Since October 8,
2023, we have been witnessing the deadliest and most brutal war ever documented
and broadcast live. In 15 weeks, more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed
by the Israeli army (60% of them children and women), and more than 80% of the
population of 2.2 million Gazans, besieged on 360 km2 and already victims of 4
wars and a long blockade (since 2007), have been displaced and crammed into the
southern part of the devastated territory[1].
The figures, reports, videos and testimonies published and regularly updated by the various UN agencies, humanitarian and human rights organizations, as well as by the brave Palestinian journalists and photographers on the ground, show us the suffering, the famine, the destruction of homes and infrastructure, the cuts in water, fuel and electricity, the inhuman sanitary conditions and the ordeal of the sick, the wounded, the amputees, treated with makeshift means and operated on without anesthesia.
Meanwhile, in the West, governments and the majority of television networks have decided that this tragedy is collateral damage of a war of "self-defense" waged by Israel following the deadly Hamas attacks of October 7.
In addition to this
contempt for the Palestinians and for international humanitarian law, most TV
channels have featured segments by non-specialists who ignorantly and
arrogantly cast doubt on the scale of Palestinian casualties and the reality on
the ground. Moreover, Israeli army spokesmen are regularly given a platform in
the media to justify their "operations". In the latter case, these
spokesmen have rarely been held accountable for the documented and filmed
crimes committed by their army.
Silence from universities and professional associations
It's not unlikely that this situation has led segments of Western public opinion (who have little access to serious, credible newspapers and news websites) to be astonished by the discourse denouncing the war crimes, crimes against humanity and horrors taking place in Gaza, put forward by leaders of international organizations as well as genuine specialists, journalists and researchers. It is also not surprising that South Africa's prosecution of Israel before the International Court of Justice for genocide is incomprehensible to many Westerners at a time when it has been so widely echoed in Africa, Asia and South America, where tens of millions of people followed the proceedings of the historic hearing at the Hague Court on January 11 and 12, 2024, and the Court's announcement of provisional measures on January 26 of the same month.
What is surprising, however, is how sophisticated and politicized groups, such as the leadership of universities, research institutes, hospitals, and press unions, have fallen into a kind of lethargy, shirking their moral and civic responsibility for the tragedy in Gaza.
Why should entire professional bodies remain silent or timidly raise the issue of massacres against their Palestinian colleagues in an informal setting?
More than 300
health workers (doctors, nurses, assistants and ambulance drivers) have been
killed in Gaza, 24 hospitals and 62 clinics have been totally or partially
destroyed, and more than 100 ambulances have been targeted and put out of
service.
Israeli fire killed
115 journalists and photographers, most of them directly targeted.
According to meticulous documentation, the Israeli army murdered 94 university professors, 231 teachers and more than 4,300 students, in addition to destroying or bombing without cause 4 universities and 346 schools (including 65 run by UNRWA)[2]. To this must be added dozens of artists, poets and writers who have been massacred in what seems to be a war of annihilation of education and culture, not only of the present and past of the Gazans (dozens of places of worship, archaeological and tourist sites and facilities have been totally or partially destroyed), but above all of their future.
What more is needed
for initiatives, or at least press releases, to denounce these horrors and show
solidarity with Palestinian counterparts?
Why is it unthinkable for Western hospitals or medical associations to issue statements or organize symbolic demonstrations in solidarity with the targeted Palestinian health workers?
If some people are misled by the media, why don't they take the trouble to check with their colleagues at Médecins du Monde, Médecins Sans Frontières, the World Health Organization, and the International Committee of the Red Cross?
What about the almost daily slaughter of Palestinian journalists to prevent them from reporting from an area that Israel forbids foreign journalists to enter unless escorted and monitored by its soldiers? Don't they deserve a mobilization for an international investigation into their murder and for a boycott of the Israeli army (and its spokespersons) that murders them?
What is most
significant, and perhaps most disturbing, is the silence of the majority of
academic and cultural institutions in the face of the crimes systematically
committed against academics, researchers and writers, in addition to the
deliberate destruction of Palestinian institutions - sometimes filmed and
celebrated by the soldiers themselves.
What, then, are the pedagogical functions and goals of teaching if they are cut off from reality? How can we legitimately teach humanities, international law, and journalism without having a legal or at least moral position on the daily killing of our fellow human beings and colleagues that is consistent with the messages and values we convey?
How are we to interpret the passive and silent attitude, under the pretext of "scientific neutrality" of certain European and American research centers specializing in the "Middle East" or international relations, while Palestinian research institutes are being destroyed? What kind of knowledge is it if it is blind to what is happening only a few hours away by plane and if it leaves the classrooms of our scientific institutions?
In reality, not only has there been silence and non-indignation, but in several cases universities, schools and sports clubs have exerted pressure and threatened coercive measures against any initiative "in support of the Palestinians". Additionally, book fairs, artistic and sporting events have seen programs and guests banned because of their critical stance on Israel's crimes. The result has been the spread of a culture of self-censorship that runs counter to the very principle of freedom of thought and expression.
One wonders whether a tragedy of this magnitude, with such horrific data, would have had a similar effect if the geography of the conflict, its demographics, and the color of its victims had been different.
Gaza and the future of democracies
It is sadly and seriously to be feared that we live in a world that is witnessing a patent decline in the universal values and legal conventions common to humanity. Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, the gap between continents and geographical zones, as well as the tensions and fractures within several countries, have widened as never before.
Western democracies in crisis, some of whose societies are plagued by increasingly racist and populist political options, are losing credibility and diminishing the attractiveness of their political model. This is dangerous not only for them, but also for the rest of the world. For despite their economic policies, their imperialism, and the brutality of their colonial history, the freedoms inherent in their systems, the philosophy of their institutions and universities, their constitutions, the richness of their cultures, their arts, and the human rights conventions and mechanisms they established after World War II have for decades attracted and inspired democrats and progressives in different parts of the world. Especially those who live in the shadow of tyranny, oppression and corruption, and who reject the so-called "alternative" models of Russian and Chinese imperialisms (and dictatorships).
The shameful position of most governments of Western democracies on the destruction of Gaza and its people in 2023 and 2024 is an open wound that is difficult to heal for hundreds of millions of citizens of this world.
Once the war machine comes to a halt, it will be imperative for all those who are dismayed by the extent of the double standards, the variable outrage, and the dehumanization of the Palestinians to join forces wherever possible to overcome the existing divide. New civil and political movements, networks and coalitions must emerge and unite to promote a new universalist discourse and fight against the "impunity of the powerful" and the hierarchization of the victims of wars and massacres according to their affiliations and the places where their aspirations and hopes are assassinated...
Ziad Majed
Article published in Mediapart English
Version Française publiée dans Mediapart
[1]
A detailed report is
available here: https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6103/Statistics-on-the-Israeli-attack-on-the-Gaza-Strip-%2807-October---19-January-2024%29
[2]
A summary of losses in
university and school environments is published here: https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6108/Israel-kills-dozens-of-academics,-destroys-every-university-in-the-Gaza-Strip.
