16/10/2024–|Last updated: 10/16/202404:44 PM (Mecca time)
Professor Didier Fassin, a professor at the Collège de France, published a new book entitled “Western Defeat”, in which he studied the reasons for Western approval of the annihilation of Palestinian land, and saw it as the deepest moral abyss into which the Western world has fallen since World War II.
The Mediapart website said that the book of this professor, who holds the chair of “Ethical Questions and Political Issues in Contemporary Societies,” resonates now in conjunction with the new bloody attack launched by the Israeli army on northern… Gaza Strip The Palestinian, but he was also received with suspicious silence by the governments of the Western world, and therefore the site conducted an interview with him, which we summarize as follows:
Didier Fassin, in his interview with Joseph Confavro, stated that it is not possible to convince the defenders of the Israeli government’s murderous policy, who accused the ceasefire demanders of anti-Semitism, and therefore he wants to provide clarification elements to the many people who have questions about what happened. Over the past year, for those who would like to understand why the Western world allowed the Israeli army to destroy Gaza and wipe out its population, why it did not respond when children were killed, hospitals were destroyed, schools were bombed and journalists were killed, and why it banned demonstrations that demanded respect. International lawAlthough Israel violated the law with impunity.
Fassin explained that he wrote this book because it seemed to him impossible to remain silent in the face of what may be considered the deepest moral abyss into which the Western world has fallen since World War II, and therefore – as he says – he wanted to produce an archive of the first six months of the war in Gaza, in order to leave Impact for the future.
Atonement for the Holocaust!
When asked about whether Europe’s approval to crush Gaza might be a kind of atonement HolocaustThe author wondered: Why should the Palestinians pay the price for the crimes committed by the Europeans over the centuries until they culminated in the genocide of the Jews, and how can the Western world rid itself of its responsibilities in destroying the Jews of Europe by supporting the destruction of the Palestinians in Gaza?
Didier Fassin pointed out that invoking the Holocaust in Germany aims to obscure more trivial issues of international politics, and invoking it is a geostrategic issue, because Israel is considered the outpost of the Western world in the Middle East, and it is an economic issue to support the establishment of a large regional market and support the international military industrial apparatus, as well as It is an ideological issue, topped by the rise of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism in the context of the growth of often violent Islamist movements.
Official copy
When asked: How were the thought and language police deployed to prevent people from telling the truth about what is happening in Gaza? The writer responded that an official version of the facts had been created too early by governments, so the French president spoke up Emmanuel Macron He referred to October 7 as “the greatest anti-Semitic massacre of the century,” invoked “Israel’s right to defend itself,” and suggested sending soldiers to Gaza as part of a “coalition” similar to the one that fought ISIS, making this language acceptable in the public sphere. .
Although there was no “war between Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas” – as the professor says – it was a war against the Palestinians, which began before October 7, and became comprehensive after that date.
The holder of the chair “Ethical Questions and Political Issues in Contemporary Societies” explained that the formula of “war between Israel and Hamas” that dominated the period after October 7 is “doubly misleading,” first, because it erases the history that preceded the Hamas attacks, where the The Israelis gradually stripped the Palestinians of their lands, property and rights, and secondly, because they obscure the speeches of the Israeli political and military leaders who immediately declared that there were no innocent Palestinians, that they were all responsible, that it was necessary to remove the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth, and that it was necessary to make a choice. Its residents are between “survival and death,” and “hunger or departure.”
True denial
Is minimizing and tolerating the genocide in Gaza equivalent to denying the reality of October 7? A question to which the writer responds by saying that the Al-Aqsa flood was a great shock to the Israelis and to a large portion of the Jews in the diaspora around the world, due to the end of faith in the absolute military ability of the Israeli army, and the revelation of the incompetence of the Israeli government.
This led to the emergence of demonstrations in support of Israel around the world, especially in Western countries, whose leaders rushed to go to Israel to reassure its government of their unconditional support. The mainstream media was busy throughout the war discussing the daily life of Israeli society in the wake of this tragic day, and was ignored during the war. 12 months of what is happening in the Gaza Strip of unprecedented brutality practiced by the Israeli army.
The media and the academic world
As for the mainstream media, in both countries they have often developed information supportive of the Israeli perspective, with the important difference that public television and radio channels in France have suffered from pressure from political power, while in the United States there is practically only Private press outlets.
As for the academic world, which is supposed to be a space for reflective discussion, it has been strongly affected – as the professor says – and discussion has become difficult, because instead of exchanging scientific arguments, we often see attacks carried out by trying to discredit opponents, especially by condemning all forms of critical thinking. As participating in anti-Semitism.
However, Fassin says, in the lectures I gave and in the public discussions in which I participated, I was often struck by the interest in analyzing the situation and in defending law and justice, and I felt that students and academics, as well as citizens, had a desire to break free from the constraints of the police of language and thought, and a request to reflect on what happened during Last year, which seemed necessary to me.
He said: If there is an existential threat, it relates only to the Palestinians, whose lands continue to shrink under the influence of settlement and destruction. As an Israeli sociologist wrote, if the Palestinians try to negotiate, they are ignored, and if they rebel, they are crushed, and in the current catastrophe, we cling to the South African model as the model. The only one that allows us to imagine a way out of the deep-rooted hatred between an indigenous people and an occupied people.
