Terms of engagement: Refusing the Zionist narrative
“Our language shouldn’t be designed to appease the oppressor.” Steve Salaita
Not “war in Gaza”. A war on Gaza.
Not “lives lost”. Mass killing and mutilation of civilians.
Not “self-defence”. A war on children. Snipers’ bullets in children’s heads.
Not “a tragic conflict”. Genocidal erasure of Gaza and its people.
Not defending “Israel’s right to exist”. State terrorism.
“It’s complex.” No it’s not. No two sides to genocide.
What part of the definition of genocide in the Genocide Convention do you say has not been met?
Systematic war crimes. Crimes against humanity. Genocidal actions. Bombing apartment blocks, refugee shelters and hospitals, burning Palestinians sheltering in tents. Wilful starvation. Withholding food, water, fuel, electricity, medical supplies. Killing healthcare, aid, and UN workers. Destruction of healthcare system. Ethnocide, ecocide, scholasticide.
Not “the most moral army in the world”. Perhaps the most immoral. Hundreds of videos filmed and posted by soldiers to social media platforms, a number of which can be viewed in Al Jazeera’s documentary “War Crimes in Gaza”. Evidence of war crimes and violations of international law including torture and inhumane treatment of detainees, use of human shields, and wanton destruction of buildings and civilian property. The burning of Shuja’iya, a neighbourhood of Gaza City, with a soldier’s voiceover, “We will annihilate them to dust. This is what we do to all our enemies.”
It was clear from October 2023 what was going to happen in Gaza. The IDF is acting in conformity with numerous public statements of Israeli leaders, members of Knesset, and top echelons of its military, from October 2023 expressing genocidal intent and incitement. Statements collated by Law4Palestine. Examples include:
“There are no uninvolved people … we must go in there and kill, kill, kill.”
“They have no right to exist … they need to be exterminated.”
“I want the possibility to behead, head after head.”
“I have removed all restraints.”
“There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”
“Erase all Gaza from the face of the earth.”
“One of the options is to drop an atomic bomb on Gaza.”
Pause, and reflect on the horror of each of those statements.
Israel has created a new template for every other state to follow. All limits removed. Complete impunity. The so-called “rules-based order” torn to shreds.
Our government’s rhetorical strategy of “balance”. Express “concern” about Israel’s actions while repeating ad nauseam Israel’s right to defend itself. No repercussions for Israel; implied consent to genocide. Gaslight protesters, smearing them as antisemitic, and disruptive to “social cohesion”. No two sides to genocide.
Indifference to Palestinian deaths as evidenced by our government’s rhetoric and inaction, and mainstream media’s reporting.
Mainstream media’s abominable failure.
Distortion and inversion of reality. Reporting Israel’s actions as exercising its “right of self-defence”, an assertion that is demonstrably false under international law; it is Palestinians who have a right of self-defence against the occupying power. Portraying Israel as victim, not perpetrator. Sanitised language and images. Sins of omission. Egregious failure to report heinous Israel’s war crimes, genocidal actions and ethnic cleansing. Exclusion of Palestinian civilians and commentators, human rights’ experts, and journalists reporting from Gaza.
Not Israel’s myths, lies, and propaganda. International law, the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. No exceptions for an ally.
Not “endless cycles of violence.” Endless impunity.
Not “settlers”. Violent colonists.
7 October did not occur out of the blue. A statement of the obvious, not antisemitism. 7 October was preceded by decades of ethnic cleansing, land theft, occupation, subjugation, apartheid.
If you are ignorant of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians since 1948, you are wilfully ignorant.
Calling someone a “terrorist” or “terrorist sympathiser” is not an argument.
Palestinians have a right under international law to resist the occupying power. This right includes a right of armed resistance, which must carried out within the parameters of international law. The killing and taking of hostages on 7 October were war crimes.
The trauma of the Holocaust does not grant Israel immunity from prosecution for its own crimes.
“Never again” means never again for anyone.
No hierarchy of racism. All forms are equally abhorrent. No exceptionalising of antisemitism.
Zionism, a political ideology of the Israeli state: ethnonationalism; privileging of Jews over non-Jews in its laws, policies and practices; oppression of non-Jews; expansionism; and apartheid. Criticising a political ideology is not racist. Criticising racism is not racist.
The Zionist state of Israel was founded on a premise of ethnic exclusion and land theft, practices which continue. Criticising Israel is not antisemitic.
Zionists are not the arbiters of “free speech”. Nor are they arbiters of the meaning of pro-Palestinian expressions.
Liberation, justice and equality between the river and the sea. Peace and security cannot be achieved until Israel ends its illegal occupation and violent settler-colonialism between the river and the sea.
Criticising and protesting against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians is the humanitarian response of every person who values all lives equally.
If you are ignorant of Israel’s war crimes, you are wilfully ignorant.
Which version of events do you accept? The lies and propaganda of Benjamin Netanyahu and Daniel Hagari, or the evidence and independent, expert opinions of the ICJ and ICC, UN experts, human rights’ organisations, surviving Palestinian civilians, journalists, and aid workers in Gaza, legal experts in international law, and genocide historians and scholars?
In conclusion, a rhetorical question for Israel’s apologists to contemplate.
In an essay published in “The Guardian” online on 13 August, 2024, As a former IDF soldier and historian of genocide, I was deeply disturbed by my recent visit to Israel | Israel | The Guardian Omer Bartov, genocide historian, and former IDF soldier, asked:
“Will it ever be possible for Israel to discard the violent, exclusionary, militant, and increasingly racist aspects of its vision as it is embraced there by so many of its Jewish citizens?”