Through the darkest days of World Warfare II, Anne Frank and her household hid in a secret attic in Amsterdam to flee the horrors of Nazi persecution. Her posthumously printed diary provided the world a haunting glimpse into the worry and trauma endured by Jewish households on the time.
Right this moment, a tragically acquainted story is unfolding in Palestine. This time, it’s youngsters like Anne Frank – tens of hundreds of them – dealing with dying by hunger and relentless bombardment by the Israeli authorities. They don’t even have an attic to cover in; the buildings round them have been lowered to rubble by indiscriminate Israeli assaults.
Eight a long time after the Holocaust, one other genocide is unfolding – this time with Palestinian youngsters as each victims and witnesses of ethnic cleaning. Every of those youngsters carries a harrowing story the world wants to listen to. At some point, we might learn their accounts in memoirs – in the event that they survive lengthy sufficient to put in writing them. However the worldwide group should not wait that lengthy. It should confront the struggling of those youngsters now. That’s the reason we gave youngsters in Gaza a platform to ask the world a searing query: “Why are you silent?” – by way of a documentary that has grow to be one in every of Turkiye’s most widely shared efforts to reveal the brutal actuality of Israel’s genocidal marketing campaign in Gaza.
Many Western states have forfeited their ethical authority and hegemonic discourse by appearing as accomplices – or enablers – of genocide. Much more tragically, some have sought to justify their positions by invoking a genocide they themselves perpetrated eight a long time in the past. Those that as soon as stood on the flawed facet of historical past – committing crimes in opposition to humanity – at the moment are turning a blind eye to the near-total destruction of one other folks. Guilt over previous atrocities can’t be absolved by way of complicity in new ones. Conscience can’t be cleansed by selecting recent disgrace to cowl previous shame. If the phrases “by no means once more” are to hold any weight, they have to apply not solely to the victims of yesterday – but in addition to the victims of at this time.
Inside days of Israel launching its army assault on Gaza in October 2023, Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan publicly condemned the operation as one amounting to genocide. Within the months that adopted, Turkiye took concrete steps to oppose the brutal Israeli marketing campaign and halt the unfolding disaster in Gaza.
The Turkish authorities and folks have persistently stood in opposition to genocide. President Erdogan refused to stay a passive observer of historical past; as a substitute, he selected to face on the forefront of humanity’s ethical conscience.
This has been Turkiye’s place for a lot of a long time.
Through the Holocaust, Turkish diplomats similar to Necdet Kent and Selahattin Ulkumen risked their lives to rescue Jews from Nazi deportations. Many years later, throughout the genocide in Bosnia, Turkiye once more urged the worldwide group to behave. Over the previous 20 years, wherever human struggling emerged – from struggle zones to catastrophe areas – Turkiye has acted to defend the susceptible and uphold the rights of the oppressed within the face of humanitarian crises.
Turkiye responded to Israel’s indiscriminate assaults with decisive humanitarian and diplomatic motion – regardless of appreciable political and financial prices. It severed commerce relations with Israel and led efforts on the United Nations to push for a world arms and commerce embargo. Diplomatic ties have been reduce, and Israeli officers at the moment are banned from Turkish airspace, disrupting makes an attempt to normalise genocide. Whereas many governments hesitated or issued statements, Turkiye acted – delivering support to youngsters pressured to drink contaminated water, to moms searching for shelter amongst ruins, and to households mourning family members with no graves to bury them in.
By joining the case on the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ), Turkiye stood firmly for worldwide regulation and justice – ideas that many highly effective nations invoke in idea however abandon when inconvenient. Western governments that after vowed “by no means once more” now tiptoe round genocide, paralysed by worry of offending Israel, whilst youngsters die beneath collapsing ceilings. This isn’t mere indifference. It’s a betrayal of historic proportions.
A key enabler of Western silence and complicity within the genocide in Gaza has been Israel’s intense disinformation marketing campaign. On the course of President Erdogan, Turkiye’s Directorate of Communications has labored to chop by way of this noise. The Directorate’s Disinformation Fight Centre has, amongst different initiatives, launched the revolutionary The Lies of Israel platform, which counters false narratives in six languages. This was solely step one – clearing house for the reality to emerge and constructing strain for significant change.
Extra dangerously, Israel more and more sees no must disguise its actions behind misinformation. It exploits the insensitivity of enormous segments of the worldwide group to the continuing violence. By referring to Gazans as “youngsters of darkness”, Israeli politicians try to legitimise the genocide in opposition to them. This effort to normalise inhumanity has been firmly rejected by each the directorate and the Turkish folks. Turkiye is difficult not solely the distortions of Israel’s propaganda machine but in addition the deeper decay of worldwide conscience. The directorate’s work is an act of resistance – not simply in opposition to lies, however in opposition to a world order the place apathy has grow to be the default response to atrocity.
The subtle messaging technique employed by the Directorate of Communications – mixing conventional and digital media – has introduced the truth of Israel’s disproportionate use of drive and the struggling of Palestinian civilians to the eye of the world. It reinforces President Erdogan’s ongoing efforts to press Western governments and the broader public to dwell as much as their very own professed values.
In coordination with Turkiye’s diplomatic response, the directorate has ensured that social media and different on-line platforms – the place most individuals now eat information – can’t be changed into accomplices to genocide. It has completed so by producing a variety of cultural supplies, together with books, movies, exhibitions, and different public occasions. These gatherings aren’t merely supposed to bear witness; they function a reminder of the ethical accountability that falls upon all of us. A distinguished instance of Turkiye inserting reality within the service of justice was the compilation and dissemination of a book documenting proof of Israel’s crimes – an effort that has confirmed instrumental in supporting the case on the Worldwide Court docket of Justice.
Turkiye holds the conviction that the period of outdated paradigms – people who prioritise the slim pursuits of hegemonic powers – has come to an finish. A brand new worldwide order should be constructed on the inspiration of upholding the rights and dignity of all folks, particularly the powerless. To this finish, the Directorate of Communications has amplified the voices of Palestinian victims, significantly youngsters, giving them a platform to talk reality in worldwide boards and to precise themselves by way of cultural initiatives such because the Bulletproof Goals exhibition in Istanbul.
Turkiye’s constant and early ethical management on Gaza has saved the disaster on the worldwide agenda and helped form worldwide consciousness – creating the situations wherein Western leaders have begun to take hesitant steps away from their extended silence. After months of inaction, the UK, France and Canada have now referred to as on Israel to “cease its army operations in Gaza,” facilitate humanitarian support into the strip, and pledged “concrete actions”, ought to Israel fail to conform. The UK has since suspended commerce negotiations with Israel, imposed sanctions on violent settlers within the West Financial institution, and issued its strongest condemnation but of Israel’s “morally unjustifiable” actions and “monstrous” public threats to ethnically cleanse Gaza.
This shift in tone from Western governments is welcome, albeit restricted and lengthy overdue. Rhetorical change should be adopted by concrete motion and a basic shift in coverage – in any other case, it can stay hole. The time for timid diplomacy has lengthy handed. What is required now could be a coalition of conscience: nations daring sufficient to align their values with decisive motion, and leaders ready to commerce consolation for braveness. Justice won’t arrive by itself; it should be delivered by these courageous sufficient to guide.
Ought to they fail, they have to perceive that tens of millions of youngsters – the very ones asking, “Why are you silent?” – will proceed to carry them accountable. Every day of delay in confronting Israel’s genocidal authorities brings additional crimes in opposition to Palestinians: extra lives misplaced in Gaza, extra houses torched within the West Financial institution. This failure not solely deepens Palestinian struggling but in addition does a grave disservice to the Israeli folks, lots of whom yearn for a brand new and simply management.
The trail ahead has been clearly laid out by Turkiye. At this stage, merely withdrawing assist for Israel is not sufficient. What’s required is a coordinated, conscience-led initiative by allied nations to remodel the rising momentum for Palestinian recognition into a real two-state actuality based mostly on the 1967 borders. This should embrace constructing a political framework that refuses to tolerate everlasting injustice beneath the guise of neutrality. The place to begin for this effort must be the rescue of the youngsters.
Allow us to act now – in order that Palestinian youngsters, like Anne Frank, wouldn’t have to die in silence to be remembered. Allow them to dwell – to not be sanctified, however to thrive.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.