Nesrine Malik has a powerful article in the Guardian this morning in which she discusses the normalisation of the genocide in Gaza, as represented by the multiple standing ovations in the US Congress for Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu last week.
As she notes:
[This normalisation] looks like accepting that there are certain groups of people who can be killed. That it is, in fact, reasonable and necessary that they should die in order to maintain a political system that is built on the inequality of human life. This is what the philosopher Achille Mbembe calls “necropolitics” – the exercising of power to dictate how some people live and how others must die.
Necropolitics creates “deathworlds” where there are “new and unique forms of social existence in which vast populations are subjected to living conditions that confer upon them the status of the living dead”. In those deathworlds the killing of others, and the destruction of their habitat through epic military capabilities whose impact is never experienced by the citizens of the countriesresponsible, confer even more value on the humanity of those in the “civilised” west. They are exempt because they are good, not because they are strong. Palestinians die because they are bad, not because they are weak.
And as she concludes:
The result is a world that feels as if it's in the jarring middle of that transition. Where political events move forward with speed, folding Gaza into the normal. ...
What world emerges after this? The war on Gaza is simply too big, too live, too relentless for its forced normalisation to occur without unintended consequences. The end result is all of humanity degraded; the end result is a world in which when the call comes to aid people in need, no one will be capable of heeding it.
Why refer to this, apart from highlighting the obvious quality of Nesrine Malik's thinking, writing and humanity?
I had four reactions. First, that I am not mad to not accept this situation. None of us should.
Second, my revulsion at Netanyahu's reception is justified.
Third, that this is how fascists work. They want us to accept that the elimination of the ‘other' is normal when in reality it is not just abhorrent; it is also a crime.
And fourth, we need to shout about this. So I am.
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“Dead-in-the-Water Starmer will soon be appointing a task force or commission to consider whether it really is genocide!
Perhaps also worth reading is an article in Aljazeera, Gaza is the fate of humanity. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/7/28/gaza-is-the-fate-of-humanity
Thank you and well said, Richard.
I am surprised by how long this story has taken to get an airing. I mentioned it last week in a reply.
UK, EU and NATO officials attended the speech, endorsing Netanyahu’s sentiments.
The rest of the world is aghast at western duplicity and getting on with measures to promote multipolarity, developments the MSM don’t want westerners to hear about. Increasingly, the west means dispossession, death and destruction. What did Gandhi say about western civilisation?
Netanyahu has had a tame uncritical audience for years. The Republican Senators and Congress people were keen to be seen by their constituents applauding him but a number stayed away and there were protests outside. Described as ‘anti-Semitic’ but i don’t think many accept this any more.
Polls tell us young people in the US and elsewhere are less likely to buy the ‘stand by Israel’ line. The religious justification for that is without foundation and has less traction with the young.
In Feb we heard that hundreds of EU, UK and US officials signed a letter saying their countries were in grave danger of complicity in war crimes. This, as far as I know, is unprecedented in modern times. I think we assume there are many more who won’t speak out. We have not been allowed to see the letter.
People who have no knowledge of the history are seeing-nightly- further death and destruction. The politicians and media don’t reflect the view of many people. I won’t exaggerate the importance of Labour refusing to object to the ICC indictment of Netanyahu but it is a step.
The ice sheets of public opinion are beginning to break. Sometimes it takes an age but at others, it can happen quickly. It needs courageous people to lead. Often they appear as if from nowhere.
this was in May https://www.map.org.uk/news/archive/post/1585-new-poll-shows-sustained-british-public-support-for-immediate-ceasefire-in-gaza-and-the-suspension-of-uk-arms-sales-to-israel