When looking at the Isreal-Hamas War or as it should be addressed, the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people. Many are quick to condemn Hamas and the attacks done on October 7th. Many fight for those kidnapped to be returned and mourn the 1,410 Israeli people killed at the hands of Hamas. However, when it comes to those murdered at the hands of the Israeli government there has been much more silence. Over 30,000 men, women and children died. Even then, people continue to justify those deaths.
I am seeking to understand why it is so easy to justify one atrocity but deeply criticize another.
Israel with their billion-dollar militia is seen as legit, they are recognized globally as a superpower without recognizing that it is exactly because of the lives it took and the people it displaced. Colonialism is something that has been seen time and time again, yet when people are actively being harmed, brutalized, and murdered people turn a blind eye. History keeps repeating itself, society should not have to see millions of people die like in the holocaust for real definitive changes to happen. Despite the “long and complicated” history that people like to throw onto the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, it is clear that this “war” is less about a war against terror, or even justice for those killed by Hamas. This war is about taking over the Gaza Strip and claiming that land for economic purposes. Violence is only justified when it is to gain power.
It is always interesting to see the parallel to this. When an organization forms to seek justice and liberation by any means necessary that is when collective violence is seen as unlawful and evil. This label of unjustifiable violence is one that has also historically been thrown onto brown and black people who have tried to fight against their oppression/oppressors. For example, native americans who fought against white imperial powers continuing to move westward under the guise of “Manifest Destiny” were often labeled as savages who did not deserve their land and were seen as inherently violent. This kind of rhetoric allowed for something like the Trail of Tears to happen because it dehumanized Native Americans. Their lives nor did their deaths matter. We can use the same kind of rhetoric around the Palestinians within the Gaza Strip today.
Now we can look at religion and the role it played in imperialism and colonialism. Jerusalem, which many Israeli people would claim is their land because the Hebrew Bible says so, is home to three major religions which are Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. However, the land known as Israel today was initially occupied by the Ottoman Empire from 1517 to 1917 until British Rule. During the time of Ottoman rule the official religion of the empire was the Islamic religion. Around the same time as British rule in what is now Israel, the zionist movement began starting with its founder Theodor Herzl. Naturally, this movement took off after the holocaust when hundreds of thousands of Jewish people began to take over this land. The British split off the land into what we now know as Israel and Palestine. There has been a continuous conflict for many decades as a result of this and following the Six-Day War Israel took over much of what was previously Palestinian land.
Now, all of this brings us back to today. Resistance should not be considered violence. Palestinians attempting to reclaim land should not be considered terrorists. Yet, it is and as we can see throughout much of Western history this is a result of capitalism, colonialism, and imperialist agenda and propaganda that is used as tools to justify constant genocide and atrocities. This is not being said to condemn or justify Hamas, but is important to check your own personal biases. I want to bring awareness to the hypocrisies consistent in much of the discourse of pro-isreal people. To condemn Hamas yet not be able to critique the Israeli government for its wrongdoing proves how people dehumanize those who are not white or Western presenting.