Don’t pretend you can’t see Gaza suffering

I don’t remember when I started following Wissam Nassar on Instagram, but I remember this photo. It was taken after the 2014 Gaza war, a war that frankly I don’t remember. I am only a casual observer of Israel and Palestine. The flare-ups all bleed together in my memory. It’s a luxury we Americans have. 

But this photo embedded itself in my memory. Nassar has a gift of showing the humanity of Palestinians while not shying away from the inhumanity the State of Israel subjects them to. The house’s walls have been blown out, but the children still need a bath. In that rubble, a man has cleaned the bathtub and found clean water and soap. The little boy is stealing a moment of childhood joy, playing with the bubbles in his hair, while the man is carefully pouring water over the little girl’s head. It speaks to the care this man has for these children. I had assumed he was their father, but in the time since Hamas launched its October 7, 2023 attack and Israel began retaliating with ruthless attacks against civilian targets, I’ve seen through Nassar’s lens countless parents losing children and children losing parents, and families reforming from the remaining survivors. The man could be an uncle, cousin, neighbor, or family friend. What matters is he cares enough about the children to make sure they’re clean.

Through Nassar’s feed, I’ve seen so many lifeless bodies. A man kissing a tiny lifeless foot. Bodies wrapped in white cloth. Men pulling limp, dust-covered bodies out of the rubble. And so much grief. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, wailing over lifeless bundles. Digging through rubble, hoping to find a body with some life left. Running with a limp body in their arms to find medical care, hoping against hope it’ll make a difference. And the aftermath: Holding up pictures to the camera, asking us to see, to really see, who they’ve lost. Pictures of children playing dress-up, couples at their weddings, grandparents doting on their grandchildren. 

Then the camera returns to the present. Cities and homes reduced to rubble. Children standing in a food line. Families sharing food that’s barely enough to feed one. People saying they need to go get food because the bombing has slowed, with the same tone we use to say the roads are clear of snow. 

It feels like everyone must be seeing this. For me, it’s been ubiquitous. So how could they not? 

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But if other people have been seeing the onslaught, how could they possibly continue arming Israel? How could Sen. Tammy Baldwin ignore the voices of voters and vote against Sen. Bernie Sanders’ bill ordering the State Department to investigate Israel’s alleged human rights abuses? The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 says that “no security assistance may be provided to any country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” So legally, we need to investigate. But also morally, if our ally is committing war crimes, and we have the power to stop them by cutting off access to weapons, we would want to do that right? Right?

(And yes, Sen. Ron Johnson also voted to table Sanders’ bill, but is anyone surprised? Republicans know where their bread is buttered and it's with Evangelicals who believe that Jews returning to Israel is prophesied to begin the end times. Plus the only time they really care about human rights abuses is when the abuser is blocking America’s interests—namely making money.)

Of course I’m not condoning Hamas’ killing of Israeli civilians or its hostage-taking. It’s absurd that I feel I have to explicitly say so. Condemning one party’s brutality is not equivalent to condoning another’s. Conflating the two, as well as conflating any criticism of the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians with antisemitism, isn’t productive for anyone. But that’s the point, isn’t it. If it weren’t for the current violence, memories of past violence, and threats of future violence, what would Benjamin Netanyahu, who is currently on trial for felony corruption charges, have to offer Israeli voters? How could Hamas justify its ongoing unelected position in Palestine if Palestinians could access their rights as citizens, as humans, and have hope for the future? 

In a recent episode of On The Media by WNYC Studios, Oren Persico, a staff writer at an Israeli investigative magazine, says that because the Israeli government won’t allow broadcasters to show the damage in Gaza, “Israel is still very much on Oct. 7.” U.S. corporate media is not much better, but there are too many cracks in the veneer for us to feign ignorance. Especially since South Africa released its 84-page application for the International Criminal Court laying out the case that Israel is committing war crimes. 

When the fog of war passes, and the blinders of unquestioned loyalty to Israel come off, what do the people in power think they’ll see? Maybe they’ll never take the blinders off, the way Turkey has never acknowledge the Armenian genocide, or the Chinese Communist Party has buried the Tiananmen Square killings, at least in Mainland China. 

While denial is comforting, it won’t change the growing rift, particularly between older politicians operating under the old reflexive support of Israel, and (mostly) younger people seeing with their own eyes what is happening in Gaza. We are seeing them not only refuse to act to stop a genocide but enabling it to continue. Every day they refuse to act, they are using taxpayer dollars to put bullets in chambers, and rockets in launchers. And we won’t forget.