Newspaper Article 13/12/2024
In July 2024, The Lancet published an article estimating that the total death count in Gaza since October 7th, 2023, could be “186,000 or even more”, citing a “conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death.” That is nearly ten percent of the pre-war Gaza population and even higher now.
Philip Gourevitch began his 1995 essay, ‘After the Genocide’, with these words: “Decimation means the killing of every 10th person in a population, and in the spring and early summer of 1994, a program of massacres decimated the Republic of Rwanda.” It seems unimaginable that only thirty years later, we are again witnessing the decimation of a people, this time in Gaza.
Imagine, and this may sound cruel, but the tragedy in Gaza demands that we at least imagine. So, let us imagine a six-year-old child crammed into a small car with her family, trying to flee the devastation that has befallen their homes, streets, neighbourhoods, and country. A collapsed healthcare system, no functioning hospitals, no clean drinking water, and a complete blockade of humanitarian aid coupled with a relentless aerial bombardment perhaps unseen since the Second World War.
Meanwhile, anchors and journalists across the world debated what a “proportionate response” to October 7 was. Hind Rajab and her family inside that car faced a military tank that shelled them, immediately killing her uncle, aunt, and three of her cousins. What does a six-year-old do? Or the 15-year-old who was with her, now looking at the dead bodies of her family next to them? Layan Hamadeh frantically called the Red Crescent Society and cried for help. Within minutes, she too died to the merciless barrage of ammunition being fired by the Israeli Defense Forces.
Helpless and alone, Hind Rajab stayed on call with the paramedics for three of the longest hours of her short life until all communication was lost. It was not until Israeli forces withdrew from the area that the deceased were found, along with two paramedic workers who were also killed while trying to rescue Hind Rajab. More than 335 rounds were fired at their car by the IDF in their “proportionate response” – which turns out to be 55 bullets per person.
As Rajab’s story gained traction, students at Columbia University renamed Hamilton Hall, a building at the university, as ‘Hind’s Hall’ – but it also highlighted the duplicitous nature of Western media. Kasie Hunt, a host and correspondent for CNN, openly referred to the six-year-old Rajab as “a woman who was killed in Gaza”.
A simple Google search for Gaza brings out headlines like: ‘UN warns of staggering economic devastation in Gaza’, ‘Israel bombs UN-run school, killing 18’, and ‘11 from one family killed in Israeli strike’. Piers Morgan continues to ask his guests if they “condemn October 7th”, and Jordan Peterson stands by his original tweet where he asked the IDF to “give them hell”. Nearly one year later, the world has been desensitized to genocide.
The most obvious question is: how do you stop a genocide? According to Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on Palestine, “despite the heinous nature and recurring instances of genocide, from Rwanda to former Yugoslavia and, plausibly Myanmar, the current legal framework remains inadequate in preventing genocide – mainly because of political interests, cynicism, and racial biases.”
The weakness of the international system becomes obvious when the secretary-general of the United Nations slams the UN Security Council as an “outdated, unfair, and ineffective system.” A system in place for the interests of the few over the lives of the many.
Numbers tend to numb the mind, and one loses sight of the actual. But there are so many – nearly 90 per cent of all hospitals in Gaza are no longer functioning; 80 per cent of the schools have been destroyed; 70 per cent of all buildings have been razed; and nearly all clean drinking water infrastructure has been destroyed. Over 41,000 people have been directly killed in the past 11 months and over 100,000 injured, with thousands more missing under the rubble. One is reminded of what Joseph Stalin once famously remarked that a “single death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic.”
Almost a year later, it continues. An unrelenting tragedy, played on a global stage, for the world to witness. Of the 41,000 confirmed killed, more than half are women and children. There are no basic necessities left in the Gaza Strip – all of its 2.3 million population has been forcibly displaced. Crammed into a neighbourhood, only to be bombed later. There are no schools, no universities, and no hospitals that remain. Famine is a reality, polio has resurfaced, and disease is rampant.
While Gaza is not unfamiliar with war, since after every few years when it rebuilds itself, Israel ‘mows the lawn’, as a state policy – it had not yet suffered genocide. It is quite likely, as Bassem Youssef pointed out, that Israel and its leaders will not face any repercussions, but the world will thank Israel for ending the genocide when it does.
Maybe we will forget the Hind Rajabs and the Layan Hamadehs after a while, or maybe we will keep them alive in our collective memory – as we have kept the victims of the Holocaust alive to promise ourselves: “never again”. As we write history today, we are reminded of what Jewish historian Saul Friedlander said about genocide – that it is a history “too massive to be forgotten, and too repellent to be integrated into the normal narrative of memory.”
Note: This article appeared in The News, dated 23 September 2024.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are of the author and do not necessarily represent Institute’s policy.
