One Year After 10/7
An illegal military occupation, a horrifyingly expanding genocide, and what must happen to ensure peace and justice going forward
Let me start with a question. Why is it we never hear media report that in the year prior to 10/7/23, Hamas killed 240 Israeli civilians including 47 children, kidnapped 800 more Israeli children, held 8000 Israelis hostage, and built more than 12,000 homes on Israeli land?
The answer: Because Hamas did none of those things—the Israeli government did. Let’s Address This.
Before 10/7
In the year prior to 10/7, the Israeli government killed at least 240 Palestinian civilians including 47 children in the West Bank, kidnapped 800 Palestinian children, separated them from their parents, and put them in indefinite detention—where they still suffer physical and sexual abuse according to Israeli human rights organizations, held 8000 Palestinians hostage in indefinite detention without trial, charge, conviction, or access to counsel, and built 12,000+ illegal homes on Palestinian land in just the first half of 2023.
In fact, on October 6, 2023, the human rights group Defence of Children International reported,
This year has witnessed the highest number of attacks on Palestinian children by Israeli forces, either by killing, maiming, or arresting. In August, Human Rights Watch said in a report that 2022 was the deadliest year for Palestinian children in the West Bank in 15 years. "This year is even worse, as 45 children were killed by the occupation forces in 2022, but already 47 have been killed in 2023, and the year is not over", said Ayed Abu Qteish from DCI-P. "The main reason for this spike is the fact that the complete lack of accountability, as there hasn't been a single case of accountability in the occupation army for the killing or maiming of a child.” Currently, Israeli forces hold 160 Palestinian children in its jails, including 32 under 15. Since 2000, Israeli forces have killed 2,287 Palestinian children.
I repeat, this report was published on October 6, 2023.
Palestinian lawyer, analyst, and activist Diana Buttu states, “Israeli logic is that nothing justifies October 7, but genocide is justified because of October 7.” As we review the circumstances leading up to October 7, and Israel’s actions since October 7, it becomes impossible to dispute Buttu’s point. Imagine the narrative and headlines if each of the above described Hamas, instead of the Israeli government? And ask yourself, why is the average American wholly unaware that in fact, each of those atrocities prior to 10/7 are true of the Israeli government?
After 10/7
On October 7, 2023 I wrote:
As a human rights lawyer, I will always stand for justice for Israel and justice for Palestine, where every Israeli civilian and child is safe, and every Palestinian civilian and child is safe. That is the only path forward.
I stand by these words. And over the last year, in addition to my writing and advocacy, I’ve spoken repeatedly at my city council to demand ceasefire and release of all hostages, raised and donated thousands for Palestinian relief for Humanity First and MedGlobal, provided pro bono legal aid to those in need, sponsored Palestinian Film Festivals, marched in pro peace marches to call for an end to the arms trade, protested outside the DNC, and advocated on the boards of multiple non-profit organizations to call for an end to the siege on Gaza. Articles on this subject I’ve already written include:
Peace after 10/7 requires understanding what happened before 10/7
What will it take for the USA to stop funding Israeli war crimes?
And whatever human rights work I’ve done in this space, it is insignificant to the incomparable work done by healthcare workers and journalists in Gaza who are dying by the hundreds through targeted strikes from the Israeli government. Reporters Without Borders documents at least 130 journalists killed by Netanyahu’s military—journalists who remain relentless in telling their story in a Netanyahu imposed media blackout. The Palestinian Health Ministry documents at least 1,151 healthcare worker killed by Netanyahu’s military—providing care in what is described as hell on Earth due to Netanyahu’s indiscriminate bombing of hospitals. And The Lancet conservatively estimates at least 186,000 Palestinian civilians killed as of June 2024—a number that has no doubt increased since.
Meanwhile, Israeli war crimes continue, funded and enabled by atrocious US government policy. The ICC and ICJ have already well documented war crimes by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, and Defense Minister Gallant. Multiple media outlets and NGOs have reported on the Israeli military raping prisoners at secret torture sites, bombing UN schools and designated safe zones, and illegally blocking aid. And despite Hamas accepting multiple Israeli demands of ceasefire and release of all hostages, Netanyahu has prevented a deal—a fact attested to by the families of the hostages themselves, who call him “Mr. Death.”
For example, on May 6 Hamas said it accepted a ceasefire proposal that included release of all hostages. Israel rejected it. Again on June 11 Hamas accepted the binding UN Security Council resolution on ceasefire and release of all hostages—Israel again rejected it. When Zeteo News journalist Prem Thakker asked about ceasefire, US State Department Spox Matt Miller first claimed “[the USA] never wanted a diplomatic resolution with Hamas,” followed immediately by, “we could have a deal if Hamas would just come to the table.” The hypocrisy of this statement notwithstanding, reality attests that diplomacy has released hundreds of hostages, while war has killed more than it has secured.
Likewise, ProPublica documents that US Secretary of State Blinken defied his own State Department reports to lie to Congress and claim that Israel is not blocking aid into Gaza. And now a new shocking report from DropSiteNews cites Israeli officials to allege Blinken approved bombing aid trucks. And just as Defence of Children International reported that the spike in Palestinians killed by the Israeli military is due to "the complete lack of accountability, as there hasn't been a single case of accountability in the occupation army for the killing or maiming of a child,” there remains a complete lack of accountability from the US Department of Justice for any of the American citizens killed or kidnapped by Netanyahu’s army.
The Future
The path forward is clear—we must end this genocide, release all hostages, end the occupation, rebuild Gaza, ensure a viable two state solution, and hold accountable those who committed war crimes.
But the question is whether American leadership has the moral and ethical courage to walk that path? A path that should start with President Biden. Instead, we see an expanding conflict that threatens to engulf the entire region. Asked if he supports Israel striking Iran's oil refineries, Biden responded, "We're discussing that." This answer is perplexing and confounding. Biden himself admits he believes Netanyahu is perpetuating war to help Trump win, yet Biden continues to arm Netanyahu to perpetuate war. Politically, I believe Harris can beat Trump—but I do not know if she can beat Trump and Biden if Biden continues to betray the will of the American people. We know the following critical facts about how united Americans are to end the siege on Gaza by withholding arms from Netanyahu:
61% of Americans oppose weapons to Israel’s assault in Gaza
77% of Democrats reject US weapons to Israel
63% of moderates reject US weapons to Israel
And we also know that the American people want Harris to break from Biden. As CNN reports regarding a national study on this very question:
In mid-September, the Democratic research and polling initiative Blueprint conducted a national poll testing a long series of potential statements Harris could make about herself and Biden. Those that performed best, the polling found, “were those that displayed a clear break between her and Biden,” while those that performed worst were “those that portrayed a future Harris administration as building on the accomplishments of the Biden era.”
And finally, we know this is not a position unique to Americans. This is an area of agreement between Americans, Israelis, hostage families, and Palestinians. It’s also global consensus with our main allies. Canada and the United Kingdom are already restricting arms to Netanyahu. France is now calling to end all arms to Netanyahu. And Ireland refuses to remove its peacekeepers from Lebanon even as Netanyahu bombs Lebanon. Yet—President Biden continues to defy the American people and the Leahy Laws to keep arming Netanyahu. If Ronald Reagan could force Israel to stop bombing civilians with a single phone call, why is Joe Biden afraid to stop arming Israel to commit war crimes?
Where do we go from here
Last week I attended a fundraiser for Gaza with MedGlobal. And in the powerful display of witness testimonies from Gaza, we were reminded the names of Hind Rajab, the 6-year-old Palestinian girl that Israeli forces shot to death with more than 300 bullets. We were reminded of the two aid workers, Yousef Zeino and Ahmed al Madhoun, who the Red Crescent deployed to save Hind with the permission of the Israeli military—who then killed Yousef and Ahmed anyway. We were reminded of Refaat Alareer, a Palestinian writer, poet, professor, and activist from the Gaza Strip that the Israeli military murdered with a targeted drone strike. And we were reminded above all else, that these are not statistics, these are human beings. And it is indefensible for the US government to continue to fund a genocide, especially while knowing full well that Israel’s current leader has no intention of establishing peace.
Justice dictates we boldly and courageously walk the path of peace for the sake of humanity. It is imperative that we as Americans, and indeed as all people globally committed to justice and humanity, exert all our efforts to secure that permanent and lasting ceasefire and release of all hostages, meaningful resources to rebuild Gaza and Palestine into a sovereign state, and meaningful accountability for those who committed these war crimes. If you have influence over politicians, speak to them. If you have resources to donate to relief agencies, donate. And if all you have is your voice to speak up for justice, then let your voice be heard.
Indeed, if you’ve ever looked at historical atrocities and asked yourself, “What would I have done if I were alive then?” the answer is, it’s whatever you’re doing right now to stop the genocide in Gaza.
I close with the poem of Refaat Alareer. May our better angels enable us to bring back love.
“IF I MUST DIE” BY REFAAT ALAREER
If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself—
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale
why indeed?
As I have said from at least since the '67 Six days War, if Israel wants the right to exist they need to grant Palestinians the right to exist and and not grant themselves a right to exist any land that was not given to them the right to exist in.
I might (not being Islamic) grant them a greater claim to Jerusalem; but that is a bargaining point. and perhaps should have been not divided when Israel became a UN authorized state; but an independent internationally sponsored city state; sort of a multi-religious Vatican State.
And as a person who was studying at Hebrew Union in Cincinnati in 1967, my argument was especially not well received then. I agree Nassar was a pretty nasty piece of work, but only because he was sort of a damnable proponent of such a silly idea that the Suez belonged to Egypt and not the French and English.. Ohmigod the horrors! of such an idea. And to actually think Israel thought they were kind of doing the world a grand service by invading Egyptian territory to help prevent such a dastardly piece of nationalism from occurring. Of course that was the second, not the first time Israel attacked that damnable anti-Western madman.
But yet despite all of that certainly Israel must have been justified in attacking Egypt in '67 because Nasser was trying to create a greater Pan-Islam state all around Israel to oppress poor Israel and threatened to existence,. The fact that Nasser's larger state to fight Israel of course had nothing to do with Israel having already attacked Egypt twice in less than eight years of Israel's sovereignty.
And since Israel has continued to be threatened remains the important thing; we simply can't blame Israel for feeling threatened when they have been threatening to their neighbors since 1948, can we?
Come on Qasim, are we going to expose Israel's atrocities in the year before OCT 7, when we haven't exposed their threats to the Muslim countries around them for seventy-six.
Shame on you Qasim! for thinking such a horrid thought that they might even slightly be to blame for what happened on OCT 7. Oh the shame of it all! How dare Muslims point the finger at them!
And so long ago in 1967 I learned my lesson (hah!) when I was informed I was no longer welcome at Hebrew Union. And now students across America are learning the same lesson fifty-nine years later.
Israel can't be responsible for persecuting others, 'cause damn it all! they're a beacon of democracy in the autocratic middle east. Of course Lebanon was a democracy, Syria was a democracy, and even Iraq had a flirtation with democratic government long ago before Israel desettled middle eastern democracies with displaced populaces, now sponsored by nasty Iran instead of Egypt.
And isn't Iran itself a democracy (a religious one of course) that was created from trying to liberate themselves from a western installed tyrant? And if Jordan and Saudia Arabia are non-democratic, who installed those dynasties.
But we must support Israel mustn't we? because they are after all, a democracy aren't they, the only (didn't't the Iranians just elect a government to lead towards a more poro-western democracy. Damn it all, don't you realize if Iran was allowed to not be a pariah and create detente with the west how much that in itself threatened Israel? No they had to kill on Iranian soil to prove they were really only fooling about detente didn't they.?
Come on Qasim, be a little realistic, and don't try to tell us Israel is a terroristic state and has used terroristic tactics long before they were ever a state.
How can you really even suggest Israel may not be the good guys here? How could you do that? How?
Your well presented evidence mounts. I hope you will publish this elsewhere too for as wide an audience as you can find. I have no answers to add except Saving democracy here in the next month has to occur before we can really influence the war in Gaza as you show. Trump would just make it worse so we have some priority work in our own backyard. We don’t know what president Biden knows or why his behind the scenes efforts seem to get nowhere. I imagine it has something to do with Netanyahu’s continuing rejection of the any so-called two state solution that most of us thought was somehow progressing forward until we learned of all the atrocities “occupation” has brought by Israeli authorities that happened before the retaliatory attack on other innocent people in Israel. I don’t think most of us realized how ineffective the government structure was in Gaza but maybe we had compassion fatigue and didn’t pay close enough attention as the planet melts, as Putin tries to put his empire back together, as our own society is split with the 1984 effects of Trump and his big and constant pollution fueled lies -so many issues overwhelm us. We need our public to understand the evidence you present to develop the pressure for near future policy change here. Of course the people in the region have to be part of their own solution by not wanting what hamas wants. Forgiveness can be developed through autonomous governance with no motive to kill their neighbors or oppress them to keep from being killed. Freedom from harm and mutual respect will win the day when everyone looks in the mirror and reforms, after recoiling from what they see.
The costly Afghanistan war astounded me by the never discussed strongly held assumption that everything - including support of just and unjust wars- should fall to us but we do stand for liberty and justice for all. We have again learned how dysfunctional and horrible terrorist run and terrorist tolerant governments are too. I don’t see sides here- just an escalation of destruction and a continuation of a long time chaotic mutual disrespect and the oppression over people from often violent repression, fears of reprisals that would take more innocent lives, and lack of cohesion in holding a battered society together by working for progress and freedom rather than having to fear and fight just to exist.
How poignant that the report on increased civilian Palestinian deaths (children!) came out the day before hamas aggression boiled over into war. And the number detained without information or charges is not tolerable either for modern civil society. People will rebel as freedom from oppression is a basic human right and need.
Again I have no answers to add other than put the oxygen mask on our nation before we can save other nations and people. The next month is crucial for tipping people in the direction of sanity and normalcy. While we manage to pick sides on everything using our combined tax dollars to fund and influence what who and how we pick too, all of the people of the historic region discussed here need to step up in their own way by demanding, developing, picking, and becoming better more receptive, more effective and astute leaders. The motives need to be affected as well as the conduct on all sides too. That is my biggest understatement in this comment. Love and curiosity has to replace hate and oppression. And fear, which requires real security and real governance.
Let’s hope we help not hinder but let’s hope it is realized that we are not the savior or solution to conflicts in the Middle East or Europe, a well-informed electorate endowed with legal rights and a functioning legal and government system with intelligent effective fair minded leadership is what will be needed too. And a change or containment of bad intent and intenders.
As your evidence proves, the issues have been more than festering for a long time and have obviously gotten way worse at high cost to life we profess to cherish. The boiling over is full of opportunities but only if hate and distrust get removed from the equation. I’m back to having no answers and this is the same ultimate challenge we face in the US this election. I appreciate pondering at a higher level because of the digging work you have done and the experience you bring and share.