It is often said that Israel’s war on Gaza is the first live-streamed genocide. Hind Rajab’s tragic final pleas and breaths were broadcast across the internet for all to hear. Israeli soldiers proudly post videos of their atrocities and destruction on TikTok. Brave Palestinians have built massive social media followings, as viewers log on every day to witness their hunger, displacement, and terror. More people around the world have been exposed to near real-time, graphic images of killings and starvation than ever in history.
What is not unique about the genocide in Gaza is that world leaders — the only people with the means to stop it — have known about Israel’s actions, and its intentions, since day one. And they have done close to nothing to stop it.
The pleas of starving people, images of emaciated bodies, the dehumanization on which such cruelty and suffering is built remind me of the writings, images, and experiences of Jews whom the Nazis imprisoned and starved in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. My mother was one of those people, a small child at the time, thrown into ever-increasingly crowded spaces with less and less food by the week.
