them as terrorists. This is what happened with the Hamas launches: the unprecedented attack against the colonial regime that has subjugated the Palestinians for over seventy-five years left the world enraged.

While Gaza begs for the call to attention, its Israeli counterparts worry if there will be enough gluten-free bread available for soldiers launching missiles at hospitals with carte blanche impunity. When the UN committees call for a ceasefire, the war-mongering sovereign United States uses its much-anticipated veto power to diminish any such efforts; the Nakba is an Oriental agenda aimed at divulging from the benevolence of the US military in the Middle Eastern region.

There is so much more to this campaign of psychological desensitisation and imbalance of control that is hurting the movement for the rights of Palestinians. Students at the world’s leading institutions have experienced continuous backlash, the most recent of which is a ‘doxing truck’ introduced by the Accuracy in Media group, that revealed the names and images of those participating in the protest. The greatest weapon in this is the sensationalist and deliberate branding of Zionism as anti-semitism. Publications like “Harvard Hates Jews” and the agenda with which the media broadcasts the genocide and the response of the greater public undermine the movement. From hijacking YouTube ad slots to extending their consumerist approaches, the Israeli industry is leaving no stone unturned. These state-sanctioned resolutions to stifle and criminalise dissent portray an ironic image of the leftist ideology that otherwise seems to govern them. Where they support the Ukrainian response to Russia, they are equally hypocritical to the suffering of the Palestinians.

But we do not need to do this. We do not have to adhere to the tactics of a PR whose sole purpose is to serve as a red-herring against the countless violations of human rights. This is not the time to sit back and turn down the news because we have the privilege to do so. You do not need to be political to condemn a human catastrophe. There is no becoming in the political: every action taken and word spoken is a quintessentially political decision. Violence is not only a human rights issue when inflicted upon the West. Take your BLMs, and your LGBTQ movements, now is the time to prove that you stand up for what you claim to be. Performative activism will only take you so far.

By Ariba Ashraf
Writer (Team 2023-2024)

Note: the views expressed in the article solely belong to the writer and do not reflect TLC.