By Bassem Al-Zubaidi / Palestine, 20/09/25
The war Israel is waging on Gaza is a continuation of decades-long policies of ethnic cleansing, dispossession, and repression. Since October 7, 2023, this conflict has targeted civilians with unprecedented brutality—cutting off water, food, and medicine, bombing homes, schools, and hospitals, and forcing mass displacement. The scale and nature of the violence echo the atrocities of the past, revealing a systematic strategy to break Palestinian resistance, erase identity, and secure control over land and resources.
Israel pursues two interlinked objectives: an immediate demonstration of military might to restore its image of invincibility, and a long-term plan to finalize its dominance over Palestinians through extermination, Judaization, and displacement. This strategy is compounded by settlement expansion, ideological extremism, and normalization agreements with Arab states, ensuring permanent control over occupied territories.
The West has largely enabled this campaign. The United States, Europe, and other powers provide military, political, and diplomatic backing while portraying Palestinians as aggressors, ignoring their basic rights. This complicity extends to the framing of Israel’s genocide as “self-defense,” while humanitarian crises in Gaza are disregarded.
Despite the suffering, Palestinians continue to resist with steadfastness. To counter Israeli policies effectively, the Palestinian leadership and global allies must insist on an immediate ceasefire, ensure humanitarian aid, strengthen governance, define the liberation goals of a future Palestinian state, engage new international actors, and hold Israel accountable for the destruction of Gaza. Without these measures, the cycle of violence, displacement, and oppression will continue.