US citizens may empathise with Palestine but American politicians are another story

Pro-Palestinian protesters rally in support of Gaza and Lebanon in Times Square on October 5, in New York City. Getty Images via AFP

This October 7, the continuing killings of Palestinians in Gaza and the massive bombings in Lebanon was probably be ignored by US officials and media outlets as they solemnly commemorated the anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel. What they would ignore is that the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict didn’t begin on October 7 last year, nor did the suffering end on that day.

October 7 was a horrific day, to be sure, of condemnable acts committed by Hamas against innocents. It is important that the stories of those who were murdered and those taken hostage be told and that we hear their cries and mourn their loss. And it is right that Hamas be condemned for the crimes they committed. But history didn’t start on that nightmarish day, and it certainly didn’t end there either.

Since then, from what we know for certain, more than 41,825 Palestinians have been killed, nearly 97,000 wounded, with more than 20,000 missing. Entire Palestinian families have been wiped out, neighbourhoods levelled, most housing in Gaza has been destroyed along with its schools, hospitals and infrastructure. Aid has been restricted, resulting in deaths from disease, starvation and malnutrition. And all kinds of psychological disorders have taken hold resulting from prolonged trauma. Respected international agencies have accused Israel of committing genocide – the destruction of a society, its culture and well-being. And now the devastation and trauma is being extended to Lebanon.

Pro-Palestinian protesters rally in support of Gaza and Lebanon at Times Square, on October 5, in New York City. Getty Images via AFP

When America’s political leaders and media commemorate the horror of last October 7, what happened after that day is unlikely to be considered. What began on October 8 and continues until now will probably be ignored. Worse still, those who dare to speak of the tragedy that followed could be denounced for their insensitivity to Jewish suffering. It will be as if the cries of the Israeli victims will drown out those of the Palestinians. The pain of one group of people will be prioritised over another’s. It is something that Arabs have come to expect: They are not seen as equal human beings.

To be crude, this is not making a case for Palestinians winning the victimhood Olympics. Rather it is merely a reminder that Palestinian lives matter as much as Israeli lives and that history didn’t begin or end on October 7, 2023. But this is not the story that will be told on that day, in the US media or in Congress or by the White House. And it’s not the way this story will enter US history books.

It’s often noted that history, as it’s taught in a society, is written by the dominant group. The story that is told is a function of the perspective of the person who’s relating it. It’s how they see it from where they stand, and its meaning is determined by where they choose to start their narrative.

When I was in school, the American history we learnt began with Columbus’s “discovery” of what was termed “the New World”. “Indians” were savages and the “3/5ths compromise” was presented as a logical answer to how to count slaves in the census.

The world history we studied was Eurocentric. Islam was a barbaric threat; China was a mere footnote “discovered by Marco Polo”; Genghis Khan was a marauder. And the British and French, we were taught, brought civilisation to the primitive people of the south and east.

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In reality, of course, the “New World” was populated with ancient civilisations that had built magnificent cultures, slavery was a barbaric institution, Islamic civilisation taught the West a great deal, Genghis Khan was one of the great conveyors of culture from East to West, and colonialism was an evil that subjugated and exploited and distorted the economic and political development of the conquered nations.

But that’s not the story that was taught, because those who wrote the history we learnt in school began their story in 1492 and told it from the perspective of Americans or Europeans looking out at the world.

Back to last October. Palestinians have a tragic story to tell of dispossession, displacement and oppression that began a century ago. But in the US, their story is not the dominant narrative. The nightmare they’ve lived through is either not understood or it is rejected outright.

Palestinians have a tragic story to tell of dispossession, displacement and oppression that began a century ago. But in the US, their story is not the dominant narrative

In mid-October last year, I had an encounter with a senior Biden administration official. After he spoke passionately about October 7 and the trauma it evoked for Jews everywhere, I told him I understood. I noted how my uncle, a US soldier in the Second World War, told me about what he saw on entering the concentration camps in Nazi Germany.

His stories and The Diary of Anne Frank, which I read in high school, helped me understand Jewish trauma and be understanding of their fears. I cautioned him, however, that there was another group of people who also had a history of trauma and that what Palestinians were seeing play out evoked for them the nightmare of the Nakba.

We must, I insisted, be sensitive to the trauma of both peoples. He angrily shot back, dismissing my observation saying that it smacked of “whataboutism”. I was stunned and angry. It was one thing for Israelis to feel that only their suffering matters and that anyone who attempts to distract from that one-sided view is either dismissive of Jewish pain or is defending those who inflict it. It’s quite another for US officials and major media figures to share this view.

Public opinion in the US is changing with more Americans understanding the Palestinian story and empathising with their pain. This broader view, however, has not taken hold in official political and media circles. They still see history through the eyes of only one side. For them, only Israeli lives and suffering matters and the story of the current tragedy began and ended on October 7.

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