Gaza, the world and us

By Ziad Majed

Franco-Lebanese politician, university professor

Since the start of this war in Gaza, the gap between continents and geographic areas, tensions and fractures within several countries have widened like never before. There is unfortunately and serious concern that we live in a world which is witnessing a clear decline in universal values and legal conventions common to humanity.

Since October 8, 2023, we have been experiencing the deadliest and most brutal war ever documented and transmitted live. In 15 weeks, more than 30,000 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army (60% of children and women), and more than 80% of the population of 2.2 million Gazans besieged in 360 km2, already victims of 4 wars and a long blockade (since 2007) is displaced and crowded in the southern part of the devastated sector[1].

The figures, stories, videos and testimonies published and updated regularly by the various UN agencies, humanitarian and human rights organizations as well as by the brave Palestinian journalists and photographers on site, show us the suffering, the famine, the destruction. homes and infrastructure, water, fuel and electricity cuts, inhumane sanitary conditions and the ordeal of the sick, injured, amputees, treated with makeshift means and operated on without anesthesia.

Meanwhile, in the West, governments and a majority of television channels have decreed that this tragedy was collateral damage of a war of “self-defense” that Israel is waging following the deadly Hamas attacks on October 7. .

To this form of contempt for the Palestinians and for international humanitarian law have been added the contributions on most television sets, from non-specialist speakers who spout nonsense and question, in all ignorance and arrogance, the extent Palestinian human losses and the reality on the ground.

Moreover, a media platform was regularly granted to the spokespersons of the Israeli army to allow them to justify their “operations”. For the latter case, these soldiers have in fact very rarely been put in a position to have to account for the documented and filmed crimes perpetrated by their army.

The silence of universities and professional bodies

It is not improbable that this state of affairs has led segments of Western public opinion (which have little access to serious and credible newspapers and information sites) to be surprised by the speech denouncing war crimes, crimes against humanity and the horrors taking place in Gaza, carried by officials of international organizations, as well as by real specialists, journalists and researchers.

It is therefore not surprising to note that South Africa's prosecution of Israel before the International Court of Justice for genocide is for many Westerners incomprehensible, at a time when it has aroused such significant echoes in Africa, Asia and South America, where tens of millions of people followed the proceedings of the historic hearing at the Hague tribunal on January 11 and 12, 2024 and that of the court's announcement of interim measures on January 26 of the same month.

What, however, arouses astonishment is to see categories capable of discernment and politicized, particularly among those responsible for university, research and hospital institutions and press unions, plunging into a sort of lethargy and exonerating themselves. of their moral and civic responsibility with regard to the tragedy in Gaza.

How can we explain why entire professional bodies can remain silent or timidly discuss in an informal setting massacres targeting their Palestinian colleagues?

More than 300 caregivers (doctors, nurses, assistants and paramedics) were killed in Gaza, 24 hospitals and 62 clinics were totally or partially destroyed, more than 100 ambulances were targeted and put out of service.

Israeli fire killed 115 journalists and photographers, most of whom were directly targeted.

According to careful documentation, the Israeli army killed 94 university professors, 231 teachers and more than 4,300 students, in addition to destroying or wantonly bombing 4 universities and 346 schools (including 65 managed by UNRWA). )[2]. To these are added dozens of artists, poets and writers massacred in what seems to be a war of extermination of education and culture, not only of the present and past of Gazans ( dozens of places of religious worship, buildings and archaeological and tourist installations were totally or partially destroyed), but above all their future.

What more is needed for initiatives or at least press releases to denounce these horrors and demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinian counterparts?

Why is it unthinkable for Western hospitals or medical orders to issue statements or organize symbolic demonstrations in solidarity with targeted Palestinian healthcare workers?

If some are misled by the effect of the media, why don't they take the trouble to check and inquire about what is happening with their colleagues from Médecins du Monde, Médecins sans frontières, the Organization World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross?

What about the almost daily killing of Palestinian journalists to prevent them from covering an area forbidden by Israel to foreign journalists if they are not escorted and controlled in their work by its soldiers? Do they not deserve mobilization in favor of the opening of international investigations into their assassination and especially the boycott of the Israeli army (and its spokespersons) who assassinated them?

The most significant and probably the most challenging remains the silence of the majority of major university and cultural institutions in the face of the crimes which systematically affect academics, researchers and writers, in addition to the voluntary destruction, sometimes filmed and celebrated by the soldiers themselves. , Palestinian establishments.

What then are the pedagogical function and the objectives of teaching if they are cut off from reality? How can we legitimately teach the human sciences, international law, journalism without having a legal or at least moral position on the daily killings of our fellow human beings, which is in agreement with the messages and values that we transmit?

How can we interpret the passive and silent attitude, under the pretext of “scientific neutrality”, of certain European and American research centers specializing in the “Middle East” or international relations while Palestinian research institutes are annihilated?

What knowledge is there in question if it is blind to what is happening a few hours' flight from us, and if it deserts the classrooms of our scientific establishments?

In reality, not only did silence and non-indignation reign, but in several cases also universities, schools and sports clubs exerted pressure and threatened to take coercive measures against any initiative of “support for the Palestinians”. .

Additionally, book fairs, arts and sporting events have seen programs and guests banned due to their critical stance on Israel's crimes. This atmosphere has resulted in the spread of a culture of self-censorship contrary to the very principle of freedom of thought and expression.

We are entitled to wonder whether a tragedy of this magnitude with these appalling data would have produced a similar effect if the geography of the conflict, its demographics and the skin color of its victims had been different.

Gaza and the future of democracies

There is unfortunately and serious concern that we live in a world which is witnessing a clear decline in universal values and legal conventions common to humanity. Since the start of this war in Gaza, the gap between continents and geographic areas, tensions and fractures within several countries have widened like never before.

In addition, Western democracies, in crisis today and some societies of which are affected by increasingly racist and populist political options, are losing credibility and tarnishing the attractiveness of their political model. This is dangerous not only for them but for the rest of the world.

Because despite their economic policies, their imperialism and the brutality of their colonial history, the freedoms existing in their systems, the philosophy of their institutions and universities, their constitutions, the richness of their cultures, their arts and the systems of human rights that They were instituted after World War II and have for decades attracted and inspired democrats and progressives in various parts of the globe. Particularly those living in the shadow of tyranny, oppression, corruption and rejecting the so-called “alternative” models of Russian and Chinese imperialism (and dictatorships).

The shameful position of the vast majority of governments of these Western democracies on the destruction of Gaza and its people in 2023 and 2024 is an open wound difficult to heal for hundreds of millions of citizens of this world.

It will be imperative, after the war machine stops, for all those dismayed by the extent of the double standards, the variable geometry indignations and the dehumanization of the Palestinians, to gather their forces wherever possible. possible, in order to overcome the installed divide.

New citizen and political movements, networks and coalitions must emerge and come together to bring a new universalist discourse and fight against “the impunity of the powerful” and the hierarchy of victims of wars and massacres according to their affiliations, and according to the places where their aspirations and hopes are murdered…