We did not do so to achieve neutrality. We are not claiming to be neutral in this war, and never have: The Palestinian cause concerns us profoundly because it is essentially just and has a direct impact on our country and the region in which we live.
We condemned the Oct. 7 attack for two main reasons. The first is that, in our view, nothing justifies the massacre of civilians. Nothing justifies the violence of the adversary, the occupation, the blockade or all that Palestinians have had to endure for decades and which we have never failed to report. One horror does not justify another.
The second is that it was obvious from the very first hours after the al-Aqsa Flood Operation that the direct consequence of this attack would be an unprecedented flood of fire on the Gaza Strip.
Could we ignore the fact that the Palestinians in the enclave would be the first to pay the price? Admitting that every war requires “sacrifices,” for what and for whom have 15,000 Palestinian children been sacrificed over the last seven months, apart from the interests of Hamas and the Iranian axis? To prove that Israel is capable of the worst? We already knew that. What’s next? What difference does it make to the daily lives of Palestinians?
We’ve been walking a fine line from the start. How can we support the Palestinian cause, without playing into the hands of Hamas and without taking part in the morbid one-upmanship that has done so much harm to this cause for decades?
This task was made all the more delicate by the fact that Hezbollah joined the game on Oct. 8, attacking Israeli sites in the occupied Shebaa farms.
Here too, it was essential for us to report on the war taking place in our country and affecting our fellow citizens, without playing into the hands of the Shiite militia.
The more time passes, the harder it is to maintain this balance. Firstly, the going gets more difficult because we are too isolated in our stance. Who is defending the Palestinian cause today?
The “Axis of Resistance,” which has committed every possible massacre in the region over the past 15 years?
The Arab regimes, which have no lessons to teach in compassion or respect for human rights, and which have decided to watch Gaza burn without lifting a finger?
The US, which, despite its threats and warnings, continues to finance this carnage, a humanitarian and strategic disaster?
The Europeans, who are waking up and smelling the coffee far too late and too moderately, and who have such difficulty in stating the obvious: No state in the world can afford to act the way Israel is acting today without risking (if only risking,) being ostracized the international community?
Secondly, Israel makes it extremely difficult not to give in to one-upmanship. We have not forgotten Oct. 7, just as we have not forgotten that history did not begin on that day. We are horrified by the outburst of anti-Semitism and we don’t want to give in one bit to this shame.
We know well that Hamas and its allies are prepared to see Palestinians die by the thousands and whole neighborhoods devastated in the name of “Resistance.” But how does this justify Israel’s barbarism?
How many children were killed, how many hospitals were destroyed, how many people were displaced, how many humanitarian convoys were targeted or prevented entry, and how many speeches inciting genocide will it take to “make up,” in the eyes of the Israeli government, for the Oct. 7 slap in the face?
How many more bombardments like the one that hit a camp in a so-called “safe zone” yesterday, killing at least 45 people, including those burned alive?
How many more “unbearable” images will it take for the international community to finally say, with one clear and firm voice: Enough!
Not only is Israel destroying life within the enclave, but it is doing so without any political perspective. At the military level, it has so far failed to destroy the al-Qassam Brigades, and in the near and long term, it offers no possibility of a way out of the crisis.
We do not know whether Israel is committing genocide. In any case, the International Court of Justice found a “plausible risk” that this has been the case, and nothing has been done since to reduce it. It’s up to the jurists to say — many of them have already done so — and the important thing is to prevent it while there’s still time.
We must do everything we can to stop this unjustifiable horror as quickly as possible. Yes, at the moment, this would mean a “victory” for the “Axis of Resistance.” But what are these calculations worth in the face of the survival of over two million people?
This article was originally published in L'Orient-Le Jour. Translated by Joelle El Khoury.
