Hypocrisy, denial and ignorance flourishes in lockstep with the Gaza genocide

There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.

–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It’s hard to believe that after 21 months, there are still multitudes of people who not only deny that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza, but actively apologise on behalf of the perpetrators. The denial persists even though the military conduct of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) in Gaza is widely acknowledged as the most documented, visually recorded, and broadcast or live-streamed genocide in history.

Independent Australian journalist Caitlin Johnstone has come to the conclusion that there can be no justification for this amoral behaviour. She recently posted her disapproval and legitimate rebuke on Facebook:

I recently interacted with another blogger here in the WordPress comments section whose posts and commentary clearly indicate that he or she gets their information primarily from right-wing echo chambers. This blogger made several impassioned rationalisations for Israel’s conduct, absolutely denying that they were conducting a genocide. Apparently, Israel’s immoral conduct, which includes the massacre of tens of thousands of women and children and enforced starvation, is a vital step in procuring peace and economic prosperity in the Middle East.

This blogger’s stance resonates with so many fellow South Africans whom I also interact with on social media. These people openly demonstrate a nostalgic yearning for a return to the apartheid era policies that South Africans endured just over 30 years ago. The Middle East government is demonstrably enforcing a similar system of enforced separation and oppression in wider Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. In fact, it is also widely acknowledged as apartheid, even though Israel goes through great pains to paint a different, more rosy picture (watch this two-part video here and here by an anti-Zionist activist, which exposes Israeli propaganda and indoctrination) through their notorious propaganda channels.

Meanwhile, Western governments have recently all been clamouring to either recognise Palestinian statehood or promise to do so at some unspecified time, months from now. Why they cannot do so immediately is unclear. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that they are hypocritically still supplying Israel with the weapons that are massacring Palestinians in Gaza. Canada is a prominent example of this hypocrisy.

Also, recently, several countries undertook to air-drop food aid into Gaza. This action is both dismally inadequate and undeniably too late, as the effects of the enforced starvation are already in effect. Many lives have already been lost through malnourishment, while many more are in clear danger of succumbing. Why now? The hypocrisy is astounding.

Are the pictures of children decimated by starvation while scores of food trucks are being denied entry into Gaza, only now tugging at the heartstrings of world leaders? Are the reports of Gazans being deliberately shot for months, while they desperately queue for food aid, only now causing a reaction? Imagine the irony of a right-wing troll like Tucker Carlson exposing the egregious depravity of the IDF and the absurdly-named Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which replaced UNRWA, the previous organization who were falsely smeared and drummed out of existence by Israel and the US government to distribute food.

All these incidents of the shocking levels of Israeli depravity are widely publicised. Yet many claim ignorance. It’s more like wilful ignorance. Do people really find it easier or more comfortable to seek refuge within the ivory towers that shelter their biases? Would it hurt to find out what is really happening?