Weekly Briefing: The violence that never makes the headlines

The daily death and casualty numbers we have been following since October only report those directly killed by Israel’s military onslaught, but what about those killed by the destruction of a society? This is a question that has haunted me for months. What has happened to the cancer patients? How have Palestinians with other health conditions gotten the care they need?

Part of the answer was made clear in a story we ran this week by Tareq Hajjaj on the state of the medical sector in Gaza. The most shocking moments of violence we have witnessed over these past 8 months – the besieging of hospitals, the slaughter of Palestinians trying to receive aid, the forced displacement at gunpoint of over 2 million people – are just the tip of the iceberg of the violence that Palestinians in Gaza have been subjected to.

Tareq tells the story of Nabil Kuhail, a 3-year-old leukemia patient who was simply not able to receive the medical care he needed because Gaza’s hospitals have been destroyed. “Nabil’s story is one among many,” Tareq writes. “Countless patients have struggled to get treatment for a variety of illnesses, from the serious to the commonplace, making the latter often as deadly as the former.”

This destruction of Palestinian life is evidence of Israel’s genocidal intent in Gaza. And as Jonathan Ofir helped confirm this week, support for these policies stretches across the Israeli political spectrum, including those often lauded in the West as the most liberal paragons of Israeli “democracy.”

Of course, this daily violence Palestinians face beyond the headlines is not solely in the Gaza Strip. Shatha Hanaysha reported for us on the sadistic case of Israeli soldiers using an injured Palestinian man as a human shield during an invasion of Jenin in the West Bank this weekend. 

Shatha reports:

One eyewitness, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Mondoweiss that the Israeli forces deliberately mistreated the injured man.

“They appeared to be toying with him for amusement,” the eyewitness said, pointing out that the man was neither wanted nor a resistance fighter, but an unarmed civilian. This was evidenced by the fact that Israeli forces did not arrest him but handed him over to the Palestinian ambulance after he had been left strapped to the front of the vehicle for several minutes in the hot summer sun.

This story will likely not make international headlines but tells us more about the realities under Israeli occupation and apartheid than many human rights reports. 

And the threats of violence only seem to be growing. Please take time to read this explainer by Qassam Muaddi on the growing threat of an all-out Israeli attack on Lebanon. As Qassam makes clear, it will likely come down to the Biden administration to stop an Israeli attack which could have monumental and devastating regional consequences. Unfortunately, it appears the U.S. is unwilling to stand in Israel’s way. 

However, the efforts to shift U.S. policy continue, with many eyes on the upcoming U.S. elections. This week, Michael Arria profiled two important efforts to challenge the political status quo. 

Since the “Uncommitted” campaign to register disapproval of the Biden administration started making surprise headlines across the Democratic Party primaries the big question has been – what happens next? This week Michael spoke with Listen to Michigan Co-Director Lexis Zeidan to find out. Michael also talked to Justice Democrats spokesperson Usamah Andrabi about the Reject AIPAC coalition for the Mondoweiss podcast. Please be sure to take a listen. 

Finally, we just kicked off our Summer fundraising campaign. Mondoweiss can only do what it does with the financial support of our readers. Over 80% of our yearly budget is raised from readers like you, who give us the editorial freedom to tell the stories that others ignore and need to be told. If you appreciate our work, please give what you can. 

Thank you for reading and for your support.