What we now know after almost one year of Israel’s genocide in Gaza

by Mustafa Barghouti

A view of damaged and destroyed buildings after Israeli attacks, in Khan Yunis, Gaza on September 10, 2024. [Ali Jadallah – Anadolu Agency]

As we approach the first anniversary of the events of 7 October and are on the brink of a year of the occupation state’s genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, with its tentacles now extending to the West Bank as well, it is important to look at the facts that have been made clear in the past few months; to look at what we now know.

For a start, we must remember that the events of 7 October were a symptom of colonial violence, not the cause. They were the result of 76 years of the ethnic cleansing of 70 per cent of the Palestinian people; 57 years of the longest occupation in modern history, a racist apartheid system whose brutality has surpassed all that came before it; and an unjust siege that has suffocated the Gaza Strip for 17 years without the world giving attention to the suffering of its people. As long as the causes of 7 October are not addressed — they have even got worse, given the level of enormous injustice inflicted by the occupation army on the Palestinian people in Gaza and the rest of the occupied territories — the future will not be bright for those who thought they were able to subdue the will of the Palestinians.

Moreover, the Palestinian men and women in the Gaza Strip have demonstrated a degree of heroic steadfastness unparalleled in modern human history, despite the enormity of the injustice and the intensity of the pain that they have suffered and is too difficult to describe. Through their steadfastness and valiant resistance, they have prevented the main goal of the Israeli aggression, which was to drive them from their homeland and ethnically cleanse them, most for the second time. The historical experience of most of the residents of Gaza, 70 per cent of whom are refugees who were driven from their towns and villages in 1948, played a major role in strengthening their will to persevere.

The much-vaunted values of Western society and its claims about international law, human rights and democracy have collapsed on the sands and beaches of Gaza.

The extent of the West’s hypocrisy when it comes to Israel, the illegitimate child of the colonial West and the base of its strategic interests in the region, has been exposed for all to see. Likewise, the West’s double standards have been exposed when comparing its positions over Ukraine and Palestine. This is something that will have repercussions on all international relations, because Gaza — small in size but big in strength of will — has exposed the blatant dishonesty of the world. The so-called “rules-based order” of the international system that emerged after World War II is finished.

The message today, from the UN down, is that the law of the jungle prevails in our world, not international law. Those who have power can do whatever they want, and many of the relatively small countries that raced to support Israel eleven months ago will be the first to pay the price for a world order governed by the concepts of power in the absence of what they call “international law”. The Palestinian people and their political groupings know from bitter experience that, today, the foreign policies of all states are dictated by interests, not principles.

There is nothing that equals, or even exceeds, our disappointment about the international community, except for greater disappointment in the weakness of the Arab and Islamic regimes and their inability to face up to the aggressive Israeli arrogance, as well as their failure to fulfil their duty towards their people at the very least, and towards their sanctities. The failure to realise that they will not be spared and are not better off by keeping their heads down will have serious repercussions. However, the greater repercussions will result from the growth of the huge gap between these regimes and their people, who feel that their dignity has been insulted by allowing the fascist Israeli regime to brutalise the Palestinian people, even as some governments continue to have normalised relations with the occupation state.

76 years on, Palestinians are still living the Nakba – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

This is compounded by the fact that the Palestinian Authority, through its passivity and failure to play its role in confronting the aggression, has lost much of its popularity and credibility. This has, unfortunately, got worse with its continued failure to implement the Beijing and Moscow agreements to open the way for reconciliation and national unity.

Israel, its government and opposition alike, is not willing to make peace or offer any compromises for the Palestinian people.

It has only one objective: permanent occupation, which means more settlements, annexation and Judaisation.

This project has forever destroyed the Oslo Accords in all but name, and Israel has proven that it only understands the language of force. The most dangerous fact that has come to light is that the ruling regime and the majority of the Israeli population are moving towards fascism in its worst forms.

Watching all of this is the US, which has never been, and never will be, an honest broker for peace, a mediator or a neutral party when it comes to Israel. Its bias is absolute, and without its unlimited military, financial and political support, the war being waged by the occupation state would not have lasted a month.

Given the severity of the killing and destruction in Gaza (and now the occupied West Bank), it is necessary to continue to put pressure the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court to issue their rulings and arrest warrants. I venture to suggest that many Western countries that supported Israel with weapons and missiles have unpleasant surprises in store for them when the International Court of Justice issues its ruling that what happened in Gaza is definitely a genocide.

Israel has failed and will continue to fail, despite the brutality of its war, to achieve its goals. It has not and will not be able to uproot the Palestinian resistance; it has not and m, will not succeed in its ethnic cleansing; and it has not and will not succeed in enforcing its domination and control or breaking the will of the Palestinian people who remain and will remain determined to achieve their freedom.

The ongoing conflict is not about small issues and details, such as the Salah Al-Din (Philadelphi) Corridor that has become Netanyahu’s boring talking point. It is about ending the occupation, settlements, the apartheid system and the whole Zionist settler-colonial system. It is the struggle of a people who will not stop seeking freedom, dignity, their right to self-determination and a just peace.

However, the greatest Palestinian weakness is the internal division. The victory of the Palestinian people in their just struggle is conditional upon building a unified national leadership with an agenda for a struggle that resists the plan to liquidate the Palestinian cause.

That struggle, as Nelson Mandela predicted, has become the symbol of the entire global struggle for freedom and justice.

Palestine has become the leading human justice issue of our time, and it is mobilising youth forces and efforts across the world, including the US, not only against the Israeli occupation and the crime of genocide, but also in the cause of global human and social justice.

There is much to be written and said on the brink of the first anniversary of the genocidal war, but most of it will not come close to presenting the full picture of the heroism and steadfastness of a nation that has become an unparalleled icon of human values and the steadfastness, and of the struggle of all oppressed nations.