As the war on Gaza grinds past 600 days, the world’s so-called leaders gather in air-conditioned chambers, polishing talking points about “peace” and “stability.” But beneath the headlines and diplomatic performances, a different truth howls from the rubble: Gaza is being erased. And the world is watching.
This is not a conflict. This is not a war between equals. This is a one-sided campaign of destruction, military, political, and cultural, against a besieged, stateless people. More than 30,000 Palestinians have died since October 2023, the majority civilians. Entire neighborhoods are gone. Schools turned to dust. Hospitals, bombed repeatedly, are barely functioning. Children grow up without limbs, without parents, without hope.
And yet, Israel speaks of “progress.” Prime Minister Netanyahu boasts about negotiations with Hamas over hostage deals, as if these talks absolve the state of its relentless bombardment and decades of occupation. They do not. No hostage exchange, no ceasefire, no international summit can undo the core injustice: the denial of Palestinian freedom.
This week, the Israeli navy forcibly boarded a humanitarian boat headed for Gaza. On it was Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, attempting to deliver medical aid and solidarity. Instead, she was detained and deported. Her crime? Bearing witness. Her presence was deemed a threat, not to security, but to silence. Israel cannot allow the world to see Gaza’s truth.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, far removed from the people he claims to represent, echoed calls for the “demilitarization of Hamas” and a return to the “two-state solution.” But what does that mean in 2025? A state carved from fragments, fenced in by walls, surveilled by drones, subject to foreign armies and international cynicism?
To demand the disarmament of the oppressed while arming the oppressor is not diplomacy; it is complicity.
In Yemen, in Syria, on the Lebanon border, the echoes of this war ripple outward. Israeli strikes hit Houthi-controlled ports. Syrian civilians fall to drone fire. Meanwhile, military exercises by Iran, China, and Russia signal a looming global realignment. The Middle East is not just a battleground; it is a proving ground for the future of warfare and imperial power.
Next week, the United Nations will host a “peace” conference in New York. But peace without justice is a performance. It is a delay tactic. It is a way to reset the violence until the next explosion, the next child buried in rubble, the next excuse.
We don’t need more summits. We need decolonization. We need accountability. We need solidarity that doesn’t flinch.
Because history will not remember the press releases. It will remember who stood with the oppressed, and who stood by in silence while Gaza burned.
