ave Imperator
Although "the weapon of criticism obviously cannot replace the criticism of weapons" (Marx, 1843), it is as well true that "the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas" (Marx, 1845)
This artwork hopes to contribute to a better understanding of a complex political landscape where the silencing of victim's voices coexists with loud displays of double standards by most world leaders. In effect, the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, admitted that western countries apply double standards when it comes to the wars in Ukraine and Israeli-occupied Palestine.
Coherently, US President Biden wrote that "The Palestinian people deserve a state of their own that's independent, sovereign, viable, and contiguous," immediately pointing out that the ground is not ripe at this moment to restart negotiations and that the goal of the two-state solution seems so far away.
Real-time injustice, even of the most epic sort, is often simply not recognized as such at the time, no matter how obvious the injustice later appears. Man is hard wired to submit (adapt) to any condition and then consider it normal. Our acceptance of injustice is reinforced by the going ideology.
Mark Ames (2005).
The Gaza Strip is a self-governing Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
On 7 October 2023, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in Gaza launched armed incursions into Israel, while launching at least 3,000 rockets. In total, the attackers killed 1,139 people (695 Israeli civilians among them). About 250 Israeli were taken as hostages, among them 30 children (Semerdjian, 2024).
Israel's response has led to an humaniatrian crisis. Having already killed more than 36,000 Palestinian, 70% of them women and minors, and almost all civilians. Irael's actions have been critizised as resulting in war crimes, with South Africa charging Israel with genocide in the International Court of Justice.
Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip has triggered a devastating social collapse, including famine, healthcare breakdown, plus shortages of fuel, medication, water, and other essential supplies. The siege has also resulted in a 90% drop in electricity availability, impacting hospital power supplies, sewage plants, and shutting down the desalination plants that provide drinking water. Widespread disease outbreaks have spread across Gaza (Mellen, 2023).
No child in Gaza is free from fear, pain and hunger — UNICEF, 2024.
Smerdjian, 2024: Semerdjian, Elyse. "A World Without Civilians." Journal of Genocide Research (2024): 1-6.
Mellen, 2023: Mellen, Ruby; Chen, Szu Yu (26 October 2023). "See how Israel's siege has plunged Gaza into darkness and isolation". The Washington Post.
Marx, 1843: Marx, Karl. Critique of Hegel's' Philosophy of right'. Cambridge University Press, 1970.
Marx, 1845: Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. "The ruling class and the ruling ideas." Media and Cultural studies (1845): 9.
Amex, 2005: Going Postal: Rage, Murder and Rebellion: From Reagan's Workplaces to Clinton's Columbine and Beyond (2005), p. 43.
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