Oct. 7 is a tragedy for Israel. It’s been one every day since for Palestinians.
On Nov. 19, 2023, The New York Times published on the front page a devastatingly haunting photo of 9-year-old Khaled Joudeh sobbing over the blood-stained corpse of his 8-month old sister Misk, just killed in an Israeli bombardment.
The Times detailed Israel’s killing of 68 members of Khaled’s family that day, including his mother, father, Misk and a brother. Only Khaled and his 7-year-old brother Tamer survived from his immediate family.
But two months later Khaled himself was killed in another airstrike that also claimed Tamer and four other relatives.
My wife hails from Gaza, and Khaled and his family are relatives. We have lost more than 150 relatives in Gaza — among them 3-year-old Malak Sakani, her father and pregnant mother, who were all sheltering in an Israeli-designated “safe zone” when their building was struck by Israeli missiles.
In January, I wrote a guest essay in the AJC with a sense of naïve optimism that the “day after” in Gaza had finally arrived. I believed the U.S.-brokered ceasefire of Jan. 15 between Hamas and Israel marked the end of war and the end of indiscriminate killing — a war that, at that time, had already taken more than 47,000 Palestinian lives and over 1,000 Israeli lives.
But just about two months later, Israel shattered that hope. With surprise airstrikes in Gaza, it broke the ceasefire and reignited what much of the international community recognizes as a genocidal war. Today, the death toll has climbed to over 66,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, with more than 168,000 wounded.
War between Israel and Palestinians began before Oct. 7, 2023
At the two-year anniversary of Oct. 7, we again stand at a crossroads. Another U.S.-brokered ceasefire is reportedly in the works — yet once more, Palestinians have no seat at the table. The terms are dictated by Israel and the United States, continuing the long, bitter pattern in which the West decides the fate of Palestinians in Gaza, the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Oct. 7 was a tragedy, with hundreds of Israelis killed by Hamas. But every day since has been its own tragedy – one endured primarily by Palestinian civilians. Women and children have borne the brunt of Israel’s indiscriminate bombings, with entire families — as Khaled Joudeh bitterly learned — erased in moments.
In its two-year campaign, Israel has unleashed the machinery of a modern military against an impoverished, displaced people — Palestinians forced to live in tents, dependent on food aid, while their hospitals, schools, churches, mosques and homes are systematically destroyed. The objective is clear: to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their ancestral homeland.
Let us be honest: it is a false narrative to suggest this war “began” on Oct. 7, 2023, or that the atrocities of that day justify Israel’s massively disproportionate response. The reality is that the Oct. 7 attack — horrific as it was — was the inevitable result of decades of Israeli occupation, repression and sabotage of peace efforts, from the Camp David Accords of 1979 to the Oslo Accords of the 1990s.
The hope — fragile though it is — lies in Israel finally honoring its commitments under the latest ceasefire framework. Only by doing so can there be a path toward true peace between two peoples who deserve to live with dignity, freedom, and security.
Americans can support Israel and oppose its policy toward Gaza
The truth remains: Israel, armed with nuclear weapons and backed by unmatched U.S. military aid, holds absolute control over Palestinian life. In wielding this power, it also holds the choice of what future unfolds.
Will it continue its land seizures, expanding settlements while enforcing an apartheid system of domination, as is daily happening in the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem? Or will it step back from the precipice and pursue peace — even if limited — for the sake of both nations?
On this anniversary of Oct. 7, let us insist that Israel choose peace. That means ending the relentless settlement expansion in the West Bank, ceasing the forced displacement of Palestinians and dismantling the apartheid military regime that controls every aspect of their existence.
The American Jewish community itself can take a stand in this regard — as some already have. But to those who have yet to speak out: You can support Israel without supporting its genocidal and ongoing campaign against innocent and defenseless Palestinians.
It is time to stand up and recognize that Israel is perpetrating a genocide, as documented in a September report by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. And that this is in no way reflective of Jewish religious values.
The best way for American Jews to do that is to speak out against that ongoing genocide and to withhold their contributions from organizations that give space for Israel to commit genocide.
The path to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East has never been more uncertain. But the first step is both simple and urgent: Stop the killing.
Nidal M. Ibrahim of Alpharetta is former executive director of the Arab American Institute and former publisher of Arab American Business Magazine.
