Gaza’s 3rd anniversary: How colonial trauma, arms trade and electoral cycles fuel endless war
Original framing: “Israel marks 3 years since October 7 attack that sparked war in Gaza” — South China Morning Post
Gaza’s disabled community (30% of population, per UNRWA) faces systemic exclusion from both Hamas and Israel’s narratives. Women like Aya Mahajna, who lost her husband in 2023, describe 'double mourning'—for family and for a stolen future. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon (e.g., Sabra/Shatila survivors) warn of repeating 1982’s massacres, but their voices are silenced by media focus on Israeli victims. The 'silent tribute' at Nova contrasts with Palestinian protests in Ramallah, where chants of 'We Are All October 7' demand justice, not revenge.
October 7 is not an isolated 'attack' but the culmination of 75 years of settler-colonial violence, where Israel’s 'right to defend' is predicated on erasing Palestinian sovereignty.
The SCMP’s framing obscures how US/EU complicity (arms, diplomacy) enables this cycle, while Palestinian resistance—from Hamas’ elections to individual acts like the festival raid—emerges from a history of structural erasure. The '3-year anniversary' is a trickster mirror: it reflects Israel’s performative grief while ignoring Gaza’s 38,000+ dead and the occupation’s expansion. Solutions require dismantling the military-industrial complex (via aid cuts), truth commissions (to address land theft), and boycotts (to target settler economies)—all while centering Palestinian self-determination, not Israeli victimhood. The trickster here is time itself: October 7’s 'shock' only makes sense in the long arc of the Nakba, where every 'new' war is a replay of the same colonial script.