Why do many people protest about Israel but not what is happening in the rest of the world
What is it about Gaza? Wars are raging around the world, so why are young people so passionate about this one?
University campuses worldwide have recently transformed into small tent cities as student activists protest the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
While protests on Australian campuses have largely been peaceful, tensions are escalating. There have been many reports of hate speech and clashes between student groups in recent days. In the US, police have intervened to disperse similar protests, resulting in troubling scenes.
Students, along with many others, are protesting against the loss of life and deteriorating conditions in the current Gaza conflict. Many Israeli hostages taken during last year’s Hamas assault have yet to be released, while the Palestinian death toll from the Israel Defence Forces’ response is believed to have surpassed 34,000. Additionally, many Palestinians are facing what the United Nations has termed a “full-blown famine”.
The situation in Gaza demands urgent international attention and a peaceful resolution. However, it is not the only armed conflict or humanitarian crisis in the world—far from it.
So, why has the Gaza conflict sparked such intense and sustained interest, especially among young people? What drives people to protest this particular issue while others may not receive similar attention?
- In Israel, women have been raped and subjected to sexualised torture by Hamas, as reported by Raoul Wallenberg Centre this week in a United Nations report. They documented these acts of sexual violence as part their landmark legal brief, submitted to the International Criminal Court last month.
- In Sudan, internally displaced and refugee women and girls have been subjected to sexual violence as a tactic of war to subjugate and terrorise.
- In Iran, over a year after the death of Mahsa Amini who wore her hijab incorrectly and was jailed for doing so. She eventually died after being released due to the torture she had suffered in Prison. This sparked nation-wide protests under the banner Woman, Life, Freedom, citizens faced a brutal government crackdown that has resulted in hundreds of deaths and tens of thousands of arbitrary arrests. Iran’s parliament recently passed a bill that would increase prison terms, fines and penalties for women still daring to break the country’s strict dress codes.
- In Afghanistan, the Taliban has introduced over 50 decrees directly curtailing women’s rights since taking power in 2021. It has banned women from almost all public spaces, including parks, gyms, hair and beauty salons, and – perhaps most cruelly – classrooms.
- In Canada, sex trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes. This form of modern slavery is a scourge, and affects primarily young women and teen girls from all backgrounds.
In spite of it all, brave women in each of these countries and around the world persist in their human rights advocacy.
But why are their no protests about this events. This is, in part, because their stories are not being showcased through news outlets and on social media. While the “ideal victim” must be recognised as powerless, they must also be able to tell their story to motivate others to act, either themselves or through their advocates. Many victims of conflict are rendered invisible by inattention.
Hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Syria have been murdered, yet you don’t hear a word about it. Twelve years after protesters in Syria first demonstrated against the four-decade rule of the Assad family, hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed and nearly thirteen million people—more than half the country’s prewar population—have been displaced.
It is not on main stream media and there are no protests. Is the Gaza war the only war getting attention because of antisemitism. It would seem so. We marched for Black Lives Matter when it should be Every life Matters, even Jews.
No-one likes to see the deaths of any innocent man, woman or child. In Gaza, the Hamas Terrorist Organisation and its supporters are holding innocent civilians who had nothing to do with anything. They were peace loving civilians helping Gazans in many cases by providing work and medical support. Many hostages came from other countries including the United States.
If Hamas were to release all of the hostages including the ones who have died or been murdered, there might be a reason for a stop fire, but in their own charter, it calls for the genocide of all Jews not only in Israel but the whole world.
~ Sen Mack