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The ongoing genocide in Gaza is unprecedented. Nothing that Israel and its supporters can say or do will avoid its culpability for the attempted extermination of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. This assertion is critical, both for ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine and achieving Palestinian freedom.
In all its past wars and related war crimes, Israel has managed to push the reset button in its relationship with occupied Palestinians. Following each war, the Israeli hasbara (propaganda) machine would start — utilizing the always-willing Western mainstream media — painting Palestinians in a negative light and presenting Israel, a country that is supposedly in a permanent state of self-defense, as the victim or even the lone defender of Western civilization.
This campaign always runs parallel to the whitewashing of Israel in popular entertainment, from Hollywood movies to TV sitcoms and magazine covers with titles such as “Gorgeous photos capture the unseen lives of female soldiers In Israel.”
Generally, Western politicians of various ideologies, along with intellectuals, talking heads on news programs and church leaders, all praise the wonder that is Israel.
At the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, for example, British playwright Tom Stoppard said that, “before we take up a position on what’s happening now, we should consider whether this is a fight over territory or a struggle between civilization and barbarism.” He, of course, leaned toward the latter.
This Israeli tactic always includes the demonization of Palestinians, with the victim becoming the terrorist and those under siege become the besiegers. This last claim, in particular, was expressed by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in 2000, when she said that “the Israelis feel under siege from the Palestinian rock throwers and the various gangs that have been roaming around.”
So, why will those same Israeli tactics fail this time? It will certainly not be due to Israel’s lack of trying. In fact, it is already bracing for the fight of a lifetime.
Following each war, the Israeli hasbara (propaganda) machine would start — utilizing the always-willing Western mainstream media — painting Palestinians in a negative light.
Ramzy Baroud
One new tactic that Israel is already employing in “friendly” countries like the US is pressuring lawmakers to pass legislation that blocks any conversation about the genocide in Gaza.
The US House of Representatives last month passed H.R. 9495, known as the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act. It proposes giving the treasury secretary the authorization to revoke an organization’s tax exempt status and decide when the designation would end. If it passes the Senate and is approved by the president, the most democratic and peaceful expressions of rejecting the Israeli occupation of Palestine and demanding sensible US foreign policy will be equated with a direct violation of the law and, in some cases, terrorism — as defined by the Department of Treasury at the behest of the pro-Israeli lobby.
But even desperate attempts such as this will not quell the anger or distract from the conversation for the following reasons:
One, not only is Israel committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, but this genocide is being investigated and acknowledged by the world’s most prominent legal institutions, namely the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.
Two, unlike previous investigations — such as the Goldstone Report into the 2008-09 war on Gaza — the international community has already taken some practical steps to hold Israeli war criminals accountable. These include the International Criminal Court arrest warrants issued last month against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Three, those who routinely come to Israel’s defense, including the US and other Western governments, are now directly clashing with the very international laws they helped articulate after the Second World War, depriving them of any credibility as supposed neutral parties in this conflict.
Four, despite the inherent bias of Western media, Palestinian journalists have, despite being isolated and killed in large numbers, managed to communicate the genocide to the rest of the world, making it impossible for Israel to hide its crimes.
Five, the impact of the Israeli genocide on Gaza has already penetrated public opinion worldwide in an unprecedented manner. Previously, the conversation on Palestine had been confined to specific strata of society, reaching mainly academics, social justice activists and other groups interested in politics and global issues. Today, however, ordinary people have been made aware of the conversation, to the extent that it is widely believed that anger over Gaza contributed to determining the outcome of the latest US presidential election.
In Africa, the growing political and public interest in the Palestinian struggle has re-enlivened the spirit of anticolonial liberation struggles on the continent, bringing many countries back to the front lines of global solidarity.
No amount of Israeli propaganda, unjust laws, unfair categorizations of Palestinians or pictures of scantily-clad members of the Israeli army will ever succeed in reversing these realities.
Now, there can be no reset button. Rather, the global momentum of Palestine’s liberation will accelerate in the coming months and years.
The toll exacted on the Palestinian people for this earth-shattering moment has been painful, but the history of all national liberation struggles, Palestine included, demonstrates that the price of freedom is always high.
• Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and author. He is editor of The Palestine Chronicle and nonresident senior research fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappe, is “Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out.”
X: @RamzyBaroud