What did you do during the genocide in Gaza?
Now, when Israel is executing a 'final solution' in Gaza, when it is far too late for dissent to make any difference, the tide is slowly starting to turn. Now that Gaza is flattened, turned into mass graves and rubble, people who have kept quiet for the past 19 months are slowly starting to speak up. Now that Israel and the US are not even trying to pretend that they aren't intent on emptying Gaza and the West Bank of Palestinians, of 'taking control' of all of the land, some criticism has started to trickle in.
Over in the UK, they've pulled out the 'e' word. After 19 months of genocidal violence and almost three months of a starvation campaign the UK has decided to describe the situation as egregious. The UK, along with France and Canada have threatened – and I'm sure Israel's leaders are quaking in their boots over this – that there might be a 'concrete' response if the mass killing and starvation continues.
Meanwhile, there's been a slight shift in the media coverage. Instead of just parroting the Israeli government's talking points, major media figures such as Piers Morgan are starting to challenge Israeli spokespeople about why the international media has not been freely allowed into Gaza to see what is happening for themselves.
All of this is too little, too late. It will not bring back little Hind Rajab, a five-year-old girl who was killed when 335 bullets were fired by Israeli soldiers into the car the terrified child was trapped in. Or the aid workers executed by Israel and buried in shallow graves.
It will not rebuild the hospitals, kindergartens, IVF centers and universities that have been systematically levelled by Israel. It will not give kids in Gaza – the largest cohort of child amputees in the world – their limbs back. It will not fix the long-term damage that malnutrition and almost two years of no schooling has done to a generation.
The criticism we are seeing now is simply an exercise in ass-covering. Performative opposition, so that in the future, when the true scale of the slaughter in Gaza is clear, the politicians and media figures responsible for enabling and justifying this horror for 19 months can say: 'Look! I said something! I didn't just stand by!'
And what will you say? When future generations read about Gaza with horror and wonder how the western world, with all its moral superiority, its rule-based order and its focus on international human rights law, allowed a livestreamed genocide to happen, what will you say? When future generations learn that, for 19 months, we woke up every morning to videos of children being burned alive – bombed with weapons that the US taxpayer helped pay for and the western world helped justify – will you be able to say that you spoke up?
A lot of ordinary people will be able to hold their head up high and say they were not silent; that they use whatever platforms or privilege they had. Logan Rozos, an NYU student who had his diploma withheld because he used his commencement speech to recognize 'the atrocities currently happening in Palestine', will be able to say he wasn't quiet. The students expelled from Columbia University for protesting will be able to say they put their futures on the line in the name of justice. Actors like Melissa Barrera, who was fired from Scream 7 over her pro-Palestine posts, will be able to say that she prioritized integrity over her career.
The people with real power, however, will not be able to say the same; they will not be able to wash the blood from their hands. It seems likely that all this horror will eventually be pinned on Benjamin Netanyahu while others try to absolve themselves of blame. But this isn't just Netanyahu's genocide. This is the Biden-Harris genocide; the Trump-Vance genocide; the Keir Starmer and David Lammy genocide. It is Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's genocide. This is the mainstream media's genocide. The list goes on.
We would not be where we are today were it not for the systematic dehumanization of Palestinians by the western media and the suppression of pro-Palestinian speech. We would not be here if western reporters and Joe Biden hadn't manufactured consent for the genocide by repeating the incendiary lie that Hamas had beheaded babies. We would not be here if the Biden administration had actually worked towards a ceasefire instead of lying about their efforts and giving Israel carte blanche to do whatever it liked. Eventually history will judge all these people.
But perhaps that is wishful thinking. Perhaps I am being naive in thinking that, even if all the Palestinians are sent off to exile in Libya and Gaza is turned into a Trump-branded resort, there will ever be a reckoning. After all, how many Americans or Europeans really know about the Nakba? How many people know about Israel's 'Cast Thy Bread' operation in 1948 where the drinking water in Palestinian villages was poisoned? How many Americans know about Rachel Corrie, the young non-violent activist from Washington who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer while she tried to save Palestinian homes in Gaza from destruction in 2003?
Ever since the Nakba, Palestinian voices have been actively suppressed and Israeli atrocities have been minimized. (One Palestinian writer I know had a piece about mapping in Palestine pulled from a very prestigious US magazine several years ago after they refused to remove discussion of the Nakba.) You will have heard of every atrocity committed by a Palestinian however. You will have been told over and over again that all this started on 7 October 2023.
It is too late for real justice in Gaza now. We can never bring back the dead children. We can't erase what has happened. But it is not too late for accountability. The atrocities must be documented. The dead in Gaza must be properly counted so we know how many people have been murdered. The media must stop parroting the official death figure of more than 55,000 people being dead without putting this into context and noting that when you account for indirect deaths from starvation, disease, or cold, the real number of deaths is likely enormously higher.
If you have stayed quiet until now, telling yourself that all this is just far too complicated for you to speak up about, it is not too late to raise your voice. What is happening in Gaza is different from the horrors happening in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo because, if you are in the west, it is happening in your name. It is happening with your tax money and with the help of your leaders. If you are in the US, your elected representatives have delivered a standing ovation for this genocide. We are all complicit. Although some of us are far more complicit than others.
So, again, think about what you want to say to future generations when they ask what you did at this very moment. Silence is not neutrality. And your silence will not be forgotten. As Martin Luther King Jr said: 'In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.'
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist
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