"On that day, Palestinian militants broke out of Gaza and attacked nearby settlements and military bases, resulting in the death of roughly 373 Israeli security forces, 695 Israeli civilians, and 71 foreign nationals, including a number of people killed by Israel's own Hannibal Directive. The attacks, and the capture of 251 hostages, represented an unprecedented rupture in Israel's presumed impenetrability, and with it, a crisis for the Western imperial paradigm."
"Within hours, this imperial machinery leapt into overdrive, scrambling to counter this rift with sheer, spectacular force. Pundits and politicians cranked existing Islamophobic, racist, and anti-Indigenous rhetoric full blast in a frenzy. Western heads of state attested to baseless tales of beheaded babies, joining Israeli officials who declared Gaza's entire population of 2 million to be terrorists and animals. As calls for an unbridled, indiscriminate military assault on the Strip reached a fever pitch,"
A diasporic Palestinian identity is rooted in the Nakba and the unfinished pursuit of liberation and return. Growing up in the diaspora revealed entrenched Western hostility and erasure of Palestine, often met in the United States with ignorance, denial, or fear. On October 7, 2023, militants breached Gaza, causing significant Israeli military and civilian casualties and the capture of hostages, shattering assumptions of Israeli invulnerability. The breach triggered an immediate, overwhelming Western response that amplified Islamophobic and racist narratives, circulated baseless atrocity claims, dehumanized Gaza's population, and intensified calls for an indiscriminate military assault on the Strip.
Read at The Nation
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