By Alyssa Riley

How it Began

Human beings ran West for their lives through an empty field as terrorists horrifically closed in on three out of four sides, weapons drawn. Some hid under bushes, crammed between too many trembling bodies in airstrike shelters, or tried driving away, but many – too many – lost their lives. Innocent people, while spending a normal day in their homes or strolling the streets, had their lives taken from them viciously. Then, later across the border, concrete buildings and homes turned to rubble, thousands of bodies lost from their loved ones as revenge played out. In a matter of days, complete hell has broken out on the other side of the Atlantic, and many Americans feel helpless, watching the loss of mostly innocent lives rage on and as over 200 hostages remain in captivity. 

On the morning of Oct. 7, worldwide news broke that Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, fired thousands of rockets into Israel and, later, made their way into the country by land, sea and air with trucks, tanks and paragliders. 

Rockets from Hamas were not unusual in Israel, so many weren’t worried; none the wiser of the horrors soon to take place. 

With a highly sophisticated Iron Dome missile defense system, Israel experienced few direct hits. However, with suspected years’ worth of planning and training, officials were gravely taken by surprise as Hamas infiltrated 22 towns, and brutally attacked citizens roaming the streets and enjoying the outdoor Supernova music festival; at least 1,400 Israelis were killed, as well as visiting foreigners from around the world. 

“I think an attack on any oppressed people is an attack on everyone, right?” said a protester, who wishes to remain anonymous, at the Fayetteville Palestine Peace Protest Oct. 22. “One person’s struggle connects to struggles that we’ve seen throughout history. To show that solidarity shows that if it happens to us, if it happens to anyone, no one would stand for it, right? No one supports that.”

Arkansas is standing in solidarity with another event, Free Palestine Ceasefire Now. Taking place in Fayetteville Oct. 18, attendees came together for poster making and poetry screening, as well as educational and direct action resources provided by the Jewish Voices for Peace and the Palestinian Feminist Collective. 

Hamas, a Sunni Islamist political and military organization, governs the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory, just next door to Israel. To many, however, Hamas is known as a terrorist group. 

Leader Muhammad Deif said, breaking his seven-year silence, the “operation” was launched so that “the enemy will understand that the time of their rampaging without accountability has ended.” The most-wanted man in Israel, with a birth name of Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Mastri, was given the nickname Deif, “the guest,” as he never spends two nights in the same place. 

Although the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians dates back decades, it ramped up in 1967 when Israel took occupation of the West Bank during the Arab-Israeli war. Since then, strife has raged on with competing claims to the Holy Land and disputes over borders, Jerusalem, security and Palestinian refugees. 

However, the most time-relevant issue is the Israel- and Egypt-issued blockade that has lasted 16 years, restricting the import of goods, specifically electronic and computer equipment used to make weapons. Additionally, it keeps many Palestinians from leaving the territory. 

“There are two million in (the) Gaza strip and they are being forced to leave their homes, they are being bombarded, and we ask to stop this genocide; we are here to be a part of them,” the protester said. “As Americans, we love liberty, we love peace, we love harmony. We love freedom for other people too, as we love our own freedom. So that’s why we are here, to be a part of them. To show our respect for them, so they can feel that we are with them.”

In retaliation, Israel wasted no time sending airstrikes into the Gaza Strip, destroying homes, hospitals, schools, churches – anything they could hit. Since the first strike, over 6,500 Palestinians have been killed and 17,400 injured, according to the Washington Post.

As an extremely impoverished city with over 500,000 citizens, the majority of the deaths were children, as most citizens had no warning of the impending chaos and nowhere to run, their vulnerability increasing with every passing second.

A War on Religion or Colonialism?

For 75 years, the Israeli occupation has been destroying the lives of Palestinians, Andrea Tennison said at the protest. “They are living in an open-air prison, there’s checkpoints everywhere, they can’t get out. The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) dropped paper flyers telling the Palestinians to go north to avoid the bombings, and they bombed that route.”

As this devastating series of events continues to play out and headline every news organization in the country and around the world, everyone has their own opinion on what led to this tragedy and what actions to take moving forward. 

“I think that it’s important to center the experiences of those most marginalized, and today it’s Palestinians and those facing Islamophobia,” said Serena Caffrey, another protester. “That’s not to diminish or negate the horrors of genocide across history. It’s not against people of the Jewish faith.” 

“It’s recognizing the violence of Zionism as a settler colonial state that’s actively using this conflict as retribution to take more land from the Palestinian people. And the U.S. government and our tax dollars are supporting this violence.”

Zionism, a movement dating back to 1897, was originally for re-establishing and, now, developing and protecting the Israel-Jewish nation. Many are coining the Israel-Gaza conflict a “war on religion.” However, others disagree, especially Marissa Spear, a historian and writer, who says it is rooted in Zionism and anti-colonialism. 

Having done substantial research on Palestinians, anti-Zionism and settler colonialism, Spear greatly advocates for this ideology. “The Palestinian struggle is often one that encompasses a lot of issues,” she said. “It’s the indigenous rights issue. It’s a disability justice issue. People are dying in hospitals, a genocide is happening, and the people who are the most disenfranchised are always going to be disproportionately affected.” 

It is, simply put, an occupier versus occupied power struggle that we’re seeing, said the anonymous protester. 

Controversy of U.S. Involvement 

For decades now, the United States has sought a solution for the two states. However, since the recent conflict began, the Biden administration has focused on promoting Israeli-Arab normalization while aiding Palestinians in the Gaza Strip with $100 million in humanitarian assistance. These funds will help support over a million displaced and harmed citizens with clean water, food, hygiene and medical care and other essential needs, according to The White House press release. 

“Civilians are not to be blamed and should not suffer for Hamas’s horrific terrorism,” it states. “Civilian lives must be protected and assistance must urgently reach those in need. We will continue to work closely with partners in the region to stress the importance of upholding the law of war, supporting those who are trying to get to safety or provide assistance, and facilitating access to food, water, medical care, and shelter.”

Some believe that the U.S. military’s hand in the strikes against the Gaza Strip goes deeper than portrayed. Spear said the U.S. military and police often exchange military and repressive tactics with Israeli police and the IDF. 

Steven Pomerantz, the architect of the U.S.-Israel Police Exchange with JINSA, the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, says differently. 

“The UC Campaign for Palestinian Rights, for instance, lately declared that the ‘Israeli military trains U.S. police in racist and repressive policing tactics, which systematically targets Black and Brown bodies,’” Pomerantz said. “…These accusations are false and, at best, expose a deep misunderstanding of the nature and objectives of police exchanges.” 

JINSA’s Homeland Security Program launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center to prevent future terrorism and address the well-recognized counterterrorism needs of U.S. law enforcement. 

Yet, disagreement will most likely never cease as regular Americans – those not involved in national government and military operations – may never know the true objectives that U.S. and Israeli police share.

Is the Media Helping?

While terror rages on in the Middle East for hundreds of thousands of civilians, American media organizations are constantly covering the events while sharing their “sides.” 

Looking at coverage of what is occurring between Israel and the Gaza Strip, “it feels like we’re catapulting ourselves toward this abyss of sheer and utter inhumane madness,” Arwa Damon, a two-decade-long CNN correspondent veteran, said on the Atlantic Council Organization website.

Breaking news coverage is often twisted in a certain light to push a media organization’s agenda, as is most news. With a deep and dark history, the Israel-Gaza conflict brings a highly emotional factor that influences coverage and interpretation.

As the nation is divided in terms of who is right and wrong, to blame and innocent or deserves America’s help, the significant loss of civilian life is accepted, swept under the rug. 

“As the media, we cannot let ourselves be a pawn in a dehumanization campaign,” Damon said. “As the media, we need to dive into the emotional aspect of all of this as part of the coverage… The polarization that I see is frightening, whether it’s antisemitism on the rise or growing Islamophobia.”

The framing of the news is not lost on some Americans, however. Every news story that is covered has an individual agenda, Tennison said. And the only way to uncover the truth is through first-hand accounts and looking at the minority, as well as those who are not politically supported or motivated.

What matters most, subjectively, in this time of uncertainty, fear and devastating loss is understanding what has occurred and standing in solidarity not with one person over the other but with those who are at the knife’s edge of terrorism, Semitism and anti-Palestinian racism. 

“I think the biggest misconception about this issue is that it’s a complex issue when really, it’s very human and it should tap into your very basic humanity if you give yourself the time to educate yourself on the topic,” Amanda, a protester who wishes to keep their last name anonymous, said. “Because it’s not complex. It’s the most human topic and the (simplest) topic I can think of in which the question is just do people deserve their basic sovereignty and right to self-determination? And that’s a very simple answer, which is yes.”