Why Should Gaza Bleed?

Let’s not forget that Gaza is not just Gaza. Gaza is the new Black. Gaza is Africa. Gaza is thenickel and coltan mines. Gaza is global capitalism. Gaza is the hierarchical division of theworld. Gaza is wealth inequality. Gaza is an unstoppable machine of exploitation, destruction, and death. When we analyze Gaza’s necropolitics, we come face to face with the Global Order. For this reason, any words spoken without confronting the ruling class of the Third World—those who fail to challenge the global system, do not point to it, and instead becomecomplicit in it—will remain incomplete.
February 3, 2025
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Let’s not forget that Gaza is not just Gaza. Gaza is the new Black. Gaza is Africa. Gaza is thenickel and coltan mines. Gaza is global capitalism. Gaza is the hierarchical division of theworld. Gaza is wealth inequality. Gaza is an unstoppable machine of exploitation, destruction, and death. When we analyze Gaza’s necropolitics, we come face to face with the Global Order. For this reason, any words spoken without confronting the ruling class of the Third World—those who fail to challenge the global system, do not point to it, and instead becomecomplicit in it—will remain incomplete.

 

“No problem of our time is so deeply rooted in the past.”

Report of the Royal Palestine Commission of Inquiry, 1937

 

“Yes, this is a challenge. Let’s see how long you can endure.”

Amal Ahmed Albaz – Time Passes

 

I am aware that the title carries the risk of being perceived as provocative, even accusatory. Had it been “Why Is Gaza Bleeding?”, it might have been received differently. But I deliberately say “Why Should It Bleed?”—because this title already contains the answer tothe question “Why is it bleeding?” Yes, for some, Gaza is a place that must bleed, and the titleaims to shed light precisely on this mindset.

In fact, the question itself conceals the answer to another question: “Thousands of people arebeing killed in Gaza before the eyes of the so-called civilized world. Why is this allowed?” Itis allowed because Gaza is a symbol. And what does it symbolize? It represents what anti-colonial thinker and activist Frantz Fanon called The Wretched of the Earth—the dominatedand subjugated part of the world. And it is precisely through the expendability of thesedamned people that the ruling powers of a world, now transformed into a tiny island of prosperity, can continue to sustain their wealth.

For most of today’s capitalist Western centers of civilization, the removal of thorns like Gaza is either a necessity or collateral damage that must be endured for the West to remainprosperous. Of course, beyond that, Gazans belong to a completely different culture—one far removed from the center.

Before delving into a sociological analysis of why Gaza must bleed, I would like to highlighta few key points regarding the phenomenon of Israel.

The Big Other, the Small Other

I would like to begin by stating that Zionism did not take shape as an inherently Jewishideology; rather, it was injected into Jewish identity by Jewish intellectuals. In her book Bibleand Sword, Barbara Tuchman uses the term restoration when referring to the establishment of Israel and makes an important observation regarding Britain’s motivation.

“Britain’s role in the restoration of Israel was rooted in two motives: one religious and theother political. The first was a debt of conscience toward the biblical peoples, and the secondwas an imperial strategy that required possession of their land. In 1917, while fighting againstthe Turks, Britain found itself faced with the most delicate conquest in its entire imperialhistory. It could have taken Palestine without dealing with its former owners. Instead, beforeAllenby entered Jerusalem, Britain—through a peculiar gesture known as the BalfourDeclaration—proclaimed that the land would be open for Jewish resettlement. As a voluntarycommitment by a conqueror to a stateless people, the Declaration was somethingunprecedented in the model of protectorate states. Though it was later renounced by itssponsors, it led to an event unparalleled in history: the recreation of a state after a loss of sovereignty that lasted more than two millennia.” [1]

Language is a reflection of the mind. Thus, for the Christian world, Israel was like a secondbirth of the Bible. This is precisely why it received support from Stalin’s Russia to the United States—demonstrating that, despite the persecution Jews faced throughout European history, they were ultimately regarded as part of that civilization. As the people of the Old Testament, they were seen as the heirs of the Bible.

In this sense, as Denis Guénon highlights, Europe’s cultural boundaries were shaped in opposition to Islam. Europe did not construct itself in contrast to a theological rival, but ratheragainst a theological enemy. What made Europe Europe was the positioning of Islam as itsultimate adversary—the Big Other. European identity, therefore, was formed in the mirror of Islam. This historical dynamic still persists today, and Judaism, once a theological rival, nowserves as an ally against Islam. Just as it once made Europe possible, it now plays a similarrole—this time as an infiltrated ancient enemy that facilitates the cohesion of the Christianalliance known as the European Union.

Guénon formulates this key observation succinctly: “The nation is a theological idea.” He then adds: “Europe shapes itself through confrontation with Islam.” [3]

In this context, Israel skillfully exploits this Western weakness, intensifying the clash of civilizations in its role as the Great Deceiver. Indeed, at the outset of the genocidal attacks, Netanyahu’s advisor and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, in an interview with theBBC, stated that they were fighting an ISIS state right next to them. He further claimed that ifthey did not fight this war, London could be attacked—implying that Israel was essentiallykeeping Europe safe. [4]

By doing so, Bennett directly appeals to the subconscious of the West, once again rubbing it in their faces—reminding a Europe built on the fear of Islam just how vital Israel is for them. In the next section, I will examine this phenomenon in greater depth.

Israel is fully aware that it serves as the outpost of Anglo-American imperialist domination in the Middle East, that it is obligated to serve them flawlessly, and that in return, it enjoysimmunity. The West, too, is well aware that this outpost plays a crucial role in sustaining theindustrial civilization built by the rich, industrialized Western nations. (Since I will explorethis issue in greater depth in another article—specifically in connection with the loomingecological collapse—I will limit my discussion of it here.)

Biden openly acknowledged this reality, stating that even if Israel did not exist, “we wouldhave to invent another Israel.”

Returning to the fear of Islam and the broader clash of civilizations, Israel, as a master of deception, both manufactured and financed the Islamophobia phenomenon that surfaced after9/11—thus securing its license to kill.

Conscience Has Fled to Cold Reason

In parallel with his son-in-law Kushner’s claim that Gaza holds economic value as a coastalcity, Trump suggested that the area could be developed and proposed relocating hundreds of thousands of people to neighboring countries, either temporarily or permanently. He evennamed Jordan and Egypt—which already host over 2.7 million Palestinian refugees—as potential destinations.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump stated:

“I would prefer to engage with some of the Arab countries and perhaps build housing in a different place where they could live in peace for a change.”

He continued:

“You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean everything upand say, ‘You know, it’s over.’”

By saying this, Trump essentially advocated for Palestinians to be absorbed by Arab nations—or even Indonesia—a goal that aligns perfectly with the agenda of Netanyahu’s fascistadministration. Indeed, one of the most extremist figures in the cabinet, Finance MinisterBezalel Smotrich, called this “a great idea” and suggested that he could draft a concrete plan for it.

Shortly after launching its campaign of annihilation in Gaza in October 2023, Israel officiallydemanded the forced displacement of Palestinians to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. In fact, fromthe very beginning, the core objective of Zionism has been the de-Palestinization of this land—the complete expulsion of the Palestinian people. After October 7, they now believe thatthis plan is feasible.

According to Netanyahu and other fascists, there is no such thing as a Palestinian people—there are only Arabs, and Arabs are a people who should not exist on the lands of the Ancient Israeli Empire. This, they claim, is their ancestral land.

For this reason, even before the establishment of the state of Israel—a country that has been a toxic thorn in the region—the de-Palestinization of Palestinian territories was already on theagenda. As is well known, for the fascist ideology called Zionism, these lands were declaredempty and uninhabited. In their narrative, Palestine was a land without a people, designated as a homeland for a people without a land.

That is why, long before October 7, the Netanyahu government—the most fascistadministration in Israel’s history—had already drawn up plans to expel Gazans from theirland in order to completely annex these territories.

For the Israeli government, Gazans—and even Palestinians in general—are not consideredhuman beings. In fact, after October 7, a former Israeli Defense Minister publicly referred toGazans as “animals”. However, in the eyes of the West, even this designation might still be considered a form of recognition.

Indeed, the song “Tel Qadeya” (It’s a Cause), performed by the band Cairokee, powerfullyillustrates how the West perceives the Palestinian people—or rather, all Global Palestinians.

“They protect sea turtles. They kill humanoid animals.

Because that is a separate cause.” This is a different cause. [5]

Those who embrace trees and advocate for kindness do not recognize Gazans as humanbeings—or rather, cold, instrumental reason prioritizes interests, and for this type of reasoning, values like conscience are meaningless.

Two key concepts help explain this phenomenon: emotional othering and adophorization.

Susan Sontag, in her work Regarding the Pain of Others, discusses how media coverage of suffering eventually leads to emotional numbness. Watching a mother struggling among theruins in Gaza while sitting at the dinner table is, in reality, a true catastrophe.

Following Sontag’s argument, war, bloodshed, and tears have become spectacles, resemblingscenes from a movie rather than lived realities. Of course, all incoming information is filteredand manipulated by the media cartel controlled by figures like Rupert Murdoch. Yet, even as the same emotions are repeatedly exploited, they eventually become desensitized, making it increasingly difficult for people to react.

Adophorization is also a form of emotional alienation. For example, professionals such as doctors, healthcare workers, and members of the judiciary must maintain this state of detachment in order to perform their duties effectively. A doctor must keep an emotionaldistance from their patient; the same applies to a judge.

To ensure that their decisions align with justice, a judge must not be influenced by theemotions of the accused. After all, tears could very well be a deceptive strategy designed tosway the judge’s ruling in favor of the defendant.

However, when this necessary detachment becomes generalized to society as a whole, thenwe end up with a Trump-like mentality—where one can coldly say, “There’s money to be made here, so let’s just deport them.”

Or we witness the contradiction of saying, “We must help the people of Gaza,” while at thesame time flooding Israel with weapons. These are perfect examples of instrumentalrationality and the heartless alienation it produces.

In precisely this climate of callousness, Trump—an embodiment of narcissism who views theworld like a gambler—speaks his mind without restraint.

From Trump’s capitalist perspective, Gaza is merely a land of ruins, and Palestinians do not have the money to clear these ruins and rebuild—unless, of course, Israel allows it. Moreover, in Trump’s view, Gazans cannot remain here because Israelis and Palestinians are two groupsthat hate each other.

Thus, in his cold, transactional logic, this “unnecessary population”—which is wasting thisland for no reason—should simply be removed so that the territory can be restored to its”proper” function: serving those who generate economic value and profitability.

In this way, Israel—the aircraft carrier, the gatekeeper of resources for both the U.S. andEurope, and the extension of white European civilization—ensures the continued flow of rawmaterials from this region to the so-called “civilized world” while continuing to generateeconomic value.

Thus, while Israelis are considered human, Gazans are seen as a stain—and Israel is the stainremover.

The perspective of “ratio”, the quantitative instrumental reason associated with rationalism, which means to calculate and measure, finds its perfect embodiment in the shared interests of Donald Trump—the former casino mogul and real estate investor who became the presidentof the super-rich—and the secular-messianic, fascist Zionist government of Israel.

Israel is both rich and protected by the rich—a destruction machine, or more precisely, a bulldozer for construction and demolition. It carries out this task under the supervision andbacking of the West.

Every piece of technology Israel needs for this purpose is either provided to it or produced byIsrael itself.

In contrast, Palestinians lack a transit hub to transport oil and natural gas to the islands of prosperity or to sustain that prosperity. In other words, they lack the capacity to generateeconomic benefit.

And yet, they possess land suitable for tourism investment, a strategic geographical positionfor new transportation routes, and the natural gas resources that the wealthy North desperatelyneeds.

Above all else, Gazans are poor—and this is their greatest crime.

Furthermore, they are not white; they do not belong to Western culture, which is built on thefoundations of the Old Testament. Instead, they have a belief system and cultural universethat is perceived as alien and incompatible with the modern world. [6]

For precisely this reason, they do not fall into the category of lives that can be mourned—lives deemed worthy of existence.

They are not even as valuable as the pets or possessions of the rich.

Moreover, they do not serve the wealthy North; rather, they belong to the class of disposable, expendable, colored people—akin to shipyard workers who labor to death, providing rawmaterials and manpower to produce goods not for themselves, but for others. They existwithin a system that treats them with the “Did I pay for the seed?” logic—a mentality thatsees them as mere tools, to be used and discarded.

Rebelling against this ruthless logic, against this machine-hearted world, is a right. But unfortunately, the rebels have not yet been able to create enough destruction to instill fear in the hearts of these merciless minds, forcing them to hold back.

In reality, the small apocalypse has already taken place.

The Antichrist is here, fully armed with all his technology.

What is missing is the Mahdi—for unlike this cruel world, justice manifests itself in his values.

I hope Mahdism will emerge.

However, let us not forget that Gaza is not just Gaza.

Gaza is the new Black. Gaza is Africa. Gaza is the nickel and coltan mines. Gaza is global capitalism. Gaza is the hierarchical division of the world. Gaza is wealth inequality. Gaza is an unstoppable machine of exploitation, destruction, and death.

When we analyze Gaza’s necropolitics, we come face to face with the Global Order.

For this reason, any discourse that fails to challenge the global system, fails to expose it, andinstead becomes complicit with it—especially through the ruling class of the Third World—will remain incomplete.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a leading voice of the Global South, formerly known as the Non-Aligned Movement, recently responded to Elon Musk, the leader of what can be called the Global Fascist International, on X (formerly Twitter). In his post, Petro madeobservations that also explain why Gaza will continue to bleed.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro issued a powerful statement, warning that capitalism is bringing back fascism and that the wealthy Western neo-colonial elites are treating thepeoples of the Global South as “disposable, like the children in Gaza.”

He declared:

“The barbarism of consumption, built on the death of others, is leading us to theunprecedented rise of fascism—and consequently, to the death of democracy and freedom.

This is barbarism, or as I call it, ‘Global 1933.’

1933 was the year Hitler came to power.

What we see in Palestine today will also be the suffering of all the peoples of the [Global] South.”

The West defends its excessive consumption and its standard of living, which is built on thedestruction of the atmosphere and the climate. It does so fully aware that this will not onlyimpact the Palestinian people but will also trigger migration flows from the Global South tothe North—and it is ready to respond with death to protect this system.

This is why harsh anti-immigration policies exist, why there are concentration camps formigrants, and why thousands perish in shipwrecks. This is why the Tapón del Darién—thetreacherous route where many migrants cross from Colombia to Panama—exists. And this is why economic blockades are imposed on rebellious nations.

The right wing in the West sees the solution to the climate crisis as a “final solution.” Theright is once again dreaming of Hitler and conquest—and the majority of the wealthy, Aryan populations of the West, along with much of our own Latin American oligarchies, see noworld beyond the shopping malls of Florida or Madrid.

At the same time, Gaza forces us to ask another question: Why is there no global intifada?

I believe I would answer this with the insight of Zygmunt Bauman, the sociologist who mademe love sociology: “While the rich globalize, the poor cannot.”

Let me conclude my words—which, in the face of resistance, feel inadequate—with a passagefrom Amal Ahmed Albaz’s poem Time Passes.

(If only all the rebels who seek justice in this world felt this way.)

“Even an embryo born on this land is born to resist.

Born to fight back.

Born for the right to exist.

Resistance is our bread.”

 

References:

[1] Barbara W. Tuchman, England and Palestine from the Bronze Age to Balfour, BallantineBooks, New York, 1984, p.13.

[2] Denis Guénon, Hypotheses sur l’Europe, p.58; Gil Anidjar, The History of the Enemy—Jew, Arab (Inside), trans. Timuçin Binder, Ayrıntı Yayınları, Istanbul, 2012, p.24.

[3] Ibid, p.25.

[4] https://news.sky.com/video/were-fighting-nazis-former-israeli-prime-minister-defends-cutting-off-energy-to-gaza-strip-12983288

[5] The Song’s Other Lyrics Are as Follows:

 

This is an Issue

They save sea turtles

They kill human animals

But this is one issue, and that’s another

How to become a white angel?

Bear half a conscience

Fight for freedom movements

Annihilate liberation movements

Distribute your compassion and tenderness

Over the killed according to nationality

But this is one issue, and that’s another

How to become civilized

Abiding by all terms and conditions

Make all your words righteous

Take trees into your arms

Sugarcoat titles and names

While an army demolishes a nearby school

And when caught red-handed… with blood

Say everyone’s a victim

But this is one issue, and that’s another

How can I believe this world?

When it talks about humanity?

Seeing a mother lamenting her child

Who died in a raid… hungry

Making a killer on par with their victim

With all honesty and fairness

But this is one issue, and that’s another

How can I sleep peacefully?

Plugging my ears

While a family is buried under the rubble of its home

Forsaken… denied rescue

As if the earth in which they’re buried

Is not of this earth

But this is one issue, and that’s another

How to live in an open prison

With bars of fire and ashes

Raise from the rubble

Grab your killer by the neck

Gather your remains and fight

And show the deceiving world

How the law of the jungle is forced

Where’s the route to freedom

How to take on a tank barehanded

It doesn’t matter if the world speaks out

Die free… don’t live in submission

Inspire generation after generation

How to live and die for a cause

What world are we calling for

To denounce and condemn?

Condemn all you want

For any condemnation of crimes in the slaughterhouse

Won’t soften the powder’s charge

And won’t bring back daylight

But this is one issue…

And that’s an honorable struggle…

[6] The Islamic faith stands far from this ruthlessly cold reason—from what is called themodern world.

For this reason, the worldview of Gazans is in complete opposition to the prevailing values of the West.

Dilaver Demirağ

Dilaver Demirağ was born in 1961 in Kilis, Türkiye. He completed his higher education at Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Business Administration.

He began his journalism career in 1985 as a proofreader at Milliyet newspaper. He later worked as an urban and environmental reporter for various newspapers, including Yeni Yüzyıl, Sabah, Akşam, and Yeni Şafak. In 1996, he became a columnist for Yeni Günaydın.

In addition to his work in print media, he has also hosted television and radio programs, including Hür Tefekkür (Free Thought) on Hilal TV, Uyandırma Servisi (Wake-Up Service) on KRT TV, Önce Yeryüzü (First the Earth) on Açık Radyo, and Akıl Yoklaması (Mind Check) on İstanbul FM.

His articles have been published in various journals, including Matbuat, Umran, Birikim, Dipnot, Sivil Toplum, Bilge Adam, and Semerkand.

He is the author of several books, including:

Suyla Gelen Kültür (The Culture That Comes with Water, İSKİ, 2007)
Anarşizm: Unutulmuş Olanı Hatırlamak (Anarchism: Remembering What Was Forgotten, Okur Kitaplık, 2012)
Su Satanlar: Suyumuzu Kimler Kıtlaştırdı? (Water Sellers: Who Made Our Water Scarce?, Hay Kitap, 2013)
Kıyamet Çanı: IŞİD ve Son Savaş (The Doomsday Bell: ISIS and the Final War, Hay Kitap, 2014)

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