If you’re familiar with this newspaper — a project born of the struggle for Ethnic Studies — then you know where we have historically stood in regards to Palestine.

Many of us who read and contribute to this paper know all too well the experience of having our stories, voices and history erased and suppressed. Many of us are too well acquainted with the rhetoric aimed at dehumanizing those who are most vulnerable. Many of us know what it’s like to have the narratives of our stories seized from us. 

There is no easy place to start when addressing this latest bloody and horrific chapter which has unfolded over the last two weeks. The Hamas attack on Israel — which included the killing of unarmed civilian men, women and children and the taking of hostages — on Oct. 11 was the single deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, and the relentless Israeli attack on Gaza and not just Hamas, but civilian Palestinian men, women and children, has been unprecedented. 

The grief that this has wrought — to Palestinians, to Jews, to anyone who remains steadfast and committed to humanity — is real. Instead of being given time and space to mourn, the powers that be wasted little time in capitalizing and weaponizing that grief. 

The calls for Palestinian annihilation were swift from top Israeli government and military officials, only to be cheered on by right-wing and liberal zealots and Western corporate media. For days, news tickers on their 24-hour cycles read “Israel at War,” and “Israel versus Hamas.” Can we really believe that the hundreds of bodies of lifeless Palestinian children that continue to be pulled from the rubble of buildings targeted by Israeli airstrikes, are really Hamas? Was there any true justification for cutting off food, water, electricity and fuel to an already reeling population of 2 million, a population that has been subjugated to the brutal reality of colonial occupation and apartheid? Was it not a war crime to order 1 million people to abandon their homes and move south, only to continue to indiscriminately bomb homes, schools, hospitals and roads? 

Among the many failures of corporate media during these last two weeks, one of the most glaring has been the horrific dehumanization of Palestinians. We will be the first to say that journalism is hard, especially when having to navigate carnage and the metaphoric disinformation landmines ever present on social media. But when you repeatedly frame one people’s suffering as more acceptable than others, when you continue to omit their realities and perspectives, the brutality unleashed upon that people becomes justified. 

Anyone who has managed to retain their humanity to this point will agree that the suffering endured by Palestinians — now and for the last seven decades — is not justified. The death toll of Palestinians continues to climb, and will likely continue to do so as the world’s most powerful leaders continue to pledge unconditional and blind allegiance to Israel. It’s inexcusable. 

This is not a fringe sentiment, for we’ve heard it echoed from Jews who believe in Judaism beyond Zionism, who refuse to let their grief manifest into vengeance against Palestinians. 

May we all continue to do the same. And call for a Palestine, free from occupation, free from apartheid, free to exist.