The Princess of Wales recently announced that she has begun treatment against cancer, putting a whirlwind of rumours at rest as to her disappearance from the public. Despite her latest video attracting comments of alleged deepfake and being AI generated, her announcement has rightly attracted worldwide words of support and empathy, opened up wider conversations about the disease, its treatment and how women cope. On the other side of the world, a pregnant woman of five months was captured, along with her family. She was stripped naked, beaten. She pled for mercy to her captors, telling them that she is pregnant. That did not ignite any spark of humanity in the soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces, if they can still be known by this moniker. Instead, they raped her in front of her children and the men of her family, forcing them to keep their eyes open under the threat of being killed* (Read ‘A Retraction’ below). However, it did not make world headlines.
This is not an isolated tragedy. Reports of Palestinian women being sexually assaulted by soldiers of the IDF are being communicated by eyewitnesses. Staunch feminists (men and women) who would normally shout from the rooftops when women are killed by their governments for defying the latter by removing their headscarves, or when women are forced to dress religiously by their government, going even as far as doing countless TV and radio programs, posting repeatedly on social media on the lack of women’s rights and how these governments should be sanctioned for not respecting women, are today completely silent on one of the most public massacres taking place.
One cannot argue about ignorance of facts, because the facts are being clearly documented on a daily basis. Today, traditional media no longer controls the narrative, as much as it wants to leverage power. Social media has given the world true insights into the genocide, with the main victims taking over reporting and telling their own stories, viva voce. These have given rise to previously anonymous people who have shined by their courage. Two Palestinian mothers are killed every hour, women are delivering babies in the most abject conditions, Israeli soldiers are parading with Palestinian women’s lingerie mocking them, after violently chasing them from their homes. Children are being starved, mothers are digging for their children in rubbles. Women are seeing their husbands, fathers and sons, stripped not only of clothes but also of dignity. Young people are being targeted and killed arbitrarily. The blockade of food and aid in Gaza has meant that scores of people, including children are dying of hunger.
The inaction of the police of the world is highly eloquent. The lengths to which the USA has gone defend the Israeli actions and their attacks on the Palestinian supportive neighbour Yemen says a lot about its supposed policies and work for world peace. The UN resolution voted on Monday has seen but a timid stand against Israel on the part of the USA through its abstention. The silence from the rich Arab states is also highly deafening, highlighting that when it comes to welcoming refugees and taking a stand against the current perpetrators of genocide, politics reigns supreme, rating even higher than the lives of people, stating clearly where their priorities lie.
However, there is a lot to be said about the general public. The massive protests taking place in many countries around the world show that the public is not insensitive to the genocide and Israel’s barbarity. Hundreds of thousands of people are taking to the streets every week in protest. People are in awe of the Palestinians resilience and the fact that they remain staunch believers, prompting many to go back to religious books to see what it is in them that makes the world’s most tragic victims unshaken in their faiths.
This genocide has shown the true colours of many, from intellectuals, favourite personalities, journalists, politicians, nations… This genocide has given a tragically inhuman meaning to the word ‘selective’. This genocide has revealed just how selective people choose to be in the defense of rights, how the majority of mainstream media refuse to take the obvious stand in the face of such a tragedy, and just how selective politics and politicians can be. We, as people, as humans, have a duty towards the coming generation to not be selective, to take a stand, to be on the right side of history, there is no sitting on the fence in this matter. Israel needs to be brought to answer to its horrific crimes, war crimes; Palestinians have the right to their lands. Today, the victims of the powerful’s indifference and inaction are Palestinians, tomorrow, it could be us.
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* A Retraction
Saffiyah Edoo
At the time of writing “Lessons from a Genocide”, the story of a Palestinian pregnant woman being raped in front of her family was in the news, amidst other stories of Palestinian women being raped after the Al-Shifa hospital attacks, based on the testimony of Jamila Al-Hessi, who had stated that she has witnessed rapes and killings of entire families, published on Al-Jazeera. According to the Jerusalem Post, and an Al Jazeera columnist, the video has now been removed amidst allegations of fabrication of stories of rapes in Al-Shifa. I therefore retract that part of my text.
However, the fact remains that sexual assault is being used as a weapon of war, as per a UN panel of experts who “expressed alarm over credible allegations of egregious human rights violations to which Palestinian women and girls continue to be subjected in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.” * And the fact remains that despite such reports, there is a silence on the part of those who would otherwise not remain silent.
As Palestine wades further into this genocide at the hands of Israel, we need to be more wary of certain reports, no matter how credible the news sources are.
*https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/israelopt-un-experts-appalled-reported-human-rights-violations-against
Israel/oPt: UN experts appalled by reported human rights violations against Palestinian women and girls