What Gaza has taught us

Oh rascal children of Gaza,

You who constantly disturbed me with your screams under my window,

You who filled every morning with rush and chaos,

You who broke my vase and stole the lonely flower on my balcony,

Come back —

And scream as you want/And break all the vases/Steal all the flowers,

Come back/Just come back…

— Khaled Juma

 

On October 8th of this year, the first bombs dropped on Gaza. Since then, they haven't stopped. Gaza now looks like a building site strewn with dead bodies – rumble, dust, death and destruction. And if that wasn't enough, the UN World Food Programme has declared famine, with evidence showing that Israel is actively blocking food and medical supplies into the Gaza Strip. Over 40,000 people have been officially killed, while unofficial figures are much higher than this. The first 14 pages of an over 600-page booklet listing the names of those killed are the names of children. The UN chief aptly describes the situation as a war on children. And there is no end in sight. Genocidal violence continues in Gaza and as I write Lebanon, the West Bank, Syria and Yemen have also been struck, having the same aggressor and attacker in common, Israel.

In the name of self-defence and rescuing hostages captured on 7th October, Israel continues ethnic cleansing with remarkable clarity, and the weapons and blessings of America and most of the Western world. Israel says it is fighting on behalf of the free world, but this 11-month invasion now expanding beyond Gaza aligns well with its settler colonial project and its 76 years of occupation of indigenous Palestine lands and people under an expel-eliminate-and-expand project on which Israel's very existence lies. Long before Gaza's current invasion, Israel, straight from any colonists playbook, divides and rules through the force of law – imposing civil law in historic Palestine, martial law in the West Bank and administrative law in East Jerusalem – to occupy, subjugate and oppress Palestinians.

In the near collapse and exposure of international laws and leadership to protect people from annihilation, starvation and death – and with mainstream Western media so obviously complicit all the while a genocide is live-streamed into our living rooms – what has Gaza, and the resilience of her people taught us?

During its 11-month unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, Israel has ensured the haemorrhaging of the international humanitarian laws and rules of engagement during a war. It's unaccounted for actions and the silence of the world has laid bare the fault lines in the rules-based order. It is clear now than ever before that international laws and human rights are subjective, depending on the colour of one's skin, the religion one professes and the part of the world one comes from. It is also based not on what is right and wrong, moral and immoral, legal or illegal, but on national allyship – Russia invades another country and is condemned by the West; and Israel occupies, kills, starves Palestinians and now invades Lebanon and it is lauded, with Western leaders constantly reconfirming their support for Israel. Allyship guarantees, it seems, very little accountability for violating international laws to protect civilians, indiscriminate bombing of schools and hospitals and the withholding of food and medicines.

The universality of human rights which speaks of protection against violence and dignity for all humans is a falsehood and a new world order will need reassessing and reframing. Gaza has surely taught us that. Noura Erkat, the Palestinian lawyer and academic, argues that this moment is a test for the International Court of Justice, which has already stated in its primarily hearing, in a case brought by South Africa against Israel, that it is plausible that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. I disagree that this is a litmus test for whether an international humanitarian framework is effective. I think the writing is clear for all to see – that at best they are ineffective and at worst international frameworks of rights, laws and conventions are arbitrary tools only for the powerful. They are in place for the protection and use of, and for, the Global North and its allies, while being mere goals and ambitions for the Global South to aspire towards, but certainly not use, at least not successfully, to protect civilians against killings and starvation.

What Gaza, Falesteen, has also taught us is that Gaza does not need us, we need her. Palestinians have been seeking liberation and justice for 76 years with a dignity and perseverance that is admirable – handing down the fight from one generation to another – without seeking little help or amplification from the rest of the world. Yet, if we wish to hang on to humanity, and rid the world of double standards and free it of imperialism, Islamophobia and colonialist rule, we must speak up for a free Palestine. Just as our elders fought for freedom from the British, we must now collectively seek that freedom for Palestinians. Nelson Mandela, after a decades-long campaign to free South Africa of apartheid, famously said: "We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians." We must heed that call of solidarity to come together for a liberated Palestine.

And in the last 11 months, like never before Gaza has taught us that Palestinian statehood is undeniable. That her people, her land and her history are inerasable and that the world, including powerful Arab countries that have sided with America for far too long at the expense of Palestinian occupation and suffering, must face this reality. Gaza has become the moral compass of the world. We must become part of the collective conversation and the global resistance movement that seeks to free Palestine from occupation and injustice and in the same measure begin to reframe our morality, our politics, our alliances and seek laws to reflect what we stand for.