In the last few weeks, the genocide in Gaza has been framed as a problem of starvation. From global leaders to social media influencers to celebrities, everyone seems to have woken up to ‘what is happening in Gaza.’ And for some reason the word ‘starvation’ seems easier to say than genocide.
Though the Israeli government continues to deny Western media access to Gaza, in the last few weeks mainstream publications that have worked painstakingly hard to ignore the genocide and to parrot Israeli talking points, have begun to present well-researched stories in collaboration with journalists on the ground in Gaza. Suddenly, they have found their voices. And at least, they have found a way to talk about hunger.
It turns out that the problem all along has been the people of Gaza weren’t dying from hunger. Now that they are, we can talk about ‘what is happening in Gaza.’
The word ‘starvation’ seems easier to say than ‘genocide’
Apparently, the sight of a malnourished and impoverished child is far more powerful than the other images we have seen for twenty-two months. Visual evidence of Israeli soldiers harming children in unspeakable ways, proof that they have buried paramedics, and bombed schools, images showing them attacking hospitals, food shelters and safe zones — all of these were insufficient to cause the outright condemnation we are now witnessing.
Having provided the military parts, taxpayer funds and moral cover for the Israeli government to conduct its genocide with impunity, we are now witnessing a mass incident of hand-wringing that is nothing short of opportunism. The starving children offer an opportunity for the West to morally distance itself from Israel, even as its leaders refuse to sanction its leaders and stop providing it with arms.
Horror for likes
But make no mistake: Western horror over Gaza’s starvation has nothing to do with people of Gaza and has eve less to do with Palestinian liberation. Instead, the rhetoric that is being deployed in the last few weeks - by leaders and influencers alike - has largely been self-regarding, self-centred, self-indulgent. Horror for likes, the genocide as clickable, shareable, viral.
To be sure there are voices of genuine solidarity, and true expressions of empathetic grief by many people, but for the most part those with power and influence who are engaged in new acts of speaking out, have done so in ways that are deeply problematic.
As Palestinian writer Hanan Habashi writes, “there is a thin line between offering help and humiliating the very people you claim to stand with.” It is vitally important that none of us look away. It is just as important that we do not offer support that strips Palestinians of dignity.
Support must not strip Palestinians from dignity
As Habashi notes, Westerners have turned the people of Gaza into, “objects of pity,” and have made the “entire identity”… of Palestinians… “into their suffering as if they are their pain, as if their worth is defined solely by their conditions.”
The images that have moved the world rightly evoke horror. But they are especially persuasive because Western sympathy is always contingent on pity. And as those of us from the Global South know, the pitied object cannot speak back, cannot offer insight or clarity, nor can the object of pity point a finger at those who have been the architects of its misery.
White saviours
After years of vilification and demonisation, Westerners find it almost impossible to see Arabs and Muslims as people with inner lives and a shared humanity. For Palestinians to be redeemed; to be seen by Westerners; they must be transformed into objects of pity.
Until now the West has believed Israel’s lie that the bogeyman of Hamas lived in the rubble, and in the hospitals and even in the flimsy tents. The starvation of Gaza pierces the lie. Still, it allows Palestinians to hover in the realm of subordinates.
The children of Gaza are ‘perfect’ victims. Finally. Having been so imperfect for so long, it is telling that the only Muslims Westerners can feel for are dying of starvation.
This is one of the most glaring lessons of the genocide. When we hear pleas to feed the starving children of Gaza, we must understand that Westerners are not asking for justice for the people of Palestine --- they are marshalling pity. And soon enough, pity runs out. And when the pity has run out, and the West has turned its attention elsewhere, if Palestine is not free, it will once again be at the mercy of Western feelings.
For now, the pity of Westerners is fuelling an increase in saviours. From the leaders of UK, Canada and Australia who are suddenly playing ‘leading roles’ in calling for Israel to feed the kids, to the Instagram influencers who are doing the same; white saviours are motivated by a sense of their own superiority. How dare they act as though they have been on the right side all along?
Saviours are not interested in listening
Saviours want to talk about how terrible they feel about the baby formula that is not being delivered but they don’t want to call Israel an apartheid state. Saviours want to talk but they are not interested in listening. Saviours want to impose convenient solutions, they are transactional – providing food, giving money.
The new Western obsession with Palestinian statehood must be understood in this context. As Palestinian photographer and writer Sarik Khader recently posted, “I do not need a Western country’s recognition of my homeland. It holds no meaning for me. ‘Recognition’ does not suddenly validate our existence – we have always been here. We are not made legitimate by the gestures of states that for decades have denied our very presence – while funding, arming and shielding those who have erased us.”
It’s ridiculous to think that countries that have facilitated the starvation they now decry have any authority to determine what a future Palestinian state will look like, who will participate in it, who must be excluded from it, and how it will function. It is impossible to take any of this seriously and yet we must take it very seriously. Western saviours are the most dangerous people on the planet.
Telling the truth
The task ahead now is as clear as it has been since 1948. The Israeli occupation must end, and for this to happen Israel must be recognised as a pariah state.
The task for the media that is now so interested in broadcasting Palestinians in pain, is to turn some of its energy to reporting on Israeli actions. The media must interview Palestinian experts, highlight activists and build a picture that tells the truth about Palestinian views about the future.
They must tell us how many Palestinian hostages are held in Israeli prisons. What are the conditions in which they live? There are many reports they can use to examine these issues. They can use their skills to ask questions about Israeli society and how it functions as an apartheid state? They can investigate why so much American taxpayer money goes to Israel and who benefits?
And for the influencers who are newly horrified, the task ahead is to use their clout to advocate for boycotting Israel in arts and culture, and to call for sanctions not just on the worst leaders but all government officials.
The steps are the same as those that ended South African apartheid
As always, I write these words as a South African, thinking about the shared connection I have with Palestinian people everywhere. This week I found an old flyer from Ireland in 1986, calling for a month of boycotts against South African goods. I’ve printed it below.
The steps needed to end Israeli apartheid today are no different from the steps people around the world took to end South African apartheid. To be sure, the Israeli occupation has lasted far longer in Palestine and the scale of violence is exponentially higher. Still, the blueprint for a just and moral struggle – which the Palestinians have waged for so long – remains the same. As Nelson Mandela once said, “It seems impossible until it is done.” The genocide and the occupation will end when the pressure on Israel is too much to resist. And so, the pressure must continue.
Free Palestine.
Sisonke Msimang is a South African writer, activist and political analyst. Msimang delivered the inaugural ZAM Nelson Mandela Lecture in 2019 in Amsterdam. For a subscription to her weekly posts on Substack, click here.
