Dear All,

What Israel’s war on the Palestinians and the Western world’s reaction to it have revealed quite clearly is that­– to paraphrase Orwell – all humans are equal but some are more equal than others.

In other words, some communities are considered to be lesser beings, some human lives are worthless. The Western powers have reacted to the killing of Palestinians in a manner that is, frankly, disgraceful. Despite the fact that Gaza is in ruins, its universities and hospitals destroyed, its doctors, professors, poets, athletes and journalists murdered, its children maimed, starved and orphaned, Western powers like the US, the UK, Germany et al respond to every new horror with the refrain “Israel has the right to defend itself.” This stance – that Israel is the victim and merely acting in self-defence against haters– has reinforced the subtext that these haters are Muslims and Muslims are evil and dangerous.

This is basically the message that has been reinforced, repeatedly, over the past ten months. The message is that Israel is defending itself against ‘extremists.’ The dog whistle aspect of this is that, in this narrative, ‘extremists’ is synonymous with ‘Muslims.’

This anti-Muslim subtext is magnified daily. Anybody who objects to the genocide being perpetrated by Israel is labelled ‘Hamas’. The pro-Palestine peace marches all over the world are labelled as ‘hate marches’ and peaceful protestors are labelled as extremists or anti-Semites.

The underlying narrative equates ‘Muslim’ with ‘extremist,’ so much so that even when Palestinian churches and Palestinian Christians are targeted and killed, many Western audiences still distinguish one from the other – they think Palestinians and Christians are two separate groups. The ignorance is astounding.

It is the same ignorance – and racism – that was evident following the Russian invasion of Ukraine when Ukrainian civilians were displaced. One BBC interviewee spoke of his emotional response on seeing “European people with blue eyes and blond hair being killed every day.” Then a former British Conservative MEP wrote in the Telegraph newspaper about the Ukrainians, “They seem so like us. That is what makes it so shocking. War is no longer something visited upon impoverished and remote populations. It can happen to anyone.” So, apparently, war and destruction are fine so long as the victims are poor, —colonised/post-colonial non-white nations.

This racist and arrogant attitude reveals that some lives are of lesser value than others. Had more than 40,000 blue eyed Ukrainians been bombed, the Western reaction may well have been quite different to what it has been. While Israel continues to exterminate Palestinians and destroy their infrastructure and refuses to allow humanitarian aid in to help displaced and traumatised people, US officials make ridiculous, generalised statements and fly in and out of Israel to “talk to Israeli officials.” The image of blinking Anthony Blinken sitting next to a defiant and warmongering Netanyahu as the former tells the world that they will continue their onslaught is one that we see again and again.

Then there are the Germans, the chancellor tells the world he stands with Israel and is against boycotting it as “BDS is anti-Semitic” (the motion was passed by the German parliament five years ago). This is surreal. The Boycott Divest and Sanctions movement is a peaceful way for people to effect change, people who feel that since they cannot influence the political process, they can at least make sure their money does not go to businesses linked to Israel and can apply pressure in this way. Actually, the German response to Israel’s war is intriguing, it’s almost as if they admire the systematic, determined and efficient way in which Israel is committing genocide. Hmm...

The whole narrative of globally acknowledged human rights and international law has been exposed as an eyewash. It seems that these systems were devised by powerful Western nations in order to protect their own interests and their principles do not apply to them or their buddies.

When the world eventually decides to rein in Israel or put its leaders in the dock, tens of thousands more Palestinians will have been killed and maimed. As they say: justice delayed is justice denied. But justice is something that is very, very far away from what Israel is doing in Gaza and the West bank, very far away from what it is doing to Palestinian prisoners/hostages.

The scale of the killing is not spoken of enough. In December 2023, CNN and artificial intelligence estimated that Israel had dropped hundreds of 2,000 pound bombs on Gaza. That is more than used in the whole of the Vietnam war. And that was in December – since then there have been seven more months of bombing.

Two decades after the wave of Islamophobia that swept the world after the 9/11 attacks, it seems clear that Israel’s genocide, its ‘self-defence,’ is driving forward a narrative of ‘Muslim extremism.’s This alarmist subtext has now gotten all mixed up with the xenophobic, anti-immigrant narrative pedalled by right wing parties in the Western world. Yes, there are plenty of extremist Muslims around, but those are the Muslims the West likes to give a platform to. (In the UK for example, AnjemChowdrey was given masses of publicity for years while he raved and ranted and spread hatred. It was implied that he somehow spoke for Muslims in the country. Nobody wanted to speak to non-militant Muslims).

It is interesting to observe how this narrative is being played out both in the media and in international politics. One strand of this is the claims that Muslims alone are speaking out against Israel. This is not true. It is not just Muslims who are opposed to the slaughter, it is people with a conscience, people who are opposed to war and against injustice.

What has happened to the Palestinians is a stain on the collective conscience of the so-called civilised world. The media continues to parrot Israeli words and claims and skew the narrative. But the danger is that the more the idea of the militant Muslim is propagated, the more militant Muslims could become – thus proving Israel’s claims. In this context, Hezbollah and Iran’s refusal to be baited is impressive.

Best wishes.

Umber Khairi