In the last few weeks, the genocide has been framed as a problem of starvation. From global leaders to social media influencers to celebrities, everyone seems to have woken up to ‘what is happening in Gaza.’ And for some reason the word ‘starvation’ seems easier to say than genocide.
Though the Israeli government continues to deny Western media access to Gaza, in the last few weeks mainstream publications that have worked painstakingly hard to ignore the genocide and to parrot Israeli talking points, have begun to present well-researched stories in collaboration with journalists on the ground in Gaza. Suddenly, they have found their voices. Or maybe it is more precise to say that they have found a way to talk about hunger.
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It turns out that the problem all along has been that the people of Gaza weren’t dying from hunger. Now that they are, we can talk about ‘the crisis.’
Apparently, the sight of a malnourished and impoverished child is more powerful than visual evidence of Israeli soldiers harming children in unspeakable ways, buried paramedics, bombed out schools and burning hospitals, food shelters and safe zones. The carnage thus far has been insufficient to cause outright condemnation. Now, something new is happening, something worthy of our horror.
Gaza’s starving children offer an opportunity for the West to morally distance itself from Israel, even as Western leaders essentially refuse to sanction Israeli and stop providing it with arms. Even as no one even contemplates sending peacekeepers to uphold the responsibility to protect.
Do not let the hand-wringing fool you: Western horror over Gaza’s starvation has nothing to do with people of Gaza and has even less to do with Palestinian liberation. Instead, the rhetoric that is being deployed in the last few weeks - by leaders and influencers alike - has largely been self-regarding, self-centred, self-indulgent.
Horror for likes, the genocide as clickable, shareable, viral.
To be sure there are voices of genuine solidarity, and true expressions of empathetic grief by many people, but those with power and influence who are engaged in new acts of speaking out have many questions to answer.
As Palestinian writer Hanan Habashi (@hananrights) writes, “there is a thin line between offering help and humiliating the very people you claim to stand with.” It is vitally important that none of us look away. It is just as important that we do not offer support that strips Palestinians of dignity.
As Habashi notes, Westerners have turned the people of Gaza into, “objects of pity,” and have made the “entire identity”… of Palestinians… “into their suffering as if they are their pain, as if their worth is defined solely by their conditions.”
The images that have moved the world rightly evoke horror. But they are especially persuasive because Western sympathy is always contingent on pity. And as those of us from the Global South know, the pitied object cannot speak back, cannot offer insight or clarity, cannot point a finger at those who have been the architects of its misery.
After years of vilification and demonisation, Westerners find it almost impossible to see Arabs and Muslims as people with inner lives and a shared humanity. For Palestinians to be redeemed — to be seen by Westerners they must be transformed into objects of pity.
Until now the West played into Israel’s lie that the bogeyman of Hamas was living in the rubble, the hospitals, the slimsy tents. But the starvation of Gaza pierces the lie. There is no Hamas in the eyes of a starving child.
The children of Gaza are ‘perfect’ victims. And so, having been imperfect for so long, the people of Gaza – at least it’s children – are now so abject, in such terrible conditions, that they are to be pitied. Pity is comfortable. Pity is a far better companion than shame. It is easier to feel sorry for someone than it is to feel connected to them. To fight for them.
It is telling that the only Muslims Westerners can feel for are dying of starvation.
This is one of the most glaring lessons of the genocide. When we hear pleas to feed the starving children of Gaza, we must understand that Westerners are not asking for justice for the people of Palestine --- they are marshalling pity. And soon enough, pity will run out. And when the pity has run out, and the West has turned its attention elsewhere, Palestine will still be at the mercy of Western feelings.
For now, the pity of Westerners is fuelling an increase in saviours. From the leaders of UK, Germany, Canada and Australia who are suddenly playing ‘leading roles’ in calling for Israel to feed the kids, to the Instagram influencers who are doing the same; white saviours are motivated by a sense of their own superiority.
Saviours want to talk about how terrible they feel about the baby formula that is not being delivered but they don’t want to call Israel an apartheid state. Saviours want to talk but they are not interested in listening. Saviours want to impose convenient solutions, they are transactional – providing food, giving money.
The new Western obsession with Palestinian statehood must be understood in this context. As Palestinian photographer and writer Sarik Khader recently posted, “I do not need a Western country’s recognition of my homeland. It holds no meaning for me. ‘Recognition’ does not suddenly validate our existence – we have always been here. We are not made legitimate by the gestures of states that for decades have denied our very presence – while funding, arming and shielding those who have erased us.”
It’s ridiculous to think that countries that have facilitated the starvation they now decry have any authority to determine what a future Palestinian state will look like, who will participate in it, who must be excluded from it, and how it will function. It is impossible to take any of this seriously and yet we must take it very seriously. Western saviours are the most dangerous people on the planet.
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The task ahead now is as clear as it has been since 1948. The Israeli occupation must end, and for this to happen Israel must be recognised as a pariah state. This is what we must all fight for – for Israeli recognition as a rogue apartheid state.
The task for the media that is now so interested in broadcasting Palestinians on their knees, is to turn some of its energy to reporting on Israel’s criminal actions. The media must interview Palestinian experts and highlight Palestinian activists and build a picture that tells the truth about Palestinian views about the future.
They must tell us how many Palestinian hostages are held in Israeli prisons. What are the conditions in which they live? There are many reports they can use to examine these issues. They can use their skills to ask questions about Israeli society and how it functions as an apartheid state? They can investigate why so much American taxpayer money goes to Israel and who benefits?
And for the influencers who are newly horrified, the task ahead is to use their clout to advocate for boycotting Israel in arts and culture, and to call for sanctions and arms embargos.
As always, I write these words as a South African, thinking about the shared connection I have with Palestinian people everywhere. I think about our connection everyday and am strengthened by it.
This week I found an old flyer from Ireland in 1986 calling for a month of boycotts against South African goods. I’ve printed it below. It is a reminder that the steps needed to end Israeli apartheid today are no different from the steps people around the world took to end South African apartheid. To be sure, the Israeli occupation has lasted far longer in Palestine and the scale of violence is exponentially higher. Still, the blueprint for a just and moral struggle – which the Palestinians have waged for so long – remains the same.
As Nelson Mandela once said, “It seems impossible until it is done. The genocide and the occupation will end when the pressure on Israel is too much to resist. And so, the pressure must continue.
Free Palestine.
Nailed it. Westerners want to feed Gaza but they still don’t mention liberating it from the root cause of its starvation - the occupier having total control over who lives and who dies, in complete contravention of international law and any system of ethics and morality. And don’t get me started on how they say Gaza as if it’s not Palestine. As always, thank you for your voice and your actions.
"They are largely persuasive because Western sympathy is always contingent on pity. And the pitied object cannot speak back, cannot offer insight or clarity, nor can the object of pity point a finger at those who are complicit in its misery. Pity is comfortable."
You've nailed it @Sisonke..