Since October 7, 2023, Gaza, Palestine, has seen a horrific bombardment at the hands of the Israeli government, the likes of which we have not been able to see until recently. I want to emphasize my phrasing: the Israeli government. To blame an entire group of people for the actions of their leader is abhorrent and is something I want to explore today. Generalizing an entire population is how situations like this occur in the first place. It is one thing to comment on political parties, as political parties are based on a set of beliefs, but entire populations are another thing. Throughout this article, I will be doing my best to use exact numbers rather than rounded ones when it comes to human lives, though in some occasions, there are too many lives affected or lost to have a concrete number, so we only have an estimate.

On October 7, a political and military government group by the name of Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya, better known as Hamas, launched an attack on the state of Israel from their headquarters in the Gaza Strip. They attacked by land, sea, and sky, killing 1,139 people and taking 252 hostages from Israel.

Israel is known as the “Jewish homeland,” this title coming to fruition in 1948 following World War II in what should belong to Palestine. A Palestine that was already very much lived in. The people of Palestine immediately stood their ground, upset with their land being given away without any say in the future of their own country. Around 530 Palestinian villages were decimated by Israeli forces using tactics such as on-ground sieges, bombings, and even biological warfare. Israeli forces displaced an estimated 750,000 Palestinians, leaving them with nowhere to go, and killed 13,000 – 15,000. This is called the Nakba by Palestinians, meaning “the catastrophe.” The Nakba marked the beginning of Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and despite what some may say, it has never truly stopped. Israel has not stopped killing the people of Palestine and has been shrinking the land of Palestine with the goal of one day eradicating it.

Israel is founded on the beliefs of Zionism. Zionism is a Jewish nationalist movement focused on establishing a Jewish nation in Palestine, as it is believed to be their ancient homeland. Zionism came to fruition because of rising rates of anti-Semitism in Europe, leading to Jewish nationalists asserting their need for a Jewish state. Following the atrocities committed against Jewish people during the Holocaust, Zionism became widely accepted, leading to the establishment of Israel. Zionism has led Israel to become a “Jews only” state, with Judaism being considered an ethno-religion.

What many people do not seem to understand is that the establishment of a solely Jewish state is in the same vein as establishing America as a white Christian only country.

I highly recommend this article published by Yoav Litvin, an Israeli-American journalist, where he dives into the racist, colonial, white supremacy-ridden history of Zionism. Zionism is an ideology with the goal of ethnically cleansing the whole of what remains of Palestine, a largely Muslim and Arabic population, and establishing a white settler state, weaponizing the Jewish identity to excuse the genocide of the people of Palestine. Zionism is not Judaism; Judaism is not Zionism. Zionism was never about the safety of Jewish people; if it were, then the ideology would be focused on integrating global Jewish acceptance.

Instead, it isolates Jewish people, weeding out anyone who is not Jewish, thus eradicating any diversity in their culture and establishing racial supremacy. If Zionism was about Judaism, black Jewish people wouldn’t be denied recognition by Israeli authorities. It has been and always will be white supremacy, utilizing a minoritized community as its shield against criticism. Because of this shield, anti-Zionism is classified as anti-Semitism, despite that connection being simply untrue. Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism; it is resistance to apartheid and colonialism. It is important that we separate these facts, as anti-Zionism has nothing to do with the Jewish people or faith but rather resistance against white supremacy. Zionism has been used as an excuse by so many to encourage the execution of Palestinian civilians. Civilians who just want their homes back and to live a life free of fear of being attacked. It deeply saddens me to see Israeli officials use the prosecution of Jewish people to commit atrocities instead of actively campaigning for Jewish acceptance. They say Israeli acceptance is Jewish acceptance, and Israeli opposition is Jewish opposition, but Israel does not speak for Jewish people. Jewish people speak for Jewish people. And Jewish people are actively opposing Israel’s prosecution and occupation of Palestine.

Since the Hamas attack of the people of Israel on October 7, Israel has been ruthlessly bombing Gaza, the most heavily populated part of Palestine. Israel has cut off Gaza’s water supply, food access, electricity, medical necessities, and more. Any attempt made to provide aid to Gazans is met with the wrath of Israel. In a recent article by the United Nations from May 8, 70% of all hospitals in Gaza are not functional, the remaining ones are barely able to be labeled as functional, 1.7 million people have been displaced, and 1.1 million people have been predicted to face “catastrophic” hunger.

But here’s the most horrific part:

A minimum of 35,034 Palestinians have been killed, 78,755 injured, and more than 10,000 missing under the rubble or taken hostage by Israeli authorities. Due to the lack of aid given to Gaza and the destruction of their home country, the few remaining hospitals are packed full of dying people, bleeding out on the already blood-smeared floors, with nowhere close to enough doctors left alive to save them. Amputations are performed without anesthesia and there is not a single bed open for such procedures. Every hour, 15 people are killed, six of whom are children. That is one person every four minutes and one child every 10 minutes. These people include journalists, medical professionals, and aid workers. The scenes coming from Gaza are horrifying and stomach-churning, with mass graves of Palestinians being found bound and beheaded.

So, why do I tell you all of this? What conversation is there to be had?

A conversation of ethics.

Every time people talk about the horrid conditions in Gaza caused by Israeli forces, there are many people who say that Israel is justified in their horrific slaughter. To think people can see the nauseating images coming from Palestine and still continue to support the actions of Israel truly makes me sick. If this has taught me anything, it is that every single time you believe it cannot get worse, it can. It can, and it does. Over and over again, it does. I will not describe what I have seen; there are no words to describe what is happening as I type this. If you think what you see online is bad, do not forget the tens of thousands of brutalizations that we have not seen. The tens of thousands that were not caught on video. The people who were brutalized so much that we cannot even recognize a single feature on what used to be their beautiful faces. Silence is violence. Choosing to leave words unspoken, to leave your voice unaccounted for, is the reason these deaths climb higher and higher. The reason voices under the rubble slowly fade into nothing. The reason a mother buries her child.

The main part of people supporting this genocide that I do not understand is their explanations. We need people to think about this from a humanitarian perspective. Yes, the Palestinian people elected Hamas, and Israel claims their attacks are against Hamas and thus the fault of the Palestinian people. But what people cannot seem to understand is that groups like Hamas get into power because their demographic is fearful and vulnerable. Of course Palestinians will choose a group who vowed to fight for them. Regardless of whether you believe Hamas is good or bad, we have to realize they are a product of the Israeli occupation. They are retaliating, and Israel responds with ten times more power to shut them up. To say groups like these aren’t products of their conditions is like saying The Boston Tea Party happened because Americans felt like it.

Hamas was created 39 years after Israel began its persecution of the Palestinians, I feel like that’s proof enough that this is not a war against Hamas, because their hostility towards Palestinian came long before they had an excuse. Hamas used the fears and vulnerabilities of the Palestinian people inflicted by Israel to get into power. The Palestinian people thought Hamas would bring them peace. Hitler did the same thing to get into power. He took advantage of the Germans’ fears following World War I, promising he would lead Germany to prosperity once more. But when he got into power, he did not do that. Hamas promised Palestinians that they would help them out of their dire situation, but this only led to further harm. This is not to equate Hamas to the Nazi regime either, because every political leader makes deliberate decisions when swaying the opinion of their people. For Biden to get elected, he utilized the fear American minority groups were facing, assuring them he would protect them. Trump did the same with the fears Conservatives had around Biden’s “progressive” movements.

This has always been how powerful groups get into power, they utilize the struggle of their people, for good or bad. Hamas should not be a conversation of good or evil, it should be a conversation on why they had to even form in the first place. So many people will bring up children being taught to fire a gun, but how do we not realize why they have to teach children that? We need to stop blaming groups of people without considering the conditions that created them in the first place. The whole reason I bring a comparison to Hitler into the equation is not because I equate Hamas to Nazism, but because it’s so easy to forget how these things happen.

We pity the Germans who were so desperate they elected a leader like Hitler, thinking he would help. But where is that sentiment for Palestinians? They elected someone they thought would help. Whether you believe Hamas’ actions are good or evil, you cannot say that the people who elected them are the same. Hamas promised to protect Palestinians, and they acted on that vow just as they said they would.

Let’s say you are an American. You vote for a president who you believe will do good for your country. Instead, the actions of this leader lead to your country being attacked. Because of the actions of the leader you thought would do good, your entire family is dead. Did your family deserve to die because of the actions of your president? People assert that the opposing country attacked America in self-defense, but your family is dead for something you had no say in.

If your mom were killed in this attack, you would be inconsolable. Her life was lost for something she did not do. Everyone around you says you need to stop crying because the country acted in self-defense, but your mother is still dead. It does not matter if it was self-defense; she was not the one who committed the crime, and she should not be dead. Civilians should never be on the table for slaughter.

If you were killed because of the actions of your government, would you deserve to die? The answer should obviously be no. No one deserves to die because they made a decision they thought would do good but instead backfired.

So by extension, do the Palestinian people deserve to die because of the actions of Hamas?

No. Of course, they do not. They did not do anything but put their trust in the hands of the wrong people. Palestinians are not Hamas; why are we still allowing them to be slaughtered with no end in sight?

I firmly believe that anyone who claims it is self-defense for Israel to kill thousands of civilians is just racist. Racism is not always blatant. Someone who is anti-racist can still be racist. This usually manifests as prioritizing white countries over non-white ones. They have an unconscious disregard for people of color who are suffering.

Killing people who are in no way involved with a conflict and claiming self-defense is not self-defense. It is murder, plain and simple.

Furthermore, if killing a murderer is still legally murder, then how is retaliation against civilians in war also not murder? It makes no sense; people just have a blatant disregard for human life. Why do we believe it is okay to take the life of someone who has nothing to do with the war at hand?

That is not to say murderers deserve respect or anything of the sort; I am just pointing out the hypocrisy in these laws. Where is the line drawn? When does someone go from being a human to being collateral damage? When does it become socially acceptable to kill?

Governments should never, and I mean never, have the choice of who lives or dies, because once we give them that power, they can throw anyone into the category of those who deserve death if they are against the government’sbeliefs.

I know there is no world where it is possible for us not to kill. I know there is no world where war will not happen. But I am not going to let that change my morals.

As soon as we give people the authority to kill, we are automatically signing away the lives of anyone they deem a danger. And not everyone views danger the same way. When we give people the power to choose who lives or dies, we are destined to come face-to-face with the slaughter of the innocent.

I’m not saying I think murderers or rapists deserve anything good let alone mercy, but I am saying that those in power get to choose who falls under those categories. When people in power think abortion is murder, we can kill people who get abortions. When people in power think every queer person is a predator, we can kill every queer person.

Until we live in a world where people who see human life as dismissable do not exist, we cannot sign over souls to people who cannot be trusted with them. Since that day will never come, we need to ban the acceptance of using civilians as collateral damage. There is no world where killing civilians is necessary, and there never will be one. A human life, like the lives of those in Gaza, are not dispensable. They are no less valuable than American citizens or citizens of Israel. It is deplorable that we condemn the Palestinian government for killing Israeli civilians but do not give the same energy back to Israel. The fact of the matter is that civilians should not be involved in the first place. If Americans were being killed right now because a country decided to attack us after we attacked them, the world would outcry for our right to life. But since Palestinians are not white nor Christian, we blame them for their own demise.

America, how dark does someone’s skin have to be for us to start punishing them for actions they did not commit? How slanted their eyes? How heavy their accent? When do humans become collateral damage? When is their personhood stripped from them?