The World’s Deafening Silence in the Face of Palestinians’ Sufferings

It is with a heavy heart that we recount the events of October, where the world, yet again, chose to look the other way when it came to the harrowing plight of the Palestinian people. The bloodshed, agony, and torment that they endure daily were brushed aside as if they were just another mundane occurrence, too ordinary to merit global attention. This so-called “normalcy” shrouded the grim reality of Gaza, a place that has been shackled by a 17-year Israeli blockade and has suffered under a 56-year occupation. It concealed the fact that Israeli military incursions had become a predictable routine, leaving civilians to mourn their loved ones after every assault and entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble. Tens of thousands of homes, places of worship, hospitals, cultural centers, and schools crumbled into ruins every few years, and still, the world remained unmoved.

In the Gaza Strip, “normal” is defined by the daily struggle to cope with hours-long power outages and internet suspension, while hospitals are pushed to the brink, forced to be the last resort for the sick and wounded, where there are a few beds available for every thousand residents.

It has become customary for Palestinian families to endure hunger, for essential medicines to vanish from pharmacy shelves, for graduates to face bleak, uncertain futures, and for the majority of the population to cling to survival through meager aid.

Yet, this relentless “normal” has been met with a persistent, resonating silence on the world stage. It has remained an ignored, almost invisible backdrop to the theater of global politics, seldom worth more than a passing reference.

All of this changed when Israeli civilians tragically lost their lives, the world finally stirred from its indifference. The international community suddenly took notice, engaging in fervent discussions and vociferously condemning the violence. Only when the spilled blood took on a different hue did conversations about Palestine permeate the mainstream.

It is a painful revelation that the world that had previously shown indifference to the daily struggles of Gaza and all of occupied Palestine only became interested when a different kind of blood was spilled. It is a stark reminder of the glaring injustice that continues to persist as the world remains silent in the face of the Palestinians’ ongoing sufferings.