If a dog is abused, it becomes aggressive.
A cornered animal on the receiving end of an attack will almost certainly fight back. This is what happened on 7 October: the underdog, Hamas, hit back after a long period of abuse.
The parallel I draw with animals is deliberate here because Israeli ministers called Palestinians exactly that: human animals. Similar phrasing was used by Nazi Germany itself, which referred to Jews as Untermenschen, meaning sub-human.
And much like Nazi Germany’s pursuit to ‘purify’ the Aryan race, which it viewed as superior, Israeli Jews also see themselves as superior to the “Arabs” they occupy and oppress. In fact, it is embodied in their Nation-state Law.
Israelis have come to believe that if they oppress the Palestinians and make their lives so incredibly difficult, including by placing them in an “open-air prison”, then they will leave their land on their own accord.
In fact, it has used 7 October as an excuse to carry out a second Nakba. To this end, it has waged attacks even more bloody than those that took place before its founding in 1948.
Read more: Palestinians in Gaza in the midst of a modern-day Nakba
Israel’s relentless bombardment has made Gaza “uninhabitable”, according to the United Nations.
Vicious circle
It’s a vicious circle: Israel’s obsession with its own security prompts it to carry out a never-ending stream of war crimes, crimes against humanity, land theft and occupation, which, in turn, spurs Palestinians to (naturally) resist their murderers and oppressors.
