One year has passed since October 7

Israel has been in constant violation of international law.

Last October, Israel launched an attack on Gaza, its long-time target, with the consent of the United States, the media and those who were not at all well-versed in the history of the so-called Arab-Israeli conflict.

Starting history from Oct. 7, 2023, Israel cited Hamas’ large-scale counterattack on Israel, which allegedly included the killing of 1,500 civilians, mass rape and the beheading of forty Israeli babies, as a reason to carpet bomb Gaza. Since then, Israel has destroyed almost 90% of schools, 70% of homes, 155 hospitals and much more. In addition to secular civilian infrastructure, Israel has targeted religious architecture, destroying 610 mosques as well as bombing the 900-year-old Church of Saint Porphyrius. While the official death toll of Gazans sits at around 41,000, this only includes the Palestinians that the Gaza Health Ministry was able to identify. The true death toll, as estimated by The Lancet, is likely over 200,000.

As usual, Israel has targeted journalists, including murdering Al-Jazeera journalist Hamza Al-Dahdouh, videographer Mustafa Thuraya and video journalist Samer Abu Daqqa. The apartheid, genocidal ethnostate has also directly attacked the families of journalists from Al-Jazeera. Wael Al-Dahdouh, for instance, was struck by Israel himself after Israel killed his wife, daughter, son and grandson. Attacks like this are a way to punish those reporting on Israel’s continuous siege over Gaza. Recently, Israel forced the Al-Jazeera office in the West Bank to shut down for over a month, once again showing its tendency to suppress the free press.

Following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 counterattack, which was brought about due to Israel’s apartheid, colonialist nature and 75-year long occupation of Palestine, President Joe Biden announced his support for Israel. He, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris, began pushing the same lies that Israel had spread, with him insinuating that he saw the beheaded babies and Harris screening a movie that pushed the idea that Hamas committed mass rape. In addition to his continuous vocal support of Israel despite Israel crossing his so-called red-line months ago by invading Rafah, the only alleged safe-zone in Gaza, Biden has supplied Israel with billions of taxpayer dollars to fuel its slaughter of civilians. On Sept. 26, in the midst of the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Israel received $8.7 billion the same day as Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Deanne Criswell said that there is an almost $9 billion shortfall in aid that is preventing communities from recovering. Meanwhile, according to fema.gov, Hurricane Helene survivors have received only $47 million in federal assistance — half a percent as much as Israel.

Outside of the fact that the Biden Administration is openly indifferent about how many Palestinians are murdered or if Gaza is ethnically cleansed and is supplying Israel with the means to do so Americans’ expense, it has exhibited its lack of regard for civilian life in the fact that, only weeks after Oct. 7, 2023, Biden casted doubt upon the Gaza death toll and said that the murder of innocent Palestinians is the price of war. He, thus, devalued thousands, and now tens of thousands, of people — grandparents who remember a time of peace in Palestine prior to the existence of Israel and babies who were barely able to take their first breaths before they were trapped under rubble or left to decompose in an abandoned hospital — as being mere numbers. He, as well as Harris who has said that she will not institute an embargo on Israel if she becomes president, constantly refuse to unequivocally condemn Israel for its targeting of civilians, journalists and hospitals or criticize Israel’s continuous and clear violation of international law in its enactment of the above. Nor have they denounced Israel’s invasion of Gaza, decades long blockade over it, occupation and annexation of land in the West Bank, or its apartheid nature that is enshrined in its laws. Instead, they only show care when their campaign is under fire for their lack of regard for human life.

In addition to its atrocities in Gaza, since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has attacked Egypt, the West Bank, Iran, Syria and Lebanon and continuously attempts to provoke a regional war. Early in its genocide, Israel bombed Egypt as a way of preventing aid from entering Gaza and so that the Rafah crossing, the only exit point from Gaza into Egypt, would close. Throughout the first few months of the genocide and up until recently, Israel has protected Israeli settlers as they continue to attack West Bank Palestinians in their effort to annex the entirety of the West Bank. In late August, Israel launched a raid in the northern West Bank as hundreds of soldiers, with the support of aircrafts, bulldozers, and drones, invaded Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas in the largest attack in two decades, according to Al-Jazeera. In April, it attacked the Iranian consulate in Syria, which was seen as an attack on Iran as an attack on a consulate has historically been treated as an attack on the country to which the consulate belongs. It also killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, with whom Israel is meant to be negotiating, in Tehran, Iran. In addition to attacking a consulate in Syria, Israel has directly targeted it, killing three civilians, including a news anchor, in Damascus last week. Lastly, Israel has bombed Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, and has launched an invasion of Southern Lebanon, killing over 2,000 people.

Israel seems intent on provoking a regional war and, as the individuals who will be paying for it, it is crucial that Americans understand what is happening in Gaza and the Levant. Furthermore, it is imperative that as students who will partake in society one day, we understand the society we are meant to inherit and, as student writer Caleb Bovell says, recognize that we are not just college students in Oklahoma but rather voters who will be making decisions this election that will affect Gazans and those living in the Levant and worldwide.

The role of students in this wider purpose is recognized by many students at this university such as History student Kylee Howren who says that “see[ing] the numerous calls of action around” was “a warm surprise coming to campus” as it “ brings awareness to an important topic that has seen such unfathomable tragic loss” and “makes us think about how the American government and corporations have played a massive role in perpetuating such brutal violence.” Other students, however, do not seem to grasp the fact that students are voters, taxpayers or members of society nor do they seem to know the role of students in enacting systemic change. So, they look away or make fun of student activism when they see it.

The fault of not understanding such a critical role falls on a number of factors, including the university. Despite TU’s mission being to educate its students so that we may “Welcome the responsibility of citizenship…and leadership in a changing world,” many of its students do not grasp what it means to be voters or to live in a society nor do they find it within themselves to take a stance against the most well-documented genocide in history. This is due, in part, to the fact that the university has adamantly refused to release any sort of statement regarding the genocide in Gaza with President Brad Carson insisting that the university will not take a stance on political issues. I did not realize that being against genocide was political. I did not realize that saying babies should not be left to rot in their incubators was a controversial stance. I did not realize that saying that humans deserve to live and to live in dignity regardless of their race was not a stance that every person and organization should immediately take. I especially did not recognize this as, less than a week after Russia invaded Ukraine, the university posted their “Statement on the situation in Ukraine” wherein they provided a “non-exhaustive list of organizations that are needing support right now.” But apparently, it does not find value in providing a list of sources to support Gazans, and now Lebanese and Syrians, nor does administration believe they should reassure their Arab students who fear for the lives of their family and friends and worry that their country will be invaded and occupied that the university is here to support them. As Qudrat Qureshi, the president of the Muslim Student Association, says, the university owes us an explanation on “how they can sit and watch this catastrophe occur” and “be ignorant towards us students who” can do nothing but watch the suffering of their “loved ones living in these areas.” The university being non-political is not an excuse.

Standing against genocide is not a political stance and supporting your students is the duty of every university, so I again insist that the university to condemn the murder of tens of thousands and stop evading your students.

Post Author: Heba Saleh