A Hollywood-Distorted Understanding of Humanity
Decades of anti-Arab propaganda from Hollywood cemented reductive stereotypes that primed Western audiences to readily believe the worst of Palestinians.
Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah, an academic and novelist, recounts a now familiar scene: iconic buildings in Western cities lit up in solidarity with Israel amidst its brutal bombing of Gaza, juxtaposed against Palestinian protesters defiantly asserting their right to self-determination. Yet their outpouring of grief was met with dismissal, condemnation even, for daring to express emotion when they should make space for Jewish-Zionist feelings.
This inversion of oppressor and oppressed encapsulates the moral hypocrisy at the heart of the Palestinian struggle. While Israel unleashes industrialized violence upon civilians in Gaza, the West contorts itself to accommodate the feelings of those who support these actions. Palestinian grief is interrogated, questioned and silenced. Their protests smeared as antisemitism. Lest Jewish-Zionist feelings be offended, an entire people's suffering is minimized, with thousands of deaths merely collateral to assuage the discomfort of the perpetrators.
This is but one manifestation of the dehumanization of the Palestinian people. The racism that sees their life, dignity and grief as unworthy of consideration. That views their deaths merely as confirmation that violence is the natural state of the Arab or Muslim other. For Western society has been primed through decades of cultural demonization to perceive Palestinians as less than human.
Dr. Abdel-Fattah recounts the ludicrous accusations of mass rapes by Palestinian men against Jewish women, immediately believed without evidence. This fantastical tale drew more credence than actual documented cases of sexual violence by Israeli forces against Palestinian children and women. Such is the depth of ingrained racist bias that even progressive circles easily accept claims suggesting Palestinian bestiality. Their humanity is reflexively stripped at the first opportunity.
Hollywood has played a significant role in propagating reductive caricatures of Arabs as terrorists, misogynistic villains, and barbaric mobs lusting for white women, all utterly devoid of humanity. The acceptance of fantastical accusations like mass rape by Palestinian men draws directly from such racist tropes actively cultivated in popular media. This propaganda primes even Western leftists to reflexively believe the worst of Palestinians.
This dehumanization extends into the public grieving process. Contrast the reaction to suicide bombings in Beirut versus Paris. On social media, no safety checks or national symbols for the Lebanese capital, but an outpouring of sympathy for attacks in the French capital. Some expressed shock that terrorism could happen in a city like Paris, oblivious to Beirut's suffering. The unspoken truth laid bare - only white lives warrant grief.
In the collective conscience, Palestinians and other racialized groups have been condemned to perpetual victimhood. Their oppression taken for granted, rather than interrogated. Violence against them passes without outrage, while any retaliation provokes uproar. Even the most fundamental acts of resistance, like protest, are scrutinized for civility, while no standards constrain the savagery of Israeli military's actions.
Throughout, the victims are demanded to understand the humanity of their oppressors. To educate them, reason with them, prove their worthiness of life. But as Dr. Abdel-Fattah states, racism is the oppressor's malady. The only ethical stance is refusal - refusal to validate moral equivalencies between colonized and colonizer, to assuage guilt by concealing injustice. Liberation demands dignity. If that means refusal to provide the feared "Arab" voice, so be it. Palestinians owe their oppressors neither understanding nor humanity.
This denial of dignity imposed on Palestinians exposes what Frantz Fanon recognized as the true goal of colonialism - the complete dehumanization of the colonized. Cultural erasure, economic immobilization and displacement all serve to systematically strip away personhood. Deprived of their narrative, history and even grief, Palestinians are rendered non-persons. Statistics uttered in passing by Western observers.
But no degree of intimidation will silence those fighting for liberation. The Palestinian people persevere amidst unparalleled horrors, not just the theft of their land, but the theft of their humanity in Western eyes. In standing resolute, declaring to the world "we are human," Palestinians dismantle the entire ideological edifice of colonialism. This refusal draws its power from a shared conviction that resistance will eventually be rewarded with freedom.
So in this time of unspeakable oppression, the imperative is clear for those with a shred of conscience - we must bear witness. Amidst the constant din to consider the feelings of the oppressors, we must hear the cries of the oppressed. See their humanity where others cannot. No amount of violence or deprecation can extinguish the light of human dignity passed down by generations of struggle. For it is by bearing witness to oppression that we nurture the seeds of its eventual undoing.