The war on Gaza will end but Israel’s crimes will never be forgotten

The genocide that Israel is committing against the Palestinian people will come to an end.

Over time, the Palestinian people will recover. 

It is a painful war – tens of thousands of children and women have been burned by Israel’s war machine. 

They were killed simply because they were Palestinian. They were killed because they lived in Gaza. They were killed because there is a state that kills for the sake of killing.

But in the end, the Palestinian people will remain deeply rooted in this land – not because it is the best place to live, but because it is their homeland.

Yet this is only one side of the story. 

The other side is that Israel is the perpetrator of this crime – the Israeli state, its military, allies, and all who remain silent about its actions.

The Israeli army goes out to kill under explicit orders to kill and destroy. And the majority of Israeli society celebrates this madness.

‘Silence is a crime’

The few Israelis who oppose the genocide in Gaza are a small minority.

Most of those who oppose this genocide do so primarily from strategic, rather than moral, considerations. If Israel could achieve its goals through this genocide, many of them would likely accept it.

We, the Palestinians, need support, we need backing, and we need advocacy – but we do not need pity

There are very few voices – perhaps fewer than the number of Palestinian victims – who reject this massacre on moral and humanitarian grounds. 

Pointing to Gideon Levy and a handful of others does not amount to meaningful opposition to genocide. Even the presence of a few principled voices cannot erase the cheering, silence and complicity of the majority. 

The world may otherwise offer us sympathy, statements, and tears – but none of that will stop the killing. We, the Palestinians, need support, we need backing, and we need advocacy – but we do not need pity.

Israelis must understand that this is genocide, and genocide has no statute of limitations.

Israel claims to act in the name of the Jewish people – it raises a giant menorah over Gaza, carves the Star of David into the land it destroys, installs synagogues and mezuzot inside refugee camps, and blasts Hanukkah songs from mosque loudspeakers.

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These acts are deliberate. They are meant to show that this violence is carried out in the name of Jews.

In doing so, Israel implicates not only those who carry out the killing but also those who support it, remain silent, or fail to resist.

Participation is a crime. Support is a crime. Silence is a crime. Failing to act to stop it is a crime. This is a higher moral law – one that the overwhelming majority of Israeli society has yet to confront.

Genocidal culture

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has succeeded in cultivating a different kind of culture.

This culture legitimises genocide and ethnic cleansing to achieve political goals, a culture that justifies starvation and the destruction of mosques, roads, schools and hospitals. A culture that normalises racism in its ugliest form – and permits it only against the “goyim”.

More than that, Netanyahu is using genocide and ethnic cleansing to achieve personal goals in internal political struggles.

And why not? Palestinian blood is cheap and readily available – it can serve as his lifeline, rescuing him from his internal crisis and prolonging his reign as the “King of Israel”.

But while Palestinians pay a painful price in the present, Israelis will pay the price in their future – many times over.

The curse of genocide will haunt them for generations to come, following them across the world.

A time will come when there is no Donald Trump to legitimise genocide, no European leaders to remain silent about it, and no Arab rulers to bow before its brutality.

That time will come sooner than Israelis expect. And when it does, genocide will be placed in its rightful context – as the gravest crime that no passage of time can erase.

The war will end, but the genocide will not end in the memory of history, nor in its eternal curse.

The war will end, but the punishment of the criminals will not. The war will end, but the Palestinian people will not. The war will end, but humanity, with its values and ethics, will endure.

And Palestinians will remain – both as martyrs and as witnesses – to a state that has lost its morals and its very humanity.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.