It’s been a long time coming but finally some in the media are waking up to the horror of Israel’s destruction of Gaza.
A Guardian headline this week referred to Gaza as ‘A wasteland of rubble, dust and graves’ with images from the sky showing the catastrophic level of destruction wrought by Israel. The article described the strip as resembling the ‘the ruins of an ancient civilisation’ and continued to explain that unlike an ancient civilisation, Gaza was ‘not buried under volcanic ash, not erased by history, but razed by an Israeli military campaign that has left behind a place that looks like the aftermath of an apocalypse.’ The report also acknowledges that 230 Palestinian reporters have lost their lives reporting from Gaza, while foreign journalists have been denied access to the ‘war zone’.
This Guardian article was published the day after an ITV news report on the same theme, which had similarly devastating footage. Reporter Emma Murphy shockingly pointed out that Gaza has had more explosives dropped on it than Dresden, Hamburg and London in WW2 put together. Remember Gaza is just 25 miles long and six miles wide, a quarter the size of London. Murphy concluded her report by saying ‘This landscape of destruction looks otherworldy, but it’s not, it’s this world – What is happening may come to define one of its darkest eras, one that casts a stain on humanity, which will endure for generations.’
Along with images of emaciated children this recent footage of a destroyed land has made the compliant media establishment sit up. It has also helped change the tone from some politicians, even Trump was forced to acknowledge there is ‘real starvation in Gaza’.
Pressure to end Israel’s war on Gaza is increasing internationally, and significantly in Israel itself. B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights organisation described what is happening in Gaza as genocide. A group of 600 retired Israeli security officials, some of them former heads of Israel’s intelligence agencies, have written to the US President stating that Hamas is not ‘a strategic threat to Israel’ and that the war should be ended. Aid drops have been used in an attempt to silence the critics nationally and internationally yet everyone know they are no answer, and the genocide continues, the bombing goes on, malnutrition is on the rise and more and more are dying from starvation. Meanwhile Netanyahu is contemplating expanding the devastation further.
That Netanyahu delayed his decision on a new escalation is an indication of the pressure he is under. Polls around the world show that Israel is increasingly viewed negatively by the public and politicians are under pressure to represent the growing anger at their inaction in the face of the scenes being broadcast on our tv screens.
Keir Starmer and David Lammy claim to be shocked by images of starving children yet, as reported in The Times the British military has confirmed the ‘RAF are still carrying out surveillance flights over Gaza for Israel’ and have been doing so since December 2023. Britain continues to sell arms to Israel, to trade with and have diplomatic relations with the genocidal state.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper called the images coming out of Gaza devastating, yet she continues to criminalise our peaceful protests and to make it difficult to demonstrate. But we refuse to be silenced.
Images of mother’s holding dying, emaciated children, scenes of a post-apocalyptic wasteland, footage of aid workers running for cover from Israeli bullets at distribution centres have resulted in an outrage strangely absent over the preceding 22 months. It has taken starved babies to get to this point, but we are here at last, and this groundswell of outrage must now translate into political action. Those who fail to stand up against this crime against humanity, this crime of our age, will be stained by their complicity.
This Saturday, 9 August, the Palestine coalition will be marching in London to once again demand our government act. Words are not enough. Please join us.