The West in the oppression of Palestine and highlights the biases in Western societies, universities, media, and institutions towards Israel. It exposes the hypocrisy of Western democracy and calls for a truthful reckoning of the situation.
The article highlights the tragic situation in Palestine, with 17,000 Gazans already killed since October 7.
The West has played a role in enabling this tragedy by supporting Israel's "right to defend" and reducing Palestine to Hamas.
Critiques of Zionism and the Israeli state have been conflated with anti-Semitism, and the Holocaust has been weaponized.
Western societies, including universities, have limited freedom of expression by demonizing and targeting citizens who support Palestine.
Ivy League institutions like Harvard and Columbia have made public the private details of students who signed pro-Palestine letters.
Jewish donors and supporters of Israel have withdrawn funding from universities, alleging inaction against anti-Semitism and anti-Israel speeches.
University administrations in North America have condemned only Hamas, and scholars working on Palestinian freedom have faced harassment.
The media has shown overwhelming bias towards Israel in framing the Palestine-Israel conflict for Western citizens.
Words such as apartheid, ethnic cleansing, genocidal intent, settler colonialism, used by scholars and human rights organizations to describe Israeli actions, are missing in discourse.
The liberal face of institutions like Hollywood has been exposed, with initial lack of response to Hamas attack leading to a backlash and later support for Israel from 700 people in the entertainment industry.
Pro-Palestinian voices chose to remain anonymous in their letters to avoid professional consequences.
European countries including the U.K., France, Germany, and Italy declared support for Israel and imposed bans on pro-Palestinian protests.
Austria banned a pro-Palestinian demonstration citing the inclusion of the phrase "from the River to the Sea" as a justification.
Europe, where blasphemy laws are abolished and caricatures of religion are allowed, has seen burnings of the Koran and cartoons on Prophet Muhammad.
Western complicity in Palestinian oppression is rooted in colonialism and imperialism masked by the façade of liberal democracy.
Exposing the hypocrisies of Western democracy is the way to address the complicity in Israel's colonisation of Palestine.
The Canadian government-appointed National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls acknowledged the genocide perpetrated against Indigenous people by the Canadian state.
There is resistance to the war in Palestine from Arabs, Palestinians, and Jewish dissenters.
Mainstream Western media has given more space to Palestinian stories, but it is still not enough.
Recent U.S. opinion polls show disapproval of President Joe Biden's support to Israel, with almost 70% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters under 35 years expressing disapproval.
Israel-born Holocaust scholar Omer Bartov warns against the dehumanization of the population of Gaza and calls for leaders and scholars to publicly condemn the rhetoric that promotes rage and vengeance.
Holocaust scholar Raz Segal emphasizes the importance of a truthful reckoning of how the West contributed to the current situation in Palestine.
The West must acknowledge its own monstrous role in bringing Palestine to the current precipice.
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