New Essay | Education After Gaza

Introduction

Gaza is the school where we rediscover our humanity. This essay puts forth a new case for transformative pedagogical approaches to become anchored in school settings and stresses on parental pedagogy. It espouses the harnessing of a new pedagogical culture and the instilling of a pedagogy of responsibility and of identity. Hajir and Qato question, “what does silence on Palestine, and on genocide, look like in the field of education, and within its Schools/ Faculties? How and why have the progenitors and advancers of concepts like ‘critical consciousness’, ‘decolonise/decolonisation’,and ‘epistemic and cognitive justice’ fallen so short of the mark in speaking ‘truth to power’?”[1]

Theodor Adorno, in his seminal essay, ‘Education After Auschwitz’[2] published first in 1967, proposed a series of deliberations to overcome societal tendencies that made an event or events like Auschwitz possible. Proscribing self-reflection and critical self-awareness as a measure of pedagogy, the foundation for empathic learning he asserted was present in the familial setting and in schools. Guided by the moral and political imperative that human genocide never happens again, education as a critical practice he argued, could offset regressive tendencies of desensitisation to violence, ideological hardness, lacking empathy for others, a succumbing to state repression and binary oppositions. Adorno believed that education should not be purposed to make students acquiesce to state power but that educators should teach students to instead be critical.

The analyses of Adorno and Henry Giroux[3] following the events of the Holocaust and the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib are focused primarily on understanding how absence of empathy with the other is a major factor to abuse, violation of rights and even murder of that other. As Chouliaraki explains, what is suggested is a metaphysical distinction between ‘good’ and ‘evil.’[4] The very conception of the human is brought into question; it is not simply “that some humans are treated as humans, and others are dehumanized; it is rather that dehumanization becomes the condition for the production of the human to the extent that a “western” civilization defines itself over and against a population understood as definitionally illegitimate, if not dubiously human.[5]

With the return of genocide in Gaza (2023-), Adorno’s ideas about the role education plays in preventing the onset of rigid self and other polarities (ossified by national boundaries) requires much consideration. His thesis centres on schooling as the most crucial time of a child’s life, and one that underlines transformative pedagogical approaches. Education then needs to ascertain the conditions that produced the ideological and psychological basis for the Holocaust and to outline measures to prevent a recurrence. Education would need to centre on critical self-reflection as its cornerstone where pedagogical conditions would challenge rigid national identities and simplified binaries.

Adorno asserted the need to usher forth a new sentiment of empathy. His appeal was precipitated not only by the events of the Holocaust, but by a reflection on the causes that activated indifference in the German peoples, ‘barbarism continues as long as the fundamental conditions that favoured that relapse continue largely unchanged.’ It is promoting an education founded on critical self-reflection that lies at the core of Adorno’s thesis. With the genocides that followed Auschwitz, and in a most contemporary setting the genocide of Gaza and extreme war crimes committed by Israel in the West Bank and in Lebanon, Adorno’s thesis for genocide prevention must be re-examined.

Questions about how attitudes lead to genocidal violence have been a concern of educators interested in ‘pedagogical conditions.’ Giroux questions whether the abuse images from Abu Ghraib stem from a network of dominant information borne out of a terrorism narrative that has organised society around shared fears. The abuses came to attention with the publication of photographs by CBS News in April 2004, causing international shock and outrage. Giroux sees the images as part of a broader complex where sites of pedagogy are fundamental to power constructs, in this case to American exceptionalism which would allow relations of power to be reproduced. Any understanding of the pedagogical conditions that produced both the images and the culture in which they drew fascination would require a consideration of conditioning factors such as militarism, racism and self/other polarities ossified in the War on Terror. Giroux, drawing on Adorno’s discussion on ‘hardness’ as a social requirement for Germans during Nazi rule places emphasis on ‘discourses of privatization, particularly the contracting of military labour, the intersection of militarism and the crisis of masculinity, the war on terrorism, and the racism that makes it so despicable.’[6]

The role of these ideas and constructs such as ‘militarism’, ‘masculinity’, ‘racism’ should be explored and studied in schools. The corpus of evidences of the statements and actions of Israeli politicians and IDF soldiers reveal they exhibit dehumanising language, genocidal intent and this is actualised in the brutality of the genocidal campaign unleashed on the people of Gaza. In this light, the language used about Gaza was marked by a familiar pattern of propaganda.

Philologist and professor language and education Nutrit Peled Elahanan begins her work on the depiction of Palestinians in Israeli schoolbooks by stating, “In Israel, school books are written for youngsters who will be drafted into joining compulsory military service at 18 years of age and carry out the Israeli policy of occupation in the Palestinian territories.”[7] In the study she assessed a sample of the most popular school books among teachers from a range of history, geography and civic-studies, written for both Jewish and Arab Israeli high schools. According to Elahanan,

“Many Israeli textbooks not only discard and silence the Palestinian version of History but as Podeh (2002) found, they often manipulate the past in a way that entails the use of stereotypes and prejudice in describing the (Palestinian) ‘other’ Stereotypes serve prejudice and ‘foster delegitimization — categorization of groups into extreme negative social categories which are excluded from human groups that are considered as acting within the limits of acceptable norms and/or values’ (Podeh, 2003). Oren and Bar-Tal (2007) found that common means used in school books for this delegitimization are dehumanization, outcasting, negative trait characterization, use of political labels and group comparison.”[8]

Genocide in Gaza 2023

The dropping of bombs in Gaza surpasses the number of bombs dropped in Hiroshima, and surpasses the bombs dropped in Dresden in WWII. After five days of this attack, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) posted on social media that it had dropped “about 6,000 bombs against Hamas targets” – 1,200 bombs a day.[9] This amounted to 50 bombs dropped every hour, roughly one every minute of a 24-hour day. A separate source reported, on the same day, that these 6,000 bombs comprised 4,000 tonnes of munitions.[10] By mid-Match 2024 over 72,000 people had been injured, with more than 8,000 others missing. More than half of Gaza’s homes – 360,000 – had been damaged with over 46,000 completely destroyed.[11] The level of killing and destruction is beyond comprehension, yet it remains ever necessary to know why such horrific suffering on a caged population undergoing a brutal siege, exists as something socially acceptable. In terms of this, there are constituent parts including the role of the media, politicians, education and activism, each of whom have an effect of averting death on proscribed victims.

There have been so many a tragic case of abuse in Gaza. The blocking of pathways to get essential aid into Gaza, the rape of prisoners in the West Bank, demonstrations in Israel in support of the perpetrators are some of these cases. Every resident has a story to tell, of martyrdom, of heroism, of sacrifice, of family, of compassion, of loss, of faith. of strength. The case Muhammad Bhar, 24 year old who had Downs syndrome and autism and was left to be mauled by an IDF dog in front of his mother in the Shujaiya district of East Gaza speaks volumes about the sadism involved and about a world gone terribly wrong,[12] or the case of five-year old Hind Rajab murdered in cold blood by the Israeli war machine.[13] And there are so many more examples. The genocide in Gaza has violated all standards of humanity; not only is it a continuation of decades of occupation and oppression on the Gazan and Palestinian peoples, an affront to any need to abide by international standards of legal and political national cohesion, but such a theatrical display of murder and mayhem undercuts something more palpable in the world’s human fabric. Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan voiced clearly on CNN the scale of suffering in Gaza: “every single person who does this for a living will tell you the same thing, that this is different. This is not a humanitarian crisis…this is genocide. When 70% of the population that are killed are women and children; when the population is starved of food, of water, of medicine; when you have repeated attacks on all the hospitals, the clinics, the aid distribution sites, the humanitarian aid agencies that try to help; more UN aid workers have been killed in Gaza that in UN’s history; when you have over 900 families that have been exterminated – that have been taken off the civil registry; when you have over 17000 children that have lost one or both parents; when you have bakeries, aid distribution sites, churches, mosques, schools, and in the last 24 hours… History books will be written on this, and countries will have to reckon, media agencies will have to reckon with their major role in the genocide of an entire population, and in the destruction of humanitarian law and rule of order.”[14]

A Campaign of Dehumanisation of Palestinians

The level of dehumanising comments by senior Israeli officials since October 7th do not arise out of an emotional response to suffering but stem from a long rooted policy of othering the Palestinian people. The vilification of a people carries with it a train of propaganda. Israel has sought to delegitimise the existence of the Palestinians and their lands. Dehumanisation always starts with language, often followed by images. By concocting false narratives, brutally expelling the inhabitants of the land, building over destroyed towns and villages and erasing the memory of Palestinians by renaming locations and stealing Palestinian homes,[15] the extent of such horrific injustice begins indeed with language. Stereotypes are what skew a person’s perception of a group. People’s perceptions of others can sometimes confirm existing cultural stereotypes disseminated in the media, in school textbooks, films, religious centres and among people. For example, while the mainstream media highlights “hostages” captured by Palestinian militants, there was little mention that some of these captives were Israeli soldiers. Their status would then render them as prisoners of war under international law, especially since Israel declared war on Gaza. Additionally, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza has lasted nearly 60 years, during which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been imprisoned, often without trial. Yet, these detainees are rarely described as “hostages,” illustrating a very skewed narrative often employed in media coverage.

Defining othering and dehumanisation therefore is a crucial starting point for educators. Instilling within students notions such as ‘other’, ‘othering’, ‘dehumanisation’ ‘in-grouping’, ‘out-grouping’, ‘marginalisation’, ‘discrimination’, can make for a more ingrained outlook relevant to tendencies of hate, bullying and derision that exist in school settings, and allow the framing of international conflicts with an acuter lens whereby detecting news propaganda, victimhood, currents of genocidal tendencies, media framing, becomes the more possible. Peled-Elhanan describes the way details about the Nakba (1948) are deliberately avoided, “…details that would make the students question the orders from above, such as the fact that 426 men, women and children were indeed murdered in Lydd and Ramla, 176 of them inside the mosque, and that 50,000 people were driven out in the night, ‘stripped of their belongings’ (Pappe, 2006: 167), are omitted.”[16]

According to Latiff,

“The one we dehumanise, we now count as the Other. The Other consists of incomplete parts, insufficiently human and thus inadequate for a place in the world, our world. For the dehumanised, principles of morality no longer apply and any moral restraints against abuse, torture or killing are readily overcome. Dehumanisation is effacing, it is to contort another’s image and ascribe to it all the qualities one would find repugnant to have within oneself. All hatred, and that which is vile and callous is often imputed upon that Other. The self feels secure knowing he is not like that Other. The dehumanised Other is irrational, savage and threatening. On mental canvases the dehumanised Other is painted with broad strokes and wide brushes. There are no identifications, no fine lines, no nuances, no greys and no subtle outlines. The dehumanised is feared, mistrusted and generalised. In rallying calls against the Other, images and narratives of how alien, barbaric and inhuman the Other is are propped up. These ideas are then repeated continuously and relentlessly until believing anything different about that Other becomes incongruous. Any sympathisers with the Other are better placed with that Other, rather than with ‘us’.”[17]

Dehumanisation thus is the relegating of another to a distant, sub-other. It is the seeing in the other much less and sometimes a complete absence of what one sees in oneself. All that is morally reprehensible is defined in that other. It is a denial of humanity until such a person is excluded from the moral category of humanity. In Israel the face of that ‘othered’ Palestinian does not exist. The canvas, both mental and physical, has eroded Palestinian. In Israeli school books “none of the books contain photographs of Palestinian human beings and all represent them in racist icons or demeaning classificatory images such as terrorists, refugees and primitive farmers — the three ‘problems’ they constitute for Israel.”[18]

Learning about social death should become a vital part of education and so too that distance is more than just physical space; it is also a moral and psychological construct. The concept of distance extends beyond mere proximity, encompassing how perpetrators perceive their victims. Face-to-face killing often becomes more feasible when victims have undergone a “social death”—a complete erasure of their humanity in the eyes of the perpetrators. Colonel Dave Grossman, in his seminal work On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society, explores how distance affects the ease with which individuals can kill.[19] He identifies distance as a crucial factor in this process, ranging from the impersonal act of firing a weapon from afar to the immediacy of hand-to-hand combat. The greater the distance, the easier it becomes to dehumanize the victim. When firing a weapon or dropping a bomb from afar, victims are reduced to faceless targets, their individuality erased. For pilots, the mechanical distance is even more pronounced; they rely on images and silhouettes on a screen, further distancing themselves from the act of killing. The destruction of the landscape of Gaza- the indiscriminate bombing of hospitals, medical centres, schools, universities, homes, buildings, mosques, churches from an altitude reflects the way physical separation diminishes an emotional connection and, consequently, the sense of responsibility and guilt.

Social death plays a significant role in fostering genocidal tendencies, as it renders the lives of victims meaningless. S. Yizhar, in his novella Khirbet Khizeh which describes in very disturbing and evocative terms the violent expulsion of Palestinians from the village of Khirbet Khizeh in 1948, considers the struggle in conscience of a perpetrator at once challenged by self-reflection and temporalities of space as a medium for consideration of human boundaries related to suffering and victimhood and belonging. In Yizhar’s novella the violent expulsion of Palestinians is depicted with a focus on the emotional and psychological impact on both the victims and the perpetrators. Yizhar examines how the process of dispossession affects the sense of belonging and memory, illustrating how the new occupants of the village might feel the weight of its tragic past: “Wouldn’t the walls cry out in their ears? The sights and screams, the confusion and heroism of the displaced, would the new settlers not sense that the air was heavy with shades, voices, and stares?”[20] Yizhar’s narrative captures the haunting presence of what has been lost, revealing the deep emotional and psychological scars left behind. The account of the village’s transformation and the loss of its inhabitants’ lives evokes a powerful sense of grief and displacement. His empathic outlook in his description of the village as a compromised space speaks of what Nussbaum calls eudaemonistic judgement: the considering of one’s own vulnerabilities in another’s suffering.

Historical Examples of Zionist Dehumanisation of Palestinians

It is crucial for students to understand the long history of Zionist dehumanisation, that any event including the events of October 7^th 2023 did not exist in a vacuum and that there are always contextual events and factors to the happenings we see around us. According to Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and a former spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization, Diane Butto:

“In ignoring our reality, they ignored the hundreds of Palestinians that Israel killed in 2023 alone (one quarter of them children); they ignored the more than 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners languishing in Israeli jails, 1,400 of them imprisoned without ever being charged with a crime. They ignore the nightly raids, the kidnappings by the Israeli army, the torching of Palestinian villages by Israeli settlers, and all of the ways in which Jewish supremacy is manifested against Palestinians. They ignore statements by Israeli politicians like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also effectively governs the West Bank, called for Palestinian towns like Huwara to be “erased.” They ignore when Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s minister of national security, declares that his hero is Baruch Goldstein, a terrorist who massacred 29 Palestinians in a mosque in Hebron in 1994.”[21] Similarly, the words of Zionism founder Theodore Herzl should be examined, as well as the early Zionist sentiments of Joseph Weitz and David Ben Gurion.[22]

Tzortzis and Vahedi describe how “Israel views the general Palestinian population as a demographic “problem” that must be eliminated in order to widen the geographical horizons of the Jewish state…the construction of Israel is viewed to be an incomplete project that is yet to reach its full territorial potential. In order for Israel to be “complete”, it must consolidate control over the entire perimeter of the Palestinian territories…. This philosophy was plainly expressed by former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 1998: “It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonisation, or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands.”[23] Structural otherness, then, the separating and designating to that Other a substandard living space, an erecting of physical barriers to keep out the ‘untamed’ is vivid in the landscape of Hebron in Palestine. There are two roads leading to Masjid al-Khalil (Abraham Mosque) separated by a fence and barbed wire. One of the roads is clean and asphalt-paved, easily accessible for the elderly and children, guarded and pleasant. This road is for Jewish settlers. The other road is an uneven dirt path, littered and narrow and unsuitable for walking particularly for the disabled and elderly. The contrast is glaring. Roads designated for Palestinians are restricted by dozens of checkpoints and barriers, severely delaying access. The entrances to the checkpoints resemble the front of a maximum-security prison.[24]

The Visualising of Genocide in Gaza:

The ways the images resonate with our emotional contagion depends on the political context which supports their interpretation. As Prosser notes, “Photography and atrocity represents a knot for us to undo, if we are to work out their appropriate relations”[25] What an image does not convey is the way its effects are channelled onto the viewer’s specific political consciousness. There is thus a need for a closer reading of the images of human suffering – their motifs, placements, selection and overall purpose, and how they fit into (or outside of) a political and media narrative. What images convey and how they convey is dependent on the processes through which certain depictions emerge as critical landmarks of our knowledge. Educators should put into place a segment focused on image interpretation. This come through in source analysis for subjects like History and can be furthered. Some directed work on dehumanisation of the Jewish people during the Holocaust is often an important segment to better understand events of the Second World War. Such analysis of social death and mechanisms of dehumanisation should be furthered to incorporate other conflicts such as Rwanda, Bosnia and Gaza. Policies of genocidal rhetoric are abound in such examples, and so too the utilisation of images in schools, media and public broadcasts for the purpose of dehumanising an ‘othered’ entity. In Latiff’s work, Navigating War, Dissent and Empathy in Arab/U.S Relations attention is paid to consider the discourse of space, media and politics in relation to perceptions of human suffering inside and outside the (U.S) homeland. As Said[26] and others outline, the Arab caricature emerges with, “No individuality, no personal characteristics or experiences”, a discourse of wartime cognations between media, the government and the public are thus considered. His work examines ways in which images in news media engender an empathic construal of suffering of some victims. Further to the most recent displays of mass killing in Gaza, demolition of home and civil infrastucure, images of trauma and grief of self and other victims are situated around framed codes of behaviour in news media. Recurring motifs in those images act to define as well as delimit the way societies relate to and respond to grief. Media tropes come to compose a recognisable meaning type situated around ‘worthy’ or ‘unworthy’ victim frames. Students should learn the way recurring tropes in newspaper images, their placements and repetitions, form a pattern of ‘behaviour’ associated with emotive responses which become motifs of tragedy through which grief of some victims is recognised and personalise, and for others delimited. This would be a crucial pedagogical component following the horrors of Gaza. As Trivundža notes,

“News photographs are essentially about the construction of “the world out there”, of a world beyond our immediate experience which we experience through specialised institutions, such as journalism. They are part of the discursive construction of meaning and partake in the creation of the “image” of the world, which they at the same time construct, narrate and legitimate. Investigation of the visual framing of news should thus be dedicated to the critical investigation of the content of visual representations as well as of the discursive structures and power relations that structure journalistic mediation of reality.”[27]

B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories since 1989 is committed to the “documenting, researching and publishing statistics, testimonies, video footage, position papers and reports on human rights violations committed by Israel in the Occupied Territories.”  In a recent report “Welcome to Hell” B’Tselem exposes abuse and inhumane treatment of Palestinians held in Israeli custody since October 7, 2023. Based on testimonies from 55 detainees, most released without charges, it reveals the rapid conversion of Israeli prisons into camps designed for systematic abuse. These facilities, both military and civilian, subject inmates to intentional and severe pain, effectively functioning as torture camps. The report describes the abuse and inhumane conditions faced by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody since October 7, 2023. B’Tselem collected testimonies from 55 prisoners, many released without trial. Their accounts reveal systemic torture, including physical and psychological abuse, starvation, denial of medical treatment, overcrowding, and sleep deprivation. The testimonies highlight how Israeli prisons, under the policy of Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, have become de-facto torture camps, with conditions worsening after October 7. Emergency regulations have enabled these abuses, violating international law and human rights. The testimony of Firas Hassan details severe abuse and intimidation during his Zoom hearings in Negev Prison. Guards threatened him against reporting the violence, which included beatings on the way to the hearing. Other inmates experienced similar treatment, and many were denied legal counsel for extended periods. The report highlights widespread physical, psychological, and sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners. The violence was systematic, not isolated, and often led to severe injuries or death. Sexual violence was also prevalent, including forced strip searches, assaults on genitals, and attempted rape.[28] The report details the case of 53-year-old Ashraf al-Muhtaseb, father of five and resident of Hebron who was held in the Etzion detention facility and in the Ofer and Negev (Ketzio) prisons, “We were counted three times a day. During roll call, we had to kneel on the floor with our heads bent down to the ground and our hands on our heads. They took photos of us in that position.” Various testimonies revealed the photographing of naked prisoners.[29]

In the genocide in Gaza, pro-Israeli websites amplified the narrative that social media activists were attempting to mislead the public into thinking Gaza was facing a more severe assault than it actually was. This, they labelled “Pallywood,” a term used by Israel’s supporters to mock the growing visual evidence of Israeli war crimes. The Huffington Post, echoed this sentiment, suggesting that the BBC report implied that social media images allegedly depicting Israeli-caused destruction in Gaza were fake. The activists sharing these images weren’t doing so due to a lack of horrifying evidence from Israel’s latest attack on Gaza. Instead, the destruction during this operation, much like in 2008 and 2012, was shockingly similar. The images offered a more accurate depiction of Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza than the media’s vague references to an ongoing “cycle of violence.”[30]

What also became apparent were videos of Israelis mocking Palestinians which emerged early in the genocide. Responding to a post on X by @yinonmagal which showed an IDF soldier knocking on the door of a home he and his colleagues had destroyed, together with the remaining homes of the town, @elgindy_ replied that “These videos of Israeli soldiers gleefully mocking the lives of the Palestinians they’ve destroyed might be all the rage in Israel, but they convey something else entirely to the rest of us.”[31] Hundreds of such videos exist[32] wherein destruction of Palestinian homes and buildings is a celebration, possessions from homes are routinely taken and women’s clothes are displayed. Extreme sentiments of desiring annihilation of Palestinians have emerged on state and social media. Vociferous calls for Gazans to meet the same fate as the Biblical Amaleks[33] – was repeated and voiced in different formats and channels. A recent episode of the popular Israeli podcast Two Nice Jewish Boys openly called for the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The imagined proposition of killing every Palestinian was said to be something every Jew would agree with. Laughing at the thought of such a horrific genocide of a people, the podcaster Eytan Weinstein said: “If you gave me a button to just erase Gaza, every single living being in Gaza would no longer be living tomorrow. I would press it in a second…Forgive us if we don’t give a shit if everybody there dies. It’s just the way we feel. It’s just the way Israelis feel.”[34]

Lendenman’s research has revealed successive negative portrayals of Arabs in political cartoons in American newspapers such as The Washington Post, The Washington Star, The Miami News, The Baltimore Sun and others.[35] Palmer’s (1995) analysis of political cartoons in The Washington Post following Israel’s wars of 1956, 1957 and 1973, the Palestinian Intifida and prior to the first Gulf War reflected the same tendency or negative and dehumanising portrayals of Arabs, and often times specifically Palestinian Arabs.[36] Such negative images are often used to promote American wars, or in the case of Palmer’s (1995) analysis, to promote Israel’s campaigns against Palestinians.[37] Nasir’s (1979) study of the portrayal of Arabs in American movies between 1894 and 1960 revealed a predominant image of Arabs as backwards, evil and inhumane.[38] In Shaheen’s comprehensive study of over 900 Hollywood movies released between 1896 and 2001, a dominant trend of media presentations of Arabs as the dehumanised villain is evident.[39] Similarly, Kamalipour (2000) assessed the negative portrayal of Arabs in radio, television, and movies, revealing how Arabs are prone to committing acts of terrorism against Americans.[40] Further works by Ayish (1994) and Qazzaz (1975) showed how such mythical images of Arabs as inherently evil, violent, uncultured and threatening are prominent in social science textbooks in elementary school, junior high and high school and perpetuated negative stereotypes about Arabs.[41]

The focus on such damaging caricatures of an ‘Arab’ people and being dismissive of the non-homogenity of the ethnic group, ossifies boundaries of otherness in a wide-reaching and accessible format. Such impressions are standardised, expected and internalised. What such wide-ranging internalising of stereotyped attitudes towards a community does is disallow the developing of empathic attitudes towards that group. Figured as a pervasive inferior other and set against the superior, civil, rational and humanised standards of America, victimised Arabs- when transgressed against- would not elicit the same attitudes of sympathy and understanding as other groups not subjected to overwhelmingly negative portrayals. Researcher in the Department of Political and Economic Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland, Marja Vuorinen describes how the inventing of an enemy “begins, paradoxically, with the invention of the self.”[42] This is the inclusion of any subsets of people’s at the exclusion of others, hence creating and justifying the formation of an in-group and an out-group. Differences, she notes, do not necessitate the burgeoning of antagonistic fervour against the other but with the development of negative tendencies towards that other. However, even in the case of an ossification of in-group tendencies, polar binaries can become entrenched.[43] In an interview with former Israeli Army combat soldier Eran Efrati who served as a soldier in the occupied city of Hebron, he describes how the systematic oppression against Palestinians is underscored by layers of dehumanising that began from when he was very young and become more pronounced during his drafting into the occupied territories. Children, he explained, are taught that Palestinian life is not to be accorded the same value as an Israeli l n the occupied territories. Efrati describes:

“How can a Nazi soldier get up in the morning, give his wife a hug and kiss and go out to the camp and do his job? I just couldn’t understand it. And when I got into the Occupied Territories for the first time, I understood how there can be a contradiction inside yourself. As a human being you can do your job and be one person at home – be a loving, caring boyfriend, or son, or brother and at the same time hold people under a regime so oppressed that people are dying not only from your bullets but from the amount of calories entered into their territories like in Gaza, from oppression or sickness. This realisation during my time as a soldier… put me on the right side of history.”[44]

In light of this, Tzortzis and Vahedi highlight the troubling reality that a significant portion of Israelis support their government’s occupation of Palestinian territories and military actions against Gaza. They reference the views of Gideon Levy, a prominent Israeli journalist and human rights advocate, who identifies three key narratives that sustain the occupation and give it a sense of legitimacy. Firstly, Levy argues that many Israelis believe they are God’s chosen people, which justifies their actions toward others, fostering a sense of superiority and entitlement. This belief, he warns, breeds arrogance and enables dangerous, racist attitudes toward Palestinians, seeing them as inferior. Secondly, Levy observes that Israel has masterfully used propaganda to frame itself as a victim, despite its role as an occupier. He points out that Israel is unique in portraying itself as the only victim among settler-colonial forces throughout history. Lastly, Levy highlights the systematic dehumanisation of Palestinians by the Israeli state. This campaign allows Israelis to view the occupation as morally justified, as the dehumanisation denies Palestinians basic human rights, making it easier for Israelis to live with the ongoing injustice.[45]

On the Judge Napolitano – Judging Freedom TV show a Matthew Hoh, former State Dept and USMC Captain and now Associate Director at the  Eisenhower Media Network relates: “300,000 people have been forcibly starved to death. What is grotesque and absurd and obscene that I was not expecting was where we went to to look at Gaza. I was expecting we would go to hillside or there’d be a field we could look across or something. We went to an observation deck, just like you have overlooking Niagra Falls, including with the big binoculars where you put the coins in so you could see an observation platform that looks into Gaza, an observation platform that observes the genocide. As we were there looking at Gaza, which is an experience itself because you feel like a voyeur, like a tourist, you find yourself disgusted that you’re standing here watching this, you’re also so far removed, you’re so separate from it that it’s septic, that it’s sanitary, you don’t see anything occurring there, you don’t hear the screams, you don’t hear the dying, you don’t see the wrecked bodies, you can’t even make out the damaged buildings,  but from the observation platform it’s very picturesque, it’s as if you’re watching a movie really…as we were there trying to to understand how we were relating to this genocide occurring in front of us, an Israeli school field trip showed up, and these teenagers came from two hours away to come and watch the genocide. And first the rush of boys to the top of the observation platform that when they caught sight of Gaza, when they caught sight of the genocide they pumped their fists and gave their middle fingers to it, they were very very excited.[46]

The Role of the Media

The agendas that emerge from the genocide in Gaza rely on sustaining cultural tropes about (and of) others in the public media and discourse. The effect of suffering on western audiences is mediated by what they are seeing and how they see it; the narratives which define an image are what place the image in our consciousness. In a quantitative content analysis by Elmasry, Professor of Media Studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, which featured in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly substantial evidence is provided that “mainstream western broadcast news outlets demonstrate significantly more sympathy towards Israeli victims and violence perpetrated by Israel than Palestinian victims and perpetrated violence.”[47] He questions why western broadcast news outlets cover Israeli victims so prominently and seemingly neglect Palestinian victims. His work outlines how terminology such as ”slaughter”, “massacre” and “barbaric” are used exclusively in reference to Palestinian violence and not to Israeli violence. The study analysed more than 400 Instagram (IG) posts, including still images, captions and videos from CNN, BBC News, Fox News, MSNBC and Sky News. We see how the discourse of dehumanisation functions as a precursor to violence and also effects violence through omission of a frame for the life lost. Goldsmith’s photograph of a man ‘missing his face, there is no skin left on his head’ is in its ‘incompleteness’, lamentable through the establishing of a frame, ‘somebody’s…son…’ around the life that existed. Evocative images of a headless baby amongst other civilians killed in an Israeli airstrike garnered media attention in a way contrasted with the fictitious account of beheaded babies in the events of October 7^th.[48] Mcintyre and Hijab’s analysis and comparison of the King David Hotel Bombing of 1946 by the Irgun, a pre-state predecessor to the IDF, killing 91 and injuring 46 with the an IDF air strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza on 31st October 2023, killing at least 126, including 69 children, and injuring 280 should be a curricular teaching in Media and Communication studies wherein press coverage of both atrocities should be examined.

As a counter to mainstream media reporting, some newspaper narratives and images, web blogs, songs, poems, visual displays, media – both mainstream, popular and new media – produced counter-hegemonic meaning and opened spaces for further debate and facilitated greater empathic bearing for victims in Gaza. There cannot be a single rule of thumb determine the way people respond to images of victims of the genocide. Though some images may ossify ‘oriental’ binaries, at other times individualised responses are the product of high-order cognitive responses which stem from personal experiences, flashbacks or sensory associations and the sequence of news items featuring Palestinian guests in which a recurring sentiment of the events of October 7^th not existing in a vacuum but that a long-standing pre-narrative which has a bearing on successive events exists came to influence the discourse and current events.

Many new media such as web blogs, the transference of video clips, and songs reflect a civil resistance against the genocide. The effect of showing images is that it collapses binaries of a ‘self’ and Palestinian ‘other’. The media is able to challenge and curtail geographic distancing, which impede upon the empathy shown towards distant others, by reflecting a sensory closeness of a victim to an audience. The juxtaposed images of victim-hood on the Americares website, for example,[49] is one example of the shift in construals, of the way sensory proximity can be created by visual cues, by visual motifs which challenge a stereotyped otherness of distance, alienated and obscure. Although we are alerted to construals which place a more humanised image on the victims, whereby a psychological closeness is created through codes of familiarity between audience and target, this sensory closeness may not always become a facilitator of empathy though they make those victims less unseen and ‘closer’ in familiarity.

Where researchers have long postulated that conflict breeds heightened in-group solidarity, Hartman and Morse have shown that empathy resulting from violence can also result in greater outgroup altruism, that shared experiences of suffering and trauma during violence facilitates empathic concern for hostile others, transcending identity boundaries.[50] It offers new insights into ways in which parochial altruism effected by intergroup conflict can in fact speak more of empathy-driven altruism since those affected by suffering, especially of similar afflictions, can experience an increase in empathic concern.

Further to studies which highlight a lack of knowledge or concern about war’s victims, a result largely of a mainstream news media that rarely shows images of bodily suffering of victims in Gaza, a narrative focused on benefit and improvement of Palestinian society and a stereotypical image-making of Palestinians as an existential other framed around oriental tropes, it is an imperative for educators that there not be an undermining of empathic outlooks through both a refusal to show images of genocide’s victims and a marked differentiating in mourning codes, not in light of cultural differences but through a self-other inverting; what is presentably acceptable for one fails to be adequately fit for the other. Educators should uphold the value of fair reporting and highlight examples of misrepresentations and unfair presentation to students and the bearing such a ploy has in amplifying voices of perpetrators of genocide, of furthering binary presentations of the ‘other’ and thus of negatively affecting public sentiments.

Steps to Take

1. Fostering Empathy and Social Responsibility

It is incumbent on schools to introduce into their curricula, studies, outside of general studies of history or politics, lessons centred on learning about hate, its variations and variances. Such studies can examine historical parallels with a focus on historical empathy.

In 2011 the Finnish National Board of Education conducted a study to assess twenty-two 16–17-year-old high school students’ ability to historically empathise, to attempt to understand the actions of others in particular historical situations. The place of teaching historical empathy has been a subject of much current interest.[51] Advocates argue that instead of focusing on the memorising of historical detail, it is in the adopting of an inquiry-based approach to teaching history that the concept of historical empathy can find its important place.

In light of this, perspective taking as historical empathy however does not assume that one would need to fully feel or fully understand another’s situation, although the importance of feelings and their impact on human behaviour are crucial to any discourse on empathy. This further has a bearing on understanding the motives behind past events. As Rantala et al outline in their assessment on empathy on Finnish students, historical context knowledge can greatly facilitate and impact on empathy bearing. Questions about how attitudes lead to racial and genocidal violence has been a concern of educators interested in ‘pedagogical conditions.’[52]

In an Islamic light, a most profound example concerns the Qur’anic chapter Surah al-Ḍuḥā. In the context of the chapter, the Prophet (peace be upon him), having undergone unease at the six-month delay in revelation was met with the revelation of this new hope-inspiring chapter. The chapter is consoling the Prophet (peace be upon him), a reminder of Allāh’s favours upon him and a promise of a better future.

The empathy bearing in the aforementioned verses is in relation to what the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) experienced as a young man. That personal circumstances of poverty and/or loneliness can be understood in relation to how others are to be perceived and treated teaches us the importance of having a field of affective and cognitive insight in our relation with others. There are many things we can do to foster communication based on paradigms of empathy. The task is to try and see the world from another’s point of view. The Prophet (peace be upon him) once said that when he leads the prayer, he intends to pray a lengthy prayer, “and then I hear a child crying so I shorten my prayer as I know his crying will distress his mother.”[53]

The Prophet (peace be upon him) was cognisant of the needs of others and could understand the world of mother and child in relation to what could distress them at that point. The audible distress of another person actualised a kind of witness empathy in the Prophet (peace be upon him) seeking to alleviate both the mother and child’s distress. The latter is similar to Empathy is to see another. To be empathic, one is required to be non-judgemental and look at the ‘human being before him or her. Remember that each person is valuable in their own right and to afford people this recognition is crucial. Sometimes, based on a person’s life experience they might have been victims of discrimination whereby their humanness was questioned or denied. If a person is judgemental and considers the other as a stereotyped ‘Other’, it is unlikely he or she will be able to feel for that person and attempt to understand things from that person’s point of view or life experience. The Prophet (peace be upon him) gave to each person an individual consideration, to such an extent that his companions would say that they felt the most important in the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) company. Even though the Prophet (peace be upon him) may be around others, he made the one he communicated with feel as though he was acknowledged the most.[54]

In the context of this approach more contemporary approaches to distinguishing currents of hate fused with socio-cultural phenomena of bystanding should also be taken into account. Some high-profile cases can be taught or mentioned:

• The case of Kitty Genovese [37 Witnesses][55]
• An examination of Christopher Browning’s Ordinary Men [Ordinary Men][56]
• Philip Zimbardo’s The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil [selected reading][57]
• Psychology of spectatorship – Israelis on the hilltops of Siderot/Lynchings in Sialkot;[58] Genocide in Gaza and media coverage[59]
• The case of Topsy the elephant[60]
• American history and lynching[61]

It is believed that the sympathy for civilian suffering aroused by images from the Vietnam War (1954-1975) was a strong stimulus for the growth in anti-war protests and war opposition. Kaplan has noted that editors of newspapers and TV programmes are reluctant to depict vivid images of suffering, worried about the effects that such images could generate.[62] The lack of attention to the suffering of the Palestinian other in a way that draws attention to the human cost of the genocide, the displacement of civilians, injuries of victims, a count of the death toll, or stories which personalise the lives of citizens or victims, the referencing of names, of hopes and ambitions, of school-life, of parental loss, of interviews of teachers, of siblings and other family members. Any one of these would associate worthiness to the lost life, triggering emotive responses; the audience would reconsider attitudes shaped by a media othering of Gazan victims during the genocide.

Many examples exist of the empathising through space and image of the victims of Gaza. The renaming of university halls became a powerful symbolic act with victims of the genocide. Coalescing modes of student responsibility, university culpability and the creating of new sites of resistance found strong footing in the university/student protests which revealed that spaces and boundaries can be enclosed as much as they assert a self-identity and a sense of belonging. As shows by Latiff (2021), spaces and boundaries also exist for the other and not in spite of the other and an empathy can be roused when acknowledging the privilege that ‘space’ accords.[63]

Where war and conflict have a lot to do with (locations of) space, those who resist also situate themselves within space defined by what they perceive. English protester and peace campaigner, Brian Haw, in 2001 chose to make the scene of his anti-war protest a site on the paved floor outside Parliament Square, initially a protest against the economic sanctions in Iraq and how war and sanctions made orphans in that country.[64]We see in his self-confinement a symbolic coding of the other he identified with. The empathy he stimulated is discernible not only in ‘space’ restrictions but in its way of taking the place of the other. In his protest we consider not only his act of protest but also the broadened demarcations of self and otherness in which the disparity in size between Parliament and his tent, between structure and cloth, might connect to what he viewed as a disparity between victim and aggressor. Hetherington (1998) explains that margins and places are “where the marginal can find a space in which they can articulate themselves and be heard. For some this has meant living visibly on the margins, as did the women at the peace camp outside the USAF base at Greenham Common (near Newbury in southern England) during the 1980s”[65] In British politician Suella Braverman’s attempts to question protesters at a Gaza Solidarity Encampment in Cambridge University on 16 May 2024, protesters refused to answer her questions and maintained a posture of silence, a ‘wall of silence’.[66] Silence as protest was also adopted by Swedish politician Abir al Sahlani who began her address to the European Parliament on February 27 2024 with a silent protest in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza enduring Israel’s brutal onslaught. She thereafter said, “We said we won’t fail, but we are failing again. Human rights have a skin colour, and the darker you are the less human rights you have.”[67] A video of her address was uploaded by TRT on February 28^th 2024 with nearly half a million likes and has been viewed more than 6 million times.[68]

Another form of protest was seen in the laying out of shoes on streets, conducted as a street social experiment by OnePathNetwork in which activists in Australia presented booklets containing names of Gazan victims to passers-by. When asked what they think they are holding, responses such as “Honestly, no clue” and “Is it some kind of voting thing?” were common. Passers-by were then informed “these are the names of all the Palestinians that have been killed since October 7^th. One individual, looking through the names says, “It just keeps going”. The individuals are then informed, “in total there are over 34,000 names in these booklets.” The individuals are then asked, “how does it make you feel, holding the names of all these people?” One responds, “It just makes it feel that it’s not real because it’s just a book, but they’re actually people who have lost their lives.” Another says, “I feel sick, I think it’s disgusting.” When asked, “If you could somehow get a message to the 34,000 people that have been killed, what would you want to say to them?” One individual replied, “that I’m sorry, that we failed the people of Gaza.”[69] Something similar was shown on a YouTube video by Al Jazeera English entitled ‘Artist uses 15,000 teddy bears in memorial to Gaza’s children’, uploaded on 18 September 2024, reads ‘Each of these 15,000 teddy bears represents a child killed in Gaza’ Set out in an open plain in Doha, Qatar, the video reads ‘The artist behind it says he wanted to convey that the victims are not just numbers.’ He says, ‘It’s a representation of how art and compassion can intersect in order to create a positive impact, in order to show people that numbers can be seen by eyes.” The video explains that the art installations were made using toys and blocks of concrete to portray the rubble falling over children’s heads. Latiff (2020) has shown how “spaces and boundaries also exist for the other and not in spite of the other and an empathy can be roused when acknowledging the privilege that ‘space’ accords. Where war and conflict have a lot to do with (locations of) space, those who resist also situate themselves within space defined by what they perceive.”

In 2018 a BBC One documentary which can be shown to olders students underscored the way a campaign organised by youth came to reflect strong empathic ideals. Titled, ‘Killer in Our Classroom: Never Again’, based on the February 2018 Parkland, Florida school shooting in which 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and killed fourteen pupils and three members of staff, the documentary followed students from the school who organised a mass youth-led campaign calling for stricter gun laws in America. Part of the emotive thrust of the documentary centres on the stories of some of the students affected by the shooting: “The worst thing is that when you do give names to the dots, it hurts” / Yeah, that definitely went through my mind, is giving names to the dots.” Showing a graphic of Building 12-First Floor, scattering of dots in different classrooms indicating where people died during the shooting. “Every time a dot would turn blue, or a dot would turn yellow, like I knew who that was, and it was just really upsetting.” / “I know every single dot, and I know who every single one of those dots are, like every single one. And I felt as if I just like experienced it all over again.”[70]

2. Revisiting Parental Responsibility as resistance to genocidal tendencies

According to the UNFPA in Gaza nearly 50 mothers and their children are killed everyday,[71] an the psychological effect of the suffering on children is tragically immense.[72] Parenting in such horrendous circumstances is bound by so many difficulties, and ironically our methods of parenting here can also effect parenting in Gaza. An identity fostered on social responsibility should be stressed and this can be emphasised through parental pedagogy. Parents bear a key responsibility in the Islamic paradigm as educators. One of the subjects in Adorno’s essay is the great demand on parents to teach and re-teach their children the importance of empathy; to push back against hyper-masculinity generated by militarism and obedience to authority that arises again out of militarism. From an Islamic perspective the most essential pedagogical outlook is a Qur’ān centric one and the paradigm of Luqman’s teaching of his son can become paramount at this junction, particularly in faith school settings [Surah Luqman, 13-19]:

The Qur’anic verses that stress on overcoming impediments of love and hate should also be outlined:

“O believers! Stand firm for justice as witnesses for Allah even if it is against yourselves, your parents, or close relatives. Be they rich or poor, Allah is best to ensure their interests. So do not let your desires cause you to deviate ˹from justice˺. If you distort the testimony or refuse to give it, then ˹know that˺ Allah is certainly All-Aware of what you do.”[73]

“O believers! Stand firm for Allah and bear true testimony. Do not let the hatred of a people lead you to injustice. Be just! That is closer to righteousness. And be mindful of Allah. Surely Allah is All-Aware of what you do.”[74]

Furthermore, the concept of ‘witnessing’ is a profound theme in Sūrah al-Burūj, woven through the narrative at several key points. Such a theme can becomes a salient feature in schools and homes. Witnessing involves a sensory experience that reveals the nature of injustice: it is observed by perpetrators, victims, and bystanders alike. Perpetrators often revel in their temporal power, oblivious to the shifting tides of fate that have consigned many before them to ignominy. Such cruelty is not merely a moral failing but an indication of the reprehensible nature of both spectatorship and passive bystanding, both of which should be spoken of and become integral in school education. They can help better understand psychological causes and effects of school bullying and the wrong uses of smart phones and recording devices. Examples of spectators who travel to watch bombings in Gaza with a disturbing sense of enjoyment, echo the moral decay depicted in the Qur’anic chapter. The aforementioned example from Matthew Hoh and seeing Israeli schoolchildren at a viewing platform can be evidenced. Similarly, historical atrocities like the 1994 Rwandan genocide, where bystanders became perpetrators, and the passive stance of U.N. peacekeepers during the Bosnian genocide, demonstrate the dire consequences of indifference.[75]

The Qur’an’s call to justice is unequivocal. As emphasized in Sūrah al-Nisā (Chapter 4, Verse 135) and Sūrah al-Mā’idah (Chapter , Verse 8), we are instructed to uphold equity and truth, regardless of personal biases or external pressures. Both excessive affection and hatred should not cloud our commitment to justice.

Simple narrations educators can teach and explain to their children/students are the prophetic narrationc which describes a woman who imprisoned a cat, failing to feed or provide water for the animal, nor allowing the cat out to catch its own food, and “on account of the cat she entered the fire.”[76] Furthermore, the example of Abu Mas´ud (may Allah be pleased with him) who narrates that he would often strike his servant with a whip, until he was one day confronted by the Prophet (peace be upon him) who admonished him, “You should know O Abu Mas´ud that Allāh is more able than you than you are over this boy’. Taken aback, Ibn Mas´ud responsed by saying he would free the young boy. The Prophet reminded him that if he did not free him (as an expiation for the cruelty) then the fire would touch him.[77] Moreover, the Prophet’s companion Abū Hurayra’s admonishing of some Qurayshi youth who had tied up a bird to use as target practice for their shooting of arrows can be noted. The companion reminded the young boys that Allāh’s Messenger cursed the one who stakes a living thing as a target practice.[78]

3. Revolutionising Faith as a Paradigm of Education

‘Empathy’, what might be considered an actualised emotion, does not begin as an action. It may call for a mental shifting of identities in as much as it acts on a spatial shifting and an overlapping of human codes of distinction. It is imagining what another person is in relation to the shifting of his or her time between the past and present, between considering what once was and what can or might transpire in the life of that person, between drawing together of the strands of one’s own human existence and considering the ‘other’ as vulnerable to the same temporalities and thus bound in the same ‘frame’ of time.[79] It is within the frame of empathy that we become cognisant of influencing factors that shape positive and negative outlooks towards others. The others in this case are not mutual but different and distinct, and it is within this distinctness that empathy is realised. Empathy  is the building block of relationships. It is the determinant that enables one to see something of himself in another, or something of his expected self, or something expected in another, in himself:

“some of the most evocative accounts of empathy emerge in the most precarious situations. With realisation of a sense of finality, or in the context of an act of defiance, humans can be propelled into enacting behaviours that are not typical even in the said circumstances. These might be viewed as indeed atypical in light of the contexts to which they belong and the examples of self-sacrifice found in them, but provide us nonetheless with an important dynamic to empathy; the coalescing of determinants such as love and loyalty. The ‘sharing’ in another’s pain, the ‘imagining’ of that pain is, as Rossbacher defined, the foundation of empathy.”[80]

Numerous testimonies emerged highlighting the strong empathic concerns and behaviours from the people of Gaza. These have proven instrumental in shaping outlooks towards the Palestinians and in underscoring the sentiments of resilience and hope that provide an edifying influence on human behaviour that enables people to want to use perseverance exemplified in Gaza as a measure in human interactions and behavioural patterns. In an Al-Jazeera [The Stream] report from 30 July 2024 entitled ‘The inspiring stories of Gaza volunteers helping Palestinians on the ground’ and presented by Anelise Borges, stories of volunteers who provide first-hand accounts of witnessing devastation draws on the extreme challenges they faced, and the strong empathy-bearing between the people of Gaza. It is the enduring spirit of solidarity and the crucial role of volunteers in bringing global attention to Gaza that provides educators with important lessons. Showing the Al-Jazeera report and productions such as People and the Olive in schools can provide crucial learning about global demographics, the role of activism and the power of empathy.

Whilst it is undoubtedly true therefore that we have perhaps never seen before such a mayhem of murder unleashed on the people of Palestine, that we have not witnessed such a collective global outrage, a reminder to Holocaust survivor Stephane Hessel’s Time for Outrage (“The greatest indignation I have is for what is happening to the Palestinians”) it is perhaps also true that we have never witnessed such a display of deep-seated faith, patience and resolve than from the people of Gaza. Such tenacity of spirit and steadfastness, and faith in God, has led many to want to know more about Islam, to try and understand what could cause such unshakeable faith in the Muslims of Gaza, leading many to embrace Islam.

One recent convert, Hunter Graves, a 21-year-old college senior in Nashville, spoke about the way such strong belief drew him to learn more about Islam: “You see women running out of rubbled buildings holding their lifeless child, and the first thing they do is thank Allāh.”[81] Such a life approach to thank Allāh as the first point of call in any situation sits at the heart of the Islamic paradigm. Such an enthusing of belief in which Allāh is perpetually deserving of praise and thankfulness is something that resonates strongly, since it pushes back on nihilistic approaches to life in which a purposeless pervades. Being thankful to God, despite the circumstances that ensue in life and their outcomes, is a prophetic approach and the Qur’ān is a continuous reminder that only by adopting an akhirah-centric (Hereafter focused) vision in which everything one encounters in this life and every response to that encounter is measured in the next life. This approach is more rigorous than finding moments in a life lives that can help to provide meaning for what one currently undergoes, or what one might undergo later on in life. This latter approach, is profoundly expressed in Surah al-Ḍuḥa.

Another convert, Nefertari Moonn, a 35-year-old resident of Tampa, Florida US, said she converted to Islam after being influenced by Palestinians’ commitment and stance against Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip. She said. “I wouldn’t necessarily say that Israel had anything to do with me turning to Islam. It was solely the Palestinian people, and their courage and their faith that had me look into Islam…To see all the devastation that the Palestinians are going through… and to see those still call out to Allāh is devastatingly beautiful…I feel like if you see these people in what they’re going through in them being able to still keep their faith. You have to look into it and see what was contributing to people still holding on to God and holding on to their faith in calling now in their last words.” She described Palestinians as some of the “strongest resilient people” that she has ever seen in her life: “You’re seeing mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters lose their entire families in somehow, they’re still thankful for the small things they have. So, like others I was very intrigued.”[82]

Gaza then presents the world a formidable God-centric teleological framework which is also crucial for students. When people in such difficulty do not think about where God is, but instead use a situation facing them to turn towards God it is a cause of admiration and wonder. As El-Sharif describes, “What we are witnessing now is nothing short of a miracle in the modern age: an experiential reality of a lived, collective faith, activated in its power and agency, en masse, that no amount of billions spent by way of military and security expenditure can undo or defy. No 2000-pound bombs can remove this faith from the chambers of peoples’ hearts.”[83] The repeated statement amongst the Gazans is, Ḥasbī-Allāhu wa niʿm al-wakīl [Sufficient is Allāh, and the Best Disposer of Affairs]. The statement is a recurring declarative that cognitively and spiritually reframes one’s approach to understanding evil in order to transcend such evil and understand it in light of a God-centric and akhirah-centric paradigm. Such an approach is familiar in the Qur’ān so that the believer is well prepared to expect a test, to consider how one can frame a difficulty in the context of self-development, of expected ease and rewards in the after-life and in the context of a broader paradigm of individual epistemic limitation and a belief in the transcendence of God who is all-Knowing and All-Wise.

“We will certainly test you with a touch of fear and famine and loss of property, life, and crops. Give good news to those who patiently endure”[84]

“We will certainly test you ˹believers˺ until We prove those of you who ˹truly˺ struggle ˹in Allāh’s cause˺ and remain steadfast, and reveal how you conduct yourselves.”[85]

“Do you think you will be admitted into Paradise without being tested like those before you? They were afflicted with suffering and adversity and were so ˹violently˺ shaken that ˹even˺ the Messenger and the believers with him cried out, “When will Allāh’s help come?” Indeed, Allāh’s help is ˹always˺ near.”[86]

As these verses reveal, the Qur’ān in many places cognitively and spiritually reframes us to understand suffering so we can better transcend it. Children, in school, can face an array of challenges from adolescent development, challenges with friendships and peer relationships, home difficulties and others. The Qur’ān reminds those who engage with its verses to stand in the possibility that, no matter how intense the suffering is, the meaning we are giving such difficulty is not the only meaning. The aforementioned verse from 2:214 concludes with a strong appeal from believers accompanying a Messenger, “When will Allāh’s help come?” The test upon such believers and the Messenger would have been grave and intense in its magnitude for such an exclaim. But the assuring response, “Allāh’s help is ˹always˺ near”, is reflective of the spiritual armament of trust and hope in Allāh that the state of the believers is soon to change. This finds its place in the early reminder Allāh gave the Prophet in Surah al-Duha: “and the future will be better for you than the past.”[87]

The verses don’t only console during moments of difficulty but comprehensively outline that Allāh is always in full control. The events that one undergoes have a future consequence that is known only to Allāh, reminiscent of the divine declarative when the angels asked about the purpose behind the human creation, citing corruption and murder as a consequence of that human creation’s disposition – Allāh replied to the angels, “I know what you do not know.”[88] To be told by their Messenger that “Allāh’s help is ˹always˺ near” enables believers to reassert their commitment to a struggle in which truth will always triumph over falsehood (“The ultimate outcome belongs ˹only˺ to the righteous.”[89]); to reframe their struggle as one embodying a truth vs falsehood paradigm in which they play a crucial role; the emboldening of positive attributes of faith, patience and resolve which harness individual strength and remain crucial for divine support.

What the world has been taught by Gaza is thus to give suffering the meaning Allāh and His Prophet have given to it, in order that we better learn how to transcend the suffering in some way. In the life of the Prophet the instruction to remain in the remembrance of Allāh found its place in times of both ease and hardship. It is in Him and for Him that all actions are intended, make sense and come to fruition. In the Prophet’s early time in Makkah antagonistic disbelievers from the Prophet’s own community who opted to remain in their paganistic traditions were primarily intended in the Qur’ānic verse: “We are well aware that your heart is weighed down by what they say. Celebrate the glory of your Lord and be among those who bow down to Him: worship your Lord until what is certain comes to you.”[90] Such a verse revealed in the Prophet’s early Makkan time draws on finding solace in the face of such derision.

For the Gazans, Allāh is always with them. Those who have failed them are not of God. Gaza, “is not only a school of humanity, it will go down in history as its own school of theology and ethics… It is the most striking embodiment of Islamic virtues the modern world has ever seen.”[91]

4. Activism and resistance in public pedagogy

The resistance of Palestinians to Israeli occupation that is integral to their self-identification should be a part of the pedagogy of learning about conflict in light of the genocide in Gaza. The well documented ‘People and the Olive’ protest can be shown and taught in schools.[92]

‘The People and the Olive’ is a feature-length documentary about the struggles of Palestinian olive farmers. It follows a group of six American ultra-marathoners who set out, in February 2012 to run 129 miles in 5 days across the West Bank. During the run they replanted uprooted olive trees to raise awareness of the Palestinian fair trade olive farmers. Filmmaker Aaron Dennis and journalist Jacob Wheeler created a daily web series following the run and interviewing farmers, peace activists and academics. The videos were viewed online over 10,000 times. The run was organised by the Traverse City, Michigan based non—profit, On The Ground which supports community development in farming regions across the world. It was also supported by the Palestine Fair Trade Association, a collective of over 1700 small-scale farmers in the West Bank who have embraced Fair Trade practices to sell their products worldwide. The film is divided into seven parts, each part presenting a different stage in the run and olive tree planting, viewed as a collective initiative between the American activists and local Palestinian inhabitants and farmers. Collective action can be ‘conceived as end-directed behaviour constructed by means of social relations within the field of possibilities and limits that the actors perceive’ (Melucci 1996)[93]

For the activists engaging in the protest, they engage in an occasionalism in which the development of one’s identity is articulated through that protest. As the activists cross from one place to another, between Palestinian territory, occupied areas and separation zones, we get an insight into their constructions of ‘self’, ‘place’ and the ‘other’ with whom they interact. We propose that states of ‘togetherness’ are shaped through communal participatory activity in this case between American activists and Palestinians. In the People and the Olive protest codes of familiarity are symbolised through agricultural motifs of ‘growth’ which cement this togetherness and challenge existing perceptions of landscaping.

The People and Olive can become an important action-based learning process in schools. The diversity in participants. Constructions of ‘self’. ‘place’ and ‘other’ and notions of otherness can be showcased to reflect the importance of group-led activism across ethnic and gender lines.[94]

5. Reteaching paradigms of bravery & the search for a collective empathy

In the Al-Jazeera report cited above, one of its chapters, entitled ‘Gazas superheroes’, describes a Hammada Shaqoura whose initiative, it describes, is to feed children. Following the birth of his own son, he felt a greater empathy bearing towards others and says, ‘We always try to make things that make the children happy.’ His is one example of a ‘community coming together with virtually no means’[95] One example from the report shows children at a bombed location. A child, with the entirety of rubble surrounding her, said “This is my home. We used to sleep here. But when they hit the house, my uncle was killed, and my other uncle…we all came out from under the rubble, wounded but thank Allah, we healed”[96] These examples stem from an imagining of how another person feels, knowing one cannot fully understand the complexities of each human encounter, especially in such precarious moments. No human encounter is simple and “no quantity of meaning, no matter how sincerely ascribed, can void the subjective quality of each meeting.”[97]

The media’s selective reporting, which omits historical context and distorts facts, paints Gaza’s actions as sudden, unprovoked violence, overlooking decades of occupation and suffering. Additionally, unverified claims — like the alleged beheading of children — have been used to manipulate public opinion, though there’s no solid evidence to support these reports. The White House also acknowledged that President Biden’s statement about seeing such atrocities was false, further highlighting the disinformation at play.[98] Atrocity propaganda, which has been used throughout history to justify brutal actions, is once again being employed. This tactic dehumanizes Palestinians and creates a pretext for further aggression. Meanwhile, what we do know is that the entire population of Gaza is under siege, deprived of basic necessities, and trapped within their land, while Israeli forces gather for a possible invasion. In a global media mileu of such skewed reporting and the underhanding of long-held stereotypes of the Palestinian ‘other’, the reframing of notions of victimhood but also of heroism and compassion needs to be emphasised. This is not for the purpose of ‘rehumanising’ such people, but to provide students with an effective lens to determine notions such as ‘admirable’ and ‘self-sacrifice’. A comprehensive outlook on pedagogical changes following the  genocide in Gaza should be adopted.

In the Al-Jazeera [The Stream] report cited above, Dr Seraj, a volunteer doctor in Gaza described a young Ziko, a ten-year old boy who volunteers his time at a local hospital. The chapter in the report is entitled ‘Children are heroes.’ It describes how the young child pushes trolleys, travels with the ambulances, helps with things at the morgue. When Medical engineer Khaled Shakhshir recounts his own positive recollections of Ziko’s remarkable empathy bearing, he relays that he once asked him why he help others, and received the response that ‘he can see the people suffering and cannot sit still while he sees that, and he has a dream of being a surgeon to help others.’[99] Examples like these, demonstrating compassion for others, should become popular in shaping attitudes to concepts of heroism and bravery. Such ideals can sometimes ironically become popuarised through national self-identity and provide. A war effort can become poularised through a culture of heroism. As Faludi notes, “the national frenzy to apotheosize those suggestd a deep cultural unease beneath the hero worship; the culture lofted them into some ridiculously gilded firmament while, at the same time, dissatisfied with their example, it kept searching for more available chest to decorate with war medals…so a narrative was created and populated with pasteboard protagonists whose exploits would exist almost entirely in the realm of American archetype and American fantasy.”[100] and highlighting examples such as Ziko and others can help students navigate social responsibilities outside of the framework of war, though integral to it in the context of what is shown.

Throughout history, student activism has been a catalyst for monumental change, and today’s student-led protests against the genocide in Gaza are no exception. These encampments, spanning over 36 universities across the UK and nearly every state in the U.S., echo the fearless legacy of students who have been at the forefront of justice for decades. From the civil rights movement to Vietnam War protests and the fight against apartheid, students have consistently challenged injustice and influenced the course of history. In this light, the work of Palestine Action[101] should be presented. As Dr. Qureishi notes, Palestine Action is a “group across the world that has made it its mission to shut down the weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems — the largest producer of weapons for the Zionist entity…Activists of Palestine Action protested outside the weapons manufacturer’s offices, sprayed their building with red paint, and even locked themselves to the building. Most importantly, they broke into the factory to destroy military-grade drones, to stop any prospect of weapons being moved from their factory to the Zionist regime. This form of direct action has resulted in tangible results. Israel has been unable to receive arms that it had ordered, denying Elbit Systems over £280 million in lost contracts. 85 per cent of all weapons used by the Zionist Occupation Force are not only produced by Elbit Systems but were tested and refined on the Palestinian people as part of their production process. The Elbit hub in Filton is or was replete with quad-copters which play the sounds of babies crying in order to lure adults to look for them, only to execute those who emerged.”[102]

Currently, the students highlighted above are not only undergoing academic tests but are also confronting profound moral questions. Just as they passed the moral tests of past conflicts—like the Vietnam War and apartheid—today’s activists demand justice for Palestine, envisioning a future free from exploitation and oppression. Their fight, grounded in principles of humanity and justice, has already seen tangible outcomes, with institutions like the University of Barcelona and Trinity College divesting from arms companies and Israeli ties.

Student movements operate from the ground up, challenging the dominant media narrative even when met with fierce opposition. Despite being vilified by media and some public figures, these protests are bearing fruit and shifting the global conversation. Zionism, long entrenched in universities, is crumbling under the weight of growing awareness and activism.

The significance of this movement lies in its urgency. Students are not merely commemorating past injustices but are actively protesting atrocities unfolding in real time. As history has shown, the first to arrive at the cause of justice are often mocked and opposed, but they are also the ones whose consciences remain clear. Today’s student activists will be remembered as tomorrow’s teachers, for they are shaping a more just world, where Palestinian liberation is seen as a critical step towards global justice.

Halpern and Weinstein note that the social conditions which make empathy possible need to be attainable for empathy to be realised, and the role of schools and educational institutes is vital. An air of openness would be essential in which disagreements can be voiced or relationships developed without barriers such as a biased media which antagonises rather than placates differences; corruption in government, division of schools along ethnic lines or socio-economic factors such as unemployment and disenfranchisement of some groups over others, and the most pressing question of how the world has allowed such an indiscriminate killing of people in Gaza and destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure would need to be addressed.

The perspective of German-American historian and philosopher Hannah Arendt (d. 1975) who considers what may transpire in the absence of laws and protocols ensured to afford human rights to all peoples should be noted. Her remark is in fact most relevant not for what it should compel for the survival of humankind, but for what it presupposes would be lost of the sanctity of life in a non-legal sense. This is what would be felt about the diminishing of man’s worth and place in the world he inhabits, “It is quite conceivable that one fine day a highly organized and mechanized humanity will as a whole conclude quite democratically – namely, by majority decision – that for humanity as a whole it would be better to liquidate certain parts thereof.”[103] The paradox is all too clear in Arendt’s words. That a ‘mechanized humanity’ could seek the annihilation of the rest of ‘humanity’ means that the codes of humanity could not have been present to render the ‘encounter’ in any way a humanised one. The “certain parts” of the human population are incomplete parts, insufficiently human and thus inadequate for a place in the world. The reason for such indifference is, according to Herbert Kelman, because “the extent [by which] the victims are dehumanised, principles of morality no longer apply to them and moral restrains against killing are more readily overcome.”[104] The study of potential barriers to empathy including fear, mistrust, generalisations, in-group pressure to conform to prejudices of the other, feelings of betrayal and recurrent ethnic discrimination in hostile communities in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda have been given much consideration.[105]

The attention to the plight of the Palestinians, and in particular to the genocide unleashed in Gaza, has been immense. Irish MEP Lynn Boylan said, “The public are on the right side of history. They have taken to the streets…”[106] Doctors who have travelled from afar to assist the victims of Gaza;[107] the commendable efforts of the nation of South Africa to take up the case against Israel at the ICC and the ICJ;[108] protests that erupted in Tangers when Moroccan authorities allowed an Israeli warship to dock in the port of Tangier to allow its crew to replenish field and food supplies en route from the US , after the Spanish government refused the vessel permission to use it ports;[109] the continuation of boycott efforts across the world,[110] and so much more are a strong proof, that, as French parliamentarian Clemence Goiti said, “The Palestinian people have become an icon for the oppressed and a symbol of the universal struggle for liberation. Standing with Palestine is standing with all of humanity, as the freedom of the Palestinians is a pillar in the struggle for a more just world.”[111]

Pedagogical Reasoning and Action Points

The greatest danger to the Palestinian cause is our desensitisation to the massacres and injustice. It is crucial for teachers and educators to revive the virtues of justice, courage, generosity, empathy and the pursuit for a better world. The genocide in Gaza (2023-) and its far-reaching consequences can be integrated across various subjects, using lessons as a catalyst for discussion, context, or research. Relevant areas include Religious Studies, English, Art, Drama, and PSE. Connections can also be made to initiatives such as anti-bullying programs and history months/memorial day events, fostering a broader understanding of social justice, and what genocide means for the world. These are a few of the steps that can be taken:

1. Challenge the biased media, and raise awareness while engaging in critical media literacy. The Zinn Education Project, described as promoting and supporting “the teaching of people’s history in middle and high school classrooms across the country.” is a viable option that can complement the school’s curriculum. Based on the topics of history highlighted in Howard Zinn’s best-selling book,[112]The Zinn Education Project is a joint initiative of Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change. It seeks to offer students a more accurate, nuanced, and engaging perspective on U.S. history, far beyond the simplistic accounts found in traditional textbooks and curricula. The empowering potential of history is often diminished in textbook-driven, rote memorization of names and dates. It highlights the contributions of working people, women, people of colour, and social movements in shaping the course of history, and teaches students that history is not made by a few exceptional individuals but by the collective choices and actions of ordinary people. By offering a more engaging and honest exploration of the past, the focus can help to equip students with the critical tools they need to understand and improve the world they live in today.
2. Support Gazans by highlighting the long-standing blockade, continued escalations and most importantly the current genocide, and donate to charitable causes but to also support the much needed work of advocacy. The work of Human Aid and Advocacy[113] is one example of charity work beyond the immediate focus of alleviating peoples in their suffering. It promotes that financial assistance should be paired with Advocacy, that while aid offers an immediate solution, Advocacy focuses on long-term efforts to eliminate the root causes of the need for aid. Such Advocacy work concentrate on two key areas: 1. Raising public awareness about the underlying causes of war and the persecution of Muslims. 2. Amplifying the voices of survivors of war and persecution and advocating for justice on their behalf. Actions of civil-disobedience is one of the ways to garner social awareness about something as colossal and horrific as the genocide in Gaza. As Dr Qureishi has advocated for scholars to play a greater role. One such step is to “Put their support behind Palestine Action and encourage their communities to play a role, even if it is just to raise awareness or be a support line for their action.”[114]
3. Promote the truth within schools and institutions and encourage evidence-based responsible reporting. Works on Palestine, its history and importance can be taken from: ‘The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine’ by Ilan Pappe; ‘Gaza Writes Back’ by the martyred Refaat Alareer (d. 2024); ‘The Jewish State’ by Theodor Herzl; ‘The Legacy of Empire’ by Gardner Thompson; ‘The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine’ by Rashid Khalidi. There are many other books that can provide insightful analysis, including Stephane Hessel’s essay ‘Time for Outrage’ and ‘Mornings in Jenin’ by Susan Abulhawa. The activism and accounts of ‘Refuseniks’, Israelis who refuse to serve in the occupied territories on both moral and political grounds and often serve terms in military jails, should be shown.[115]
4. Encourage the attendance of students to courses and/or seminars centred around the importance of the Al-Aqsa Masjid, Jerusalem and the importance of Palestine in Islam. Texts such as ‘Virtues of Jerusalem- An Islamic Perspective’ by Ismail Adam Patel. ‘A Brief History of Palestine’ by Ismail Adam Patel and the work ofthe Academy of IslamicJerusalem Studies can be taught and promoted. [116]
5. Encourage the visiting of Apartheid museums and sites of suffering with reputable travel guides who understand the suffering of the Palestinians. According to the Holocaust Education Trust, since 1999, over 41,000 students and teachers have taken part in the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz[117] Of these, more than 22,000 sixth form students and teachers have taken part in the programme, funded by the government since 2006. Anita Parmar, head of the Lessons from Auschwitz project at the Holocaust Educational Trust says: “I think it is about rehumanising all the people involved in the events of the Holocaust. When you read about the Holocaust in text books, it can seem unreal because it seems so horrific and on such a large scale. When it comes to Auschwitz, it is easy to focus on the methods of murder. We want to move away from that to look at the individuals… If you have heard a survivor talk about that experience of being inside, it has a huge impact.”[118] Visits to Auschwitz-Birkenau increased by almost 20 per cent compared to 2019. This was heavily influenced by funding programmes for the visit of schoolchildren.[119] Such visits to sites of suffering such as the site of Srebrenica, Bosnia Herzegovina, can help students learn about the consequences of hate and dehumanisation, as well as appreciate ideals of bravery and compassion as seen in the history of the Tunnel of Hope in Sarajevo.[120] The key learning is to examine how and why such events were allowed to occur, and to explore what actions can be taken today to prevent future eruptions of genocide. The role of educators in challenging genocidal tendencies and in so doing to cultivate a generation far better equipped to deal with the kind of sadism unleashed on the people of Gaza is absolutely paramount. As Hajir and Qato ask in relation to the genocide in Gaza and ongoing brutality against the Palestinian people, “Where and what is ‘critical pedagogy’ now? And what do we have to say about the questions students are working through on the fly, improvisationally, and often in isolation from those meant to support their learning: the meanings of resistance, the forms of mobilisation, historical lessons of strategies and tactics of organisation, and the building of institutional and counter institutional power?”[121]

Conclusion

Of all European states, Germany’s deplorable reaction to the genocide of Gaza (2023-) means that Adorno’s outlook or the broader lessons that the Holocaust would provoke in German society about challenging genocidal tendencies have not borne fruition at a state level. Adorno believed that with the absence of social conditions that could produce change, attention should be paid to the condition that produce violence and this can be improved through education. He posited that education must enable students to think for themselves and to not be subjugated to the authority of social superiors such as teachers and other adults, particularly during the onset of genocidal tendencies in society. According to Tony Greenstein, founding member of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, “No state has been as assiduous in attacking the Palestine solidarity movement and supporting Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza as Germany.”[122] Though at a state level, Germany provides full support to the actions of the state of Israel, there have been strong German resistance, including from the Jewish community, to the genocidal actions on full global display. As Greenstein explains, “more than a hundred German-Jewish artists, writers, academics, journalists and cultural workers published an open letter condemning Germany’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian speech and accusations of anti-Semitism directed at everyone – including Jews like them – who criticise Israel’s conduct.”[123]

In the podcast by Two Nice Jewish Boys cited earlier, journalist Samira Mohyedeen wrote on X, “Radio Rwanda in full effect here. This is deeply disturbing,” referring to the broadcasts that incited genocide against the Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.[124] Propaganda plays a significant role in shaping perceptions. Posters portrayed Japanese people with subhuman features, and magazines depicted them as predatory and villainous. Such imagery not only facilitated but justified the indiscriminate firebombing of Japanese cities, culminating in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The dehumanization of victims is a recurrent theme in atrocities and has been on full view in Gaza. From examples of Israeli school textbooks, Israeli politicians, Israeli podcasters and supporters of the genocide, the world has seen the way that the people of Gaza are that subhuman ‘other’ whose rights to life are never the same as others. During the Rwandan genocide, Tutsis were referred to as “cockroaches,” and indigenous peoples have often been labelled as “savages,” the people of Gaza have endured such dehumanising descriptions, and more. These stereotypes skew perceptions and make atrocities seem more justifiable. Philip Zimbardo’s research on dehumanization demonstrates how derogatory labels can lead to cruelty and violence. The transformation of “Japanese gooks” into “hajis” and “towel heads” or for the Israeli military the “Haja” reflects a disturbing continuity of this pattern.[125]

The focus of this essay is to consider whether we have collectively put into place a grass-root pedagogical mechanism to counter genocidal tendencies the like of which have been on full display in Gaza? This essay began with the outlook of German philosopher and sociologist Theodor Adorno who sought, through his seminal essay ‘Education after Auschwitz’, to usher forth a new sentiment of empathy, ‘a premier demand upon all education’ that Auschwitz not happen again.’ His appeal was precipitated not only by the events of the Holocaust, but by a reflection on the causes that activated indifference in the German peoples, ‘barbarism continues as long as the fundamental conditions that favored that relapse continue largely unchanged.’ It is promoting an education founded on critical self-reflection that lies at the core of Adorno’s thesis. This essay, ‘Education After Gaza,’ shares similar concerns though the matter several decades after Adorno and with a spate of genocides and mass killings during such decades is now a graver one.

As aforementioned, we must challenge the spectacle of suffering and instead foster political vision centred on ‘witness’ empathy. The ‘monotonous moan’ of the sufferer can exhibit a powerlessness that disempowers spectators who are unable to formulate a political vision through the suffering of the other. Chair in Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE) Lilie Chourliaraki notes that “this is a kind of anti-politics that blocks the possibility of a political community of solidarity to extend beyond the West and to encompass distant others.”[126] In relation to the War in Iraq at the dawn of the twenty-first century, for Iraq war veteran Kristoffer Goldsmith it was the diffusion of the images into his self-consciousness that brought him to a point of contesting the dehumanisation of Iraqi peoples, “this is somebody’s brother, this is somebody’s husband, this is somebody’s son, and this is somebody’s cousin. The only reason that we’re desensitized to it is because they’re not white, they’re not American soldiers.”[127] A former CIA officer describes: “You could see these little figures scurrying and the explosion going off and when the smoke cleared, there was just rubble and charred stuff.” Colonel Michael Lenahan, a Predator pilot and operations director for the 196th Reconnaissance Squadron, says, “It’s bizarre, I guess. It is quite different – going from potentially shooting a missile, then going to your kid’s soccer game”: a killer in the morning and a father in the evening.”[128] The utter disregard for life has reached its peak in Gaza, and the generating of a spectacle of suffering is evident in the numerous example of IDF soldiers detonating entire buildings and homes behind them while smiling at a camera facing them.

In American poet, novelist and short story writer Paul Laurence Dunbar’s (d. 1906) poem, The Haunted Oak, it is the Oaktree, upon which African Americans were lynched that writhes in pain. The personified tree – an active, intimate spectator – is unable to withstand the memory of the horrors it witnessed: “I feel the rope against my bark/And the weight of him in my grain/I feel in the throe of his final woe/The touch of my own last pain.”[129] We, like the Oaktree, feel the merging of self and other identities through modes of empathy and critical self-reflection, examined through tragedy. The ‘weight’, ‘feel’ and ‘touch’ the Oaktree experiences are the burdens we confront from all the innocent men, women and children killed in Gaza. It is the “own last pain” that produces the empathic bond between us an the genocide’s victims. All action against such barbarity, all of the protests, university encampments, protests outside Israeli defence electronics company Elbit Systems[130]and any action in favour of victims of the genocide and against its perpetrators is a reflection of that core empathic bond. As Hajir and Qato note, “UK students encampments calling for their universities to divest materially and intellectually from Israel emerged as spaces of solidarity, collaboration, and collective learning.”[131]

Though it was sometimes photographs and videos that ‘spoke’ to us, such media cannot be understood by one common ‘language’. Like other media, images of suffering require ‘acts of translation necessary to mobilize compassion instead of indifference, witnessing rather than consuming, and critical engagement rather than aesthetic appreciation or crude repudiation.’[132] There are no definitive denotations to photographs; instead each exists within a complex of shifting mediations. Lacquer identifies how humanitarian narratives of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries relied “on the personal body, not only as the focus of pain but also as the common bond between those who suffer and those who would help.”[133] There are too many examples illustrating the power of images. The picture of Kim Phuc running naked, her back skinned by American napalm; Kevin Carter’s photograph of a Sudanese girl crouched down as a vulture sits beside her waiting for the girl to die in her exhaustion, amidst the dire suffering caused by relentless Israeli brutality in Gaza, there have emerged powerful scenes of heroism and compassion from the people of Gaza. The scene of Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, the head of one of northern Gaza’s last partially functioning hospitals, walking through the ruins of Northern Gaza is one such scene. After the last hospital was destroyed by the IDF, he heroically approached the Zionist tanks, embodying resilience and defiance against unimaginable odds. His act is a testament to the unwavering spirit of those who stand for life and justice amid destruction.[134]

The image of the suffering body has long been used by reform movements in shaping our perceptions of poverty and reporting violent conflicts. Liam Kennedy in his article on ‘Photography and Human Rights’ draws on the way photographers, since the early twentieth century, utilised photographs to challenge injustices and petition for change. Lewis Hine took over 200 photographs between 1904 and 1909 and it was through these photographs that he sought to reveal the devastating conditions of industrial and agricultural workers. A focal point in his photographs was the difficulties faced by child labourers among cotton mill children. The plight of children in disaster zones has long been a focus area to raise consciousness and petition for change. The photographic image carries with it an ethical function. Empathic disconnect was, and still is, a major inhibition to compassionate outlooks in the face of suffering, and this should always be a strong component in school teaching.

In the catalogue of lynching of Black men and women in North America in the 19th and 20th centuries, what were initially discrete events, hidden from public view became in time, with the rise of cinematography and ‘image-making’, public and publicised events. The 1909 execution of Will Mack in Brandon, Mississippi was attended by up a crowd of more than 3,000 people. They arrived on trains and buggies while vendors sold soda pop, ice cream, peanuts and watermelon. The sobriety of the occasion for Blacks was grotesquely juxtaposed with the collective indifference of attendees. Pre-lynching and post-lynching pictures of victims sought to create a twisted pictorial narrative – dread and fear was altogether fulfilled with humiliation in death. 6,000 people attended the execution of Charles Johnston in Swainsboro, Georgia in 1893, an event which hosted shows as side attractions. Such lynchings and executions resemble modern theatrical entertainment, events of thrilling amusement. Nowadays the smartphone has allowed multitudes to attend, create and publicise similar events of public abuse, humiliation and death. While ‘smartphones’ have become commonplace in all continents, the ease of communication is coupled with the difficulty of ethical choices the use of the phone brings. Instantly, we are photographers and also witnesses, photographers and potential bystanders. Bullying and street violence find their immediate ways onto social media sites in which the hedonistic mind-set of observers, guilty participants, who shout and cheer in gladiator-like settings is altogether ‘entertaining’. Countless bullying incidents are recorded on smartphones and uploaded within seconds. Since little effort is made to disclose the identities neither of perpetrators nor of bystanders the element of ‘entertainment’ is what is projected.

Auschwitz survivor Stephane Hessel (d. 2013) authored his final book, Time for Outrage, before his death at the age of 95[135]. His book, which he intended to be a lasting testament for the next generation, concludes with an impassioned plea to break free from the clutches of consumer driven lifestyles, which ‘offer nothing but mass consumption as a prospect for our youth, general amnesia and the outrageous competition of all against all.’ The ‘general amnesia’ of which he wrote is connected in our world saliently and seductively to spectatorship. If we fail to respond when we ‘witness’ then we become spectators seated in our global arena waiting for the next show of human misery. We forego what is inherently good and decent in ourselves in place of a moment of mental image-making. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) taught us the importance of social responsibility in relation to our role as witnesses, “Whoever sees an evil then let him change it with his hand, and whoever cannot then let him change it with his tongue, and whoever cannot then let him at least hate it within his heart – and that is the weakest of faith.”[136] Whistling and jeering at the sight of the enfeebled generates within spectators a comfort and security from their being distant and detached. Consider the tragedy of Ota Benga. Housed at the Bronx Zoo, New York, in 1906, at times with an orangutan in the Primate House, Ota became the spectacle par excellence for a population that relished in ‘seeing’ their attraction. He was locked behind bars in a cage to be stared at, and people would laugh, though he could not fully understand that the people were laughing not with him but at him.[137] The swarms that gathered to catch a glimpse of the pigmy boy are the same throngs that gather around a bullied schoolchild, their smartphones poised in the hands of a ‘dumb’ people. Dumbed by a collective beseeching of entertainment in cruelty and dumbed by a wanton indifference; they not only witness, but their photography calls on others to witness too, their works of art culturalise the video landscaping of cruelty as they come to star in their own movies.

The videos and images from Gaza have haunted us all. They are images from Gaza but not entirely of Gaza. They speak not only to us, but of us. They reflect simultaneously what could happen, what does happen and what should not happen, and so the moral fabric of our consciousness was tugged in a way it hasn’t before, searching for meaning. The power of images to reawaken, to ‘speak’ metonymically and to replace longstanding statistical analyses and hard facts has long existed. We need to know details but we also need to learn meanings from what we see. In 1955, the killing of Emmett Till, a young African American boy on holiday from Chicago to Mississippi, came to change the scope and outlook of the Civil Rights Movement. Though countless blacks had been killed in the early decades of the twentieth century, lynched or beaten to death, the killing of Emmett became an icon of white racism and brutality, galvanising the support of both blacks and whites. When his mutilated body was discovered in the Tallahatchie River the police were eager that it remained sealed. Such a prospect was quickly rejected by his mother Maya Till who wanted to ‘see’ her son. Further, against police and state advice, she chose to have his funeral service in an open casket so others could also ‘see’. ‘This is what you did to my son. I want the world to see what you did’, she said. It was the sight of the disfigured Emmett lying in his coffin that brought home the truths of racism. It was a single image that became transformational. It is upon us to tell the stories of Gaza, to write with their broken pen and draw on their broken canvas. It is upon us as parents and guardians to imagine the outrage of Adorno and to confront the world still in its heightened hubristic state, to challenge the indifference and inhumane cruelty of state power, to continue to use all of our skills and resources to challenge genocidal tendencies, to use the classroom not only to teach but to raise a morally conscious generation who will learnt the skills to see through media propaganda, to harness empathy for the victimised and to forever stand with the oppressed. Our alarm can become outrage if we learn to keep the moral agency within us alive and not succumb to a state of amnesia and indifference, waiting for the next iconic image to briefly unsettle us. Let our moral compassion today become a moral consistency for the length of our remaining days.

And yet, in Palestine and for Palestinians, it is, who will defend the wildflowers?[138]

 

References

[1] Basma Hajir and Mezna Qato. 2025. Academia in a time of genocide: scholasticidal tendencies and continuities. Globalisation, Societies and Education: 3 DOI: 10.1080/14767724.2024.2445855

[2] Adorno, T. W. 2005 [1966]. Education After Auschwitz. In Critical Models: Interventions and Catchwords, 191–204. New York: Columbia University Press.

[3] Giroux, H.A. 2004. What Might Education Mean After Abu Ghraib: Revisiting Adorno’s Politics of Education. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 24 (1), 5–24

[4] Lilie Chouliaraki, The Spectatorship of Suffering (Sage: 2006), p. 41; J.Butler, . Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence (London, Verso: 2006)

[5] J. Butler, Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence (London, Verso: 2006), p. 278.

[6] Giroux, H.A. 2004. What Might Education Mean After Abu Ghraib: Revisiting Adorno’s Politics of Education. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 24 (1), pp. 11-12.

[7] Nutrit Peled Elahanan, Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education (London, I.B. Tauris: 2012), p. viii

[8] Nutrit Peled Elahanan, Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education (London, I.B. Tauris: 2012), p. 48.

[9] IAF (2023a). Post on X, 12 October (translated from Hebrew). https://x.com/IAFsite/status/1712484101763342772

[10] Al-Jazeera (2023). 12 October. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/12/israel-says-6000-bombs-dropped-on-gaza-as-war-with-hamas-nears-a-week

[11] Multiple sources summarised by: Al-Jazeera (2023). https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-war-in-maps-and-charts-live-tracker (which gives data attributions) [accessed 12 March 2024]; The Guardian (2023a). 5 December. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/05/israel-disproportionate-force-tactic-infrastructure-economy-civilian-casualties

[12] Middle East Eye: ‘Gaza: Palestinian with Down syndrome ‘left to die’ by Israeli soldiers after combat dog attack: Muhammed, who was ‘like a one-year-old’, was separated from his family after an Israeli dog mauled him. His decomposed body was found a week later’ – https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/gaza-palestinian-down-syndrome-left-die-israeli-soldiers-after-combat-dog-attack

[13] AlJazeera, ‘Israeli tank fired at Hind Rajab family car from metres away: Investigation’  -https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/23/israeli-tank-fired-at-hind-rajab-family-car-from-metres-away-investigation; SkyNews, ‘I’m so scared, please come’: Heartbreaking final moments of girl, 5, killed in Gaza – https://news.sky.com/story/im-so-scared-please-come-heartbreaking-final-moments-of-girl-5-killed-in-gaza-13229813?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter; Middle East Eye, ‘The Hind Rajab Foundation: Pursuing Israeli soldiers worldwide for Gaza war crimes’ – https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hind-rajab-foundation-prosecuting-israeli-soldiers-war-crimes

[14] CNN Called Out LIVE For ‘Gaza Genocide’ Lies – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVYu9hdSEb0; “Not A Humanitarian Crisis, This Is Genocide” CNN Schooled By Gaza Doctor – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJvl2UDnT30&t=621s

[15] Ilan Pappe, Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Oxford, Oneworld Publications: 2006)

[16] Nurit Peled-Elhanan, Legitimation of massacres in Israeli school history books. Discourse & Society, Vol. 21, No. 4 (July 2010), p. 380.

[17] Osman Latiff, On Being Human: How Islam addresses Othering, Dehumanisation and Empathy (Sapience Institute, 2020), p. 5.

[18] Nutrit Peled Elahanan, Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education (London, I.B. Tauris: 2012), p. 49.

[19] Dave Grossman, On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (Boston, Little, Brown: 1995).

[20] S.Yizhar, Khirbet Khizeh (London: Granta Publication, 2011), pp. 109-110.

[21] Diana Buttu ‘When Palestinian Lives are so Dehumanised, Palestinian Suffering is Normalised’ Oct 14 2023:

[22] “Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly” – Thedore Herzl Complete Diaries, June 12, 1895; “It must be clear that there is no room in the country for both peoples … If the Arabs leave it, the country will become wide and spacious for us. The only solution is a Land of Israel … without Arabs. There is no room here for compromises …There is no way but to transfer the Arabs from here to the neighboring countries, and to transfer all of them, save perhaps a few.” –

Joseph Weitz, the director of the Jewish National Fund (source: Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestine Refugee Problem, 1947-1949, p. 27; “We must do everything to insure they [the Palestinians] never do return … The old will die and the young will forget.” – David Ben Gurion, 1948

[23] Hamza Andreas Tzortzis and Massoud Vahedi, Unveiling Tyranny: The Genocide in Gaza and the False Zionist Narrative on Palestine(Revised Edition Jan 2024, Sapience Institute), p. 67; Michael B. Hammer, The Dot on the I in History: Of Gentiles and Jews – A Hebrew Odyssey Scrolling the Internet (Morrisville: Lulu Publishing Services, 2017), 3.

[24] Osman Latiff, On Being Human: How Islam addresses Othering, Dehumanisation and Empathy (Sapience Institute, 2020), p. 48.

[25] Prosser, J. 2012. The Moral Maze of Image Ethics. In Situated Ethics in Educational Research, ed. H. Simons and R. Usher, 116–132. London: Routledge Falmer. P. 9.

[26] E. Said, Orientalism (New York, Vintage: 1979).

[27] Trivundža, I.T. 2015. Press Photography and Visual Framing of News. Ljubljana: Faculty of Social Sciences.

[28] B’Tselem, ‘Welcome to Hell: The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps’, https://www.btselem.org/publications/202408_welcome_to_hell, pp. 58-59

[29] B’Tselem, ‘Welcome to Hell: The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps’, https://www.btselem.org/publications/202408_welcome_to_hell, pp. 30-31

[30] Jack Summers, BBC Dragged Into Israel Information War Over Mythbusting #GazaUnderAttack Video (The Hufington Post) – https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/07/09/bbcs-old-gaza-image-information-war_n_5569869.html

[31] https://x.com/elgindy_/status/1737975484275626346?lang=en

[32]Israeli soldiers share ‘abusive’ videos mocking destruction of Gaza online • FRANCE 24 English – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk8WNTl0YYc; Israeli soldiers mock a couple’s home in Gaza in a disturbing online trend – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFRwKxjcimA

[33] Josua Krug, Comparing Hamas to Amalek, our biblical nemesis, will ultimately hurt Israel –  https://jweekly.com/2023/11/02/comparing-hamas-to-amalek-our-biblical-nemesis-will-ultimately-hurt-israel/;

[34] ‘Two Nice Jewish Boys – Pro Genocide – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0a1YqgCx8I

[35] G.N. Lendenmann,  1983. Arab Stereotyping in Contemporary American Political Cartoons. In Split Vision, ed. E. Ghareeb, 345–354. Washington, DC: American-Arab Affairs Council

[37] A. Palmer, 1995. The Arab Image in Newspaper Cartoon. In The U.S. Media and the Middle East: Image and Perception, ed. Y.R. Kamalipour, 139–150. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press

[38] S. Nasir, The Arabs and the English (New York, Longman: 1979).

[39]  J. Shaheen, Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People (New York: Olive Branch Press: 2001).

[40] Kamalipour, Y.R. 2000. Media Images of the Middle East in the U.S. In Civic Discourse and Digital Age Communication in the Middle East, ed. L.A. Gher and H.Y. Amin, 55–70. Stamford, CT: Ablex

[41] M. Ayish,  1994. Arab Image in American Mass Media (In Arabic). Research Series, No. 2. United Arab Emirates: United Arab Emirates University; Al-Qazzaz, A. 1975. Images of the Arab in American Social Science Textbooks. In Arabs in America Myths and Realities, ed. B. Abu-Laban and F. Zeadey, 113–132. Wilmette, IL: The Medina University Press.

[42] M. Vuorinen,  2012. Enemy Images as Inversions of Self. In Enemy Images in War Propaganda, ed. M. Vuorinen, 1–13. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, p. 1.

[43] Osman Latiff, Navigating War, Dissent and Empathy in Arab/U.S Relations Seeing Our Others in Darkened Spaces (Cham, Springer: 2021), pp. 41-42.

[44] Empire Files: Israeli Army Vet’s Exposé – “I Was the Terrorist”, – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rk1dAIhiVc&t=1390s

[45] Gideon Levy, “Jewish People Are Just That, People, and Far from Chosen,” Haaretz, 9 October 2023, accessed 20 November 2023; Hamza Andreas Tzortzis and Massoud Vahedi, Unveiling Tyranny: The Genocide in Gaza and the False Zionist Narrative on Palestine (Revised Edition Jan 2024, Sapience Institute), pp. 249-253.

[46] (702) Matt Hoh : [Live from Israel] : – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2qnrIMfqEM

[47] Mohamed Elmasry, ‘War on Gaza: How western media favours Israel on Instagram: A study of hundreds of Instagram posts suggests that serious dialogue, introspection and change is needed at mainstream western outlets’ – https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/gaza-war-israel-instagram-western-media-favours-how;

Middle East Eye, ‘British media favours the Israeli narrative’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8smXHkerDM&t=1s; Mohamed Hassan, ‘How Western media erases Palestinian suffering | Middle East Eye’ – https://www.middleeasteye.net/video/how-western-media-erases-palestinian-suffering#autoplay

[48] Arwa Mahdawi, ‘Where is Joe Biden’s fury about decapitated Palestinian babies?’  – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/30/biden-palestinian-beheaded-israeli-babies; Assma Maad, William Audureau and Samuel Forey, ’40 beheaded babies’: Deconstructing the rumor at the heart of the information battle between Israel and Hamas’ – https://www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decodeurs/article/2024/04/03/40-beheaded-babies-the-itinerary-of-a-rumor-at-the-heart-of-the-information-battle-between-israel-and-hamas_6667274_8.html

[49] https://web.archive.org/web/20130806155402/http://www.americares.org/where-we-work/africa-middle-east/gaza-and-the-west-bank.html%23tab-6

[50] Hartman, A.C., and B.S. Morse. 2015. Wartime Violence, Empathy, and Intergroup Altruism: Evidence from the Ivoirian Refugee Crisis in Liberia. http://cegah.beerkely.edu/assets/miscel laneous_file/119_-_HartmanMorseViolenceEmpathy-May_(2015).

[51] Davis, O.L., E.A. Yeager, and S.J. Foster, eds. 2001. Historical Empathy and Perspective Taking in the Social Studies. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield; Harris, R., and L. Foreman-Peck. 2004. Stepping into Other Peoples’ Shoes: Teaching and Assessing Empathy in the Secondary History Curriculum. International Journal of Historical Learning, Teaching and Research 4 (2): 98–111; Körber, A. 2017. Historical Consciousness and the Moral Dimension. Historical Encounters 4 (1): 81–89; Lee, Peter, A. Dickinson, and R. Ashby. 2001. Children’s Ideas About Historical Explanation. In International Review of History Education, Volume 3: Raising Standards in History Education, ed. Alaric Dickinson, Peter Gordon, and Peter J. Lee, 97–115. London: Woburn Press; Shemilt, D. 1984. Beauty and the Philosopher: Empathy in History and Classroom. In Learning History, ed. A.K. Dickinson, P.J. Lee, and P.J. Rogers, 39–84. London: Heinemann.

[52] Rantala, J., M. Manninen, and M. Van den Berg. 2016. Stepping into Other People’s Shoes Proves to Be a Difficult Task for High School Students: Assessing Historical Empathy Through Simulation Exercise. Journal of Curriculum Studies 48 (3): 323–345

[53] Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 678

[54] Osman Latiff, On Being Human: How Islam addresses Othering, Dehumanisation and Empathy (Sapience Institute, 2020), pp. 102-104.

[55] A.M. Rosenthall, Thirty-Eight Witnesses (New York, McGraw-Hill: 1964).

[56] Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men (London, Penguin Books:2001).

[57] Philip Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil  (New York, Random House 2007).

[58] Ali Usman, Sialkot brothers’ deaths: Justice catches up with lynchers – https://tribune.com.pk/story/256571/verdict-seven-given-death-sentence-in-sialkot-lynching-case

–

[59]  John Mcintyre and Mohammed Hijab, The Double Standard: Media Reactions to Zionist Terror (Sapience Institute, 2023).

[60] When Luna Park Killed an Elephant to Publicize Opening Day – https://www.coneyislandhistory.org/blog/when-luna-park-killed-elephant-publicize-opening-day

[61] Amy Louise Wood, Lynching and Spectacle (University of North Carolina Press, 2009).

[62] Ann Kaplan, E. 2011. Empathy and Trauma Culture: Imaging Catastrophe. In Empathy: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives, ed. Amy Coplan and Peter Goldie. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 261.

[63] Osman Latiff, Navigating War, Dissent and Empathy in Arab/U.S Relations Seeing Our Others in Darkened Spaces (Cham, Springer: 2021), p. 6.

[64] C. Taylor,  2011. Brian Haw Obituary: Peace Campaigner of Parliament Square Spurred to Action over Sanctions on Iraq. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/jun/20/brian-haw-obituary

[65]  K. Hetherington, Expressions of Identity: Space, Performance, Politics (London: Sage: 1998), p. 72.

[66] Mike Scialom, ‘Wall of silence greets Suella Braverman on visit to Cambridge pro-Palestine camp’ –

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[67] Swedish politician performs silent protest for Gaza at European Parliament  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nmD5WxHlbmg

[68] Last viewed on 26^th October 2024

[69] Australians React to Gaza – http://youtube.com/shorts/x5f3cNjTmN4?si=INeEAff-2xRorGd8

[70] BBC One—‘Killer in Our Classroom: Never Again’; Osman Latiff, Navigating War, Dissent and Empathy in Arab/U.S Relations Seeing Our Others in Darkened Spaces (Cham, Springer: 2021), pp. 73-74.

[71] Each Day is About Suvival: The Reality of Parenting in Gaza – https://www.unfpa.org/stories/each-day-about-survival-reality-parenting-gaza

[72] War Child shares first study of psychological impact of war on vulnerable children in Gaza – https://www.warchild.org.uk/news/war-child-shares-first-study-psychological-impact-war-vulnerable-children-gaza; Mcintrye ad Hijab incorporate the tragic event of November 11^th 2023 in their assessment “On November 11th, in one of the most prescient images of the current escalation and surely a damning indictment of humanity that will resound through the ages, 39 premature babies shared a single bed at al-Shifa after being removed from incubators which were unable to operate any longer for lack of fuel. By the time the hospital was forcibly evacuated by the Israeli military, eight had died, taking their final gasps before they ever had a chance to breathe.” A., (2023) ‘The Race to Save Premature Babies in Gaza’, Time, 22 November. Available at: https://time.com/6338832/gaza-al-shifa-hos- pital-rescue-mission-babies/.; John Mcintyre and Mohammed Hijab, The Double Standard: Media Reactions to Zionist Terror (Sapience Institute, 2023), p. 6.

[73] The Qur’an, Chapter 4, Verse 135.

[74] Al-Qur’an, Chapter 5, Verse 8.

[75] Dutch offer ‘deepest apologies’ for role in Srebrenica genocide – https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/11/the-netherlands-apologises-for-role-in-1995-srebrenica-genocide

 

[76] Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2619

[77] Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1659

[78] Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 5196

[79] Osman Latiff, Navigating War, Dissent and Empathy in Arab/U.S Relations Seeing Our Others in Darkened Spaces (Cham, Springer: 2021), p. 153. .

[80] Osman Latiff, Navigating War, Dissent and Empathy in Arab/U.S Relations Seeing Our Others in Darkened Spaces (Cham, Springer: 2021), p.12; Lisa Rossbacher. 2014. Empathy: Walking in Another’s Shoes. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=VPSFWIYoBTE.

[81] How the Gaza War Inspired a Wave of Muslim Conversionshttps://mashriqtv.pk/en/2024/01/24/how-the-gaza-war-inspired-a-wave-of-muslim-conversions/; Unstoppable Rise of Islam in Europe Since Gaza War  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLB_cn3nQDI

[82] Enes Taha Ersen, ‘Inspired by stance of Palestinians against Israel, US influencer converts to Islam’ – https://www.aa.com.tr/en/world/inspired-by-stance-of-palestinians-against-israel-us-influencer-converts-to-islam/3070593

[83] Farah El-Sharif, ‘God and the Concentration Camp:Where is God from all this suffering? A Palestinian-Muslim perspective.’ – https://sermonsatcourt.substack.com/p/god-and-the-concentration-camp

[84] Al-Qur’ān. Chapter 2, verse 155

[85] Al-Qur’ān. Chapter 47, verse 31

[86]  Al-Qur’ān. Chapter 2, verse 214

[87] Al-Qur’ān. Chapter 93, verse 4

[88] Al-Qur’ān. Chapter 2, verse 30

[89] Al-Qur’ān. Chapter 7, verse 128

[90] Al-Qur’ān. Chapter 15, verses 97-99

[91] Farah El-Sharif, ‘God and the Concentration Camp

Where is God from all this suffering? A Palestinian-Muslim perspective.’ – https://sermonsatcourt.substack.com/p/god-and-the-concentration-camp

[92] The People and The Olive: The Story of the Run Across Palestine – Official Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3r-44J_PgY

 

[93] Osman Latiff, Navigating War, Dissent and Empathy in Arab/U.S Relations Seeing Our Others in Darkened Spaces (Cham, Springer: 2021), p. 32.

[94] The People ad the Olive –  https://www.amazon.co.uk/People-Olive-Stone-Hut-Studios/dp/B08736XYCY; Osman Latiff, Landscaping otherness and challenging frames of ‘nothingness’ in contemporary Palestine. Space and Polity. Volume 20, 2016 – Issue 3, pp. 249-262.

[95] ‘The inspiring stories of Gaza volunteers helping Palestinians on the ground | The Stream’ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slq1YbQsTSg

[96] ‘The inspiring stories of Gaza volunteers helping Palestinians on the ground | The Stream’ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slq1YbQsTSg

[97] T. Snyder, 2016. Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning. London: Vintage, p. 309.

[98] Middle East Eye, ‘40 beheaded babies’ : How media amplified an unconfirmed story | The Big Picture S3E3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFtE9HMtiOc&t=325s; TRT World, Meet Israel’s ZAKA, the group that fabricated the ‘beheaded babies’ story – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95X6uWZ9k9Q

[99] The inspiring stories of Gaza volunteers helping Palestinians on the ground | The Stream’ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slq1YbQsTSg

[100] Susan Faludi, The Terror Dream: Myth and Misogny in an Insecure America (New York, Picador). p. 82.

[101] https://www.palestineaction.org/

[102] Asim Qureishi, ‘An open letter to scholars and leaders in times of genocide’ -https://www.islam21c.com/opinion/letter-to-scholars-during-genocide/

[103] H. Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (San Diego,: Harvest Book: 1979), p. 299.

[104] H. Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (San Diego,: Harvest Book: 1979), p. 299.

[105] Osman Latiff, Navigating War, Dissent and Empathy in Arab/U.S Relations Seeing Our Others in Darkened Spaces (Cham, Springer: 2021), pp. 11-12.

[106] Irish MEP slams Israeli ‘deliberate actions’ against UNIFIL | Dawn News English – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a4sWAfT9EU

[107] Doctors Without Borders, ‘How we’re responding to the war in Gaza: What to know about the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and MSF’s medical and humanitarian response’ – https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/our-response-israel-gaza-war

[108] Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel) -https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192

[109] Moroccans protest US-flagged ship carrying arms for Israeli regime docks at Tangier port -https://www.taghribnews.com/en/news/657233/moroccans-protest-us-flagged-ship-carrying-arms-for-israeli-regime-docks-at-tangier-port

[110] Aljazeera, Boycotts and protests – how are people around the world defying Israel?  -https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/15/boycotts-and-protests-how-are-people-around-the-world-defying-israel

[111] https://x.com/Meemmag/status/1869354424600084608?t=Qzl9EkuB-m0DBGXcAm9jmg&s=09

[112] https://www.zinnedproject.org/

[113] https://humanaid.org/

[114] Asim Qureishi, ‘An open letter to scholars and leaders in times of genocide’ -https://www.islam21c.com/opinion/letter-to-scholars-during-genocide/

[115] Kidron, P. (ed.). 2004. Refuseniks: Israel’s Soldiers of Conscience. London: Zed Books.

[116] The Academy for Islamicjerusalem Studies (ISRA) – https://isra.org.uk/

[117] https://www.het.org.uk/lessons-from-auschwitz-programme

[118] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/auschwitz-school-trips-are-helping-children-fight-discrimination-at-home-a6674351.html

[119] https://www.auschwitz.org/en/museum/news/1-million-184-thousand-people-visited-the-memorial-in-2022,1595.html

[120] https://srebrenica.org.uk/; https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g294450-d668457-Reviews-Sarajevo_War_Tunnel-Sarajevo_Sarajevo_Canton_Federation_of_Bosnia_and_Herzegovina.html

[121] Basma Hajir and Mezna Qato. 2025. Academia in a time of genocide: scholasticidal tendencies and continuities. Globalisation, Societies and Education: 3  DOI: 10.1080/14767724.2024.2445855

[122] Tony Greenstein, ‘Why is Germany supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza?’ – https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/11/8/why-is-germany-supporting-israels-genocide-in-gaza

[123] Tony Greenstein, ‘Why is Germany supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza?’ – https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/11/8/why-is-germany-supporting-israels-genocide-in-gaza

[124] Israel’s Radio Rwanda – https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/erase-every-living-being/

[125] Philip Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil (Rider Books: 2007); C.J. Nemeth, “Differential Contributions to Majority and Minority Influence,” Psychological Review 93 (1986), pp. 23-32;  Nutrit Peled Elahanan, Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education (London, I.B. Tauris: 2012), p. 31.

[126] LilieChouliaraki, The Ironic Spectator: Solidarity in the age of Post-humanitarianism (Cambridge: Polity Press: 2013), p. 42.

[127] A. Glantz,  Winter Soldier Iraq and Afghanistan: Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations (Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2008), p. 188.

[128] Matt J. Martin, Predator: The Remote-Control Air War over Iraq and Afghanistan: A Pilot’s Story (Minneapolis, Zenith Press: 2010), p. 85

[129] Paul Laurence Dunbar, ‘The Haunted Oak’ – https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44195/the-haunted-oak

[130] The Canary, ‘Not Guilty: another two Palestine Action activists acquitted over preventing genocide’ – https://www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2024/12/21/palestine-action-leicester/

[131] Basma Hajir and Mezna Qato. 2025. Academia in a time of genocide: scholasticidal tendencies and continuities. Globalisation, Societies and Education: 2  DOI: 10.1080/14767724.2024.2445855

[132] S. Sontag,  2003. Regarding the Pain of Others. New York: Picador/Farrar, Straus and Giroux

[133] T. Laqueur,  1989. Bodies, Details and the Humanitarian Narrative. In The New Cultural History, ed. Lynn Hunt, 176–204. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press

[134] AlJazeera, Who is Hussam Abu Safia, director of key Gaza hospital detained by Israel? – https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/29/who-is-hussam-abu-safia-director-of-key-gaza-hospital-detained-by-israel

[135] Stéphane Hessel, Time for Outrage! (New York, Twelve: 2010).

[136] Sunan an-Nasa’i 5008

[137] Pamela Newkirk, Spectacle : the astonishing life of Ota Benga (New York, Amistad: 2016).

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