Israel’s message was not for Palestinians but for us in the West

Clad in military fatigues, Daniel Hagari, head of the IDF spokesperson’s unit, issued an urgent advisory for all residents in northern Gaza and Gaza City to “temporarily” relocate south.

This was, he insisted, “for your own safety” ahead of escalating violence in the area – a seemingly sincere plea if not for two issues. To begin with, the message is delivered in English, a language that, unlike Arabic, not all Palestinians can understand.

Secondly, this video was posted as internet access and telecommunications in Gaza were deliberately cut, leaving people there unable to communicate with each other or the outside world.

Accessing a post on Twitter would have been impossible. That video wasn’t posted for the benefit of Palestinian civilians. It was for you.

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The photographs and broadcast images of Gaza’s murdered children and obliterated communities stand bleakly in opposition to the claims of the state of Israel that it is not targeting civilian populations. In turn they have pushed millions around the world to march in support of a ceasefire and to turn their anger on to the representatives who offered unequivocal support for the actions of a genocidal military apparatus in their names.

That video was for you, because Israel is losing the public relations war in the West – and now it desperately seeks to regain control of the story.

Through its actions in Palestine, Netanyahu’s government has done more than destroy the passive narrative of “self-defence” that had wriggled into mainstream acceptance.

The unflinching violence has caused exceptional hurt in many Jewish communities around the world, too. Having been raised on Zionist myths of a promised homeland, they are now struggling to understand themselves and their identities as news of what is actually happening in Gaza spreads.

Many are speaking, loudly, in support of a ceasefire and against Zionism, something that is, it must be repeated, a political philosophy entirely distinct from Judaism.

It is imperative that we all continue to speak out about Palestine – because it is having a very real effect on the state of things in the United Kingdom.

Whereas Labour leader Keir Starmer was at one point unapologetically in support of Israel’s alleged “right” to impose the war crime of collective punishment on the people of Palestine, internal and external pressure has now pressed him into murkier waters, where he both did and did not say that Israel had the right to cut off food and water to Gaza; where Labour’s position is that the state of Israel both does and does not have the right to act outwith international law.

It is a fence-sitting for the ages. With further pressure, perhaps he’ll decide to climb down.

Rishi Sunak and his government, however, remains committed to defending Israel’s actions. The UK’s abstention on a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza is a mark of shame for Britain that will never wash away.

It is the reason that speaking up on Palestine is a moral imperative for all who live on these islands, lest we give any credence to the idea that Sunak and the Conservatives speak for us. Hundreds of thousands have marched in opposition to this government’s indifference, and must march again as the atrocities worsen.

This mass awakening has left many previously assured defenders of Israel’s occupation and apartheid scrambling for any cheap political defence they can latch onto. As a queer person, I’ve been challenged to go to Gaza myself, if I care so much.

The implication here is that I would be treated poorly because of my sexual orientation or status as a trans person. Setting aside for a second that Britain itself isn’t exactly a great place for LGBTQ+ people either at the moment, the idea that one’s opposition to ethnic cleansing or genocide should be so spurious as to vanish the moment it is revealed that some people affected are homophobic is crass in the extreme.

Perhaps if those sharing such asinine perspectives actually cared about the lives of LGBTQ+ people, they would also be concerned about the queer and trans Palestinians lying beneath the rubble in Gaza.

There will be no return to the way things were before – not for Hamas nor for Israel. The actions of both have woken much of the world to the grim reality for Palestinians living and dying under the occupation.

I suspect many will be re-evaluating still what they believed until that moment when everything changed. That will be a painful journey.

But still, we must speak up.