The Roots of October 7th Through Professor Finkelstein's Lens: An Anatomy of Atrocity in Gaza

The path to October 7th, 2023, was not spontaneously forged; it was a road paved with decades of systematic oppression, death, and destruction for the people of Gaza. To revisit that day, particularly as we approach its anniversary, demands an understanding rooted in the lived experience of Gazans and the calculated policies of Israel, rather than the skewed narratives often presented. From my perspective, having devoted my adult life to the Israel-Palestine conflict, the events of October 7th, however tragic, must be understood as a desperate, though perhaps misguided, act against an intolerable status quo, a status quo meticulously engineered by Israel.

For years leading up to October 7th, I had reached a bleak conclusion: the Palestine question was moribund. The international agenda was dominated by the Abraham Accords, with Palestine relegated to an afterthought, its people seemingly abandoned to languish and die in what had been accurately described as a concentration camp since as early as 1955 by UN officials, and later by Senator Albert Gore Sr., and even by prominent Israeli figures like Giora Eiland. This wasn’t a mere analogy; it was a stark description of an open-air prison, a reality for generations.

The decision by Hamas to launch the October 7th attack was, in my estimation, a desperate throw of the dice, an attempt to shatter a seemingly immutable status quo. It was a slave revolt, reminiscent of Nat Turner's rebellion, driven by the unbearable conditions of life in Gaza. These young men, born into, living in, and expecting to die in a concentration camp with no prospects and no escape, were pushed to an extreme. While the savagery of Nat Turner's rebellion, and indeed some aspects of October 7th, are undeniable, the historical context demands a cautious and empathetic interpretation, as even Frederick Douglass acknowledged Turner as a "glorious martyr."

The notion that Hamas rules Gaza with a tyrannical hand, universally reviled by its people, is a simplification that ignores the historical record. Hamas was democratically elected in 2006, a victory that immediately triggered a brutal economic blockade by Israel, seconded by the United States and the EU. This blockade was a calculated policy, explicitly designed to create such terrible conditions that the people would overthrow Hamas. Memos confirm Israel's intent to put Gaza on a "humanitarian minimum diet," literally counting calories to maintain a starvation-plus existence. The primary cause of Gaza's abject poverty is, unequivocally, this Israeli blockade, not internal Hamas corruption, a claim thoroughly debunked by numerous UN and humanitarian organizations.

When Hamas, despite being elected, was denied any political avenue, they even engaged in nonviolent civil resistance during the Great March of Return in 2018. I had encouraged this, believing it could work. I was wrong. Israel responded with systematic brutality, targeting children, medics, journalists, and disabled people with snipers. The UN report on this period is damning, detailing killings of individuals 100 to 300 meters from the fence, often with bullet shots to the skull, as doctors later reported on children. This level of barbarity, targeting double amputees and children's heads, goes beyond the pale. It suggests a diseased, pathological mentality that I find incomprehensible. Israeli soldiers themselves, in reports like "How We Fought" by Breaking the Silence, describe returning from the front to be asked by girls if they had "killed an Arab," highlighting a chilling societal desensitization to violence against Palestinians.

On October 7th itself, while the scale of the massacre was horrific, certain narratives propagated by Israel, particularly regarding widespread rape and sexual violence, have proven to be unsubstantiated. The UN report by Navi Pillay, while politically correct in its devotion to gender-based crimes, explicitly stated a lack of evidence for rape. Claims of "coerced intimacy" for a woman kidnapped on a motorbike are, frankly, ludicrous. These fabrications serve a clear propaganda purpose, tapping into historical tropes of the "dark-skinned male committing rape" to dehumanize Palestinians and garner international support, particularly in the United States.

Israel's response to October 7th had three clear aims: revenge, restoring deterrence capability, and a "final solution" to the Gaza question. They have achieved these goals. The bloodlust for revenge is evident in the relentless bombardment and daily massacres, continuing even as global attention shifts. The deterrence capability has been brutally re-established, with Gaza now 50% rubble, an estimated 45 million tons of debris—a deliberate act to ensure that the Arab world remains terrified. The systematic assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, and the introduction of booby-trapped cell phones, mark a new and terrifying chapter in barbarism.

Finally, the "Gaza question" is being "solved" by rendering Gaza uninhabitable. While a full ethnic cleansing, pushing all Gazans into the Sinai, was initially attempted but thwarted by Egyptian resistance, the current strategy is equally insidious: make life so impossible that the population has no choice but to leave. With cement denied for rebuilding under the pretext of tunnels, and 45 million tons of rubble to clear, Gaza is effectively being erased. Its resourceful people, for whom even undocumented work in the West would be "paradise," will eventually disperse, quietly absorbed by an international community that will largely turn a blind eye.

Israel, with the unwavering support of the United States and European powers, has consistently demonstrated that it can act as a global pariah while simultaneously "winning." This is due to the formidable military and political backing of the US, a power that thumbs its nose at international law and global opinion. While there may be deficits in the Arab world, the sheer, overwhelming force arrayed against groups like Hezbollah and Hamas is almost insurmountable. My friend, a chemist, once observed that Israel's actions in the Arab world are "unnatural," a small country of eight million acting with such destructive impunity across multiple borders. And she's right, it goes against nature. But as Keynes famously noted, "in the long run, we're dead." The long run can be agonizingly long, and I doubt I will live to see nature take its course and impose a corrective on this profound imbalance.

The struggle for justice in Palestine may be crushed many times, but as John Stuart Mill suggested, truth, however suppressed, can eventually gain "sufficient headway" to become irreversible. Like the abolition of chattel slavery or the emancipation of women, the end of this egregious injustice might eventually come. However, that doesn't mean I will witness it. My purpose now is simply to continue, to bear witness, to write, to speak, not out of hope for victory, but because it is the right thing to do. The condemnation of Israel's actions is not merely a moral stance but an objective assessment of a reality painstakingly documented and tragically lived by millions.