PHOTOS AND VIDEOS BY ANAS ABU SAFIYA | TEXT by Simone Capuano – JABALYA/Naples, 18 DECEMBER 2024

This report, which I wrote together with Anas, a Palestinian student, is a first-hand account of events in the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza, where the Western campaign of dehumanization against the Palestinian people continues.

With the evidence collected, I intend to demonstrate the essence of Western and Israeli complicity in the Palestinian genocide.

It is thanks to the repugnant silence and complicity of Western governments in fact, that Anas has lost everything. Who is Anas, compared to us, to not have the right to study, to be treated, to live? Who is the West to decide on the rights of others?

But above all, WHO ARE WE TO ALLOW THIS?

Thousands of testimonies collected by NGOs, journalists and international justice bodies prove that the war crimes committed by Israel, such as the blockade of humanitarian aid, large-scale destruction and forced displacement, are an attempt at ethnic cleansing.

The Palestinian territory, year by year, piece by piece, corpse by corpse, has been brutalized in a slow but long process of 75 years, through Israeli settlements, declared illegitimate by the international community but still legitimized by the Western establishment.

To better understand the context of this process, I want to tell the story of Anas, whose name means “friendship” and “cordiality”. The same cordiality with which Anas wrote to me on Instagram, looking for that help that he did not find in international law.

“Hi, I am Anas, from the north of Gaza, from Jabalya camp, specifically, my family and I were displaced to the south and now we are suffering from the siege, the bombings and the genocide. (…) I will send you photos and videos showing our situation and the famine that is killing our bodies (…)”

The makeshift camp of Jabalya, where Anas lives, is a symbol of the hardship and suffering of Palestinian refugees since the *Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948, which marked the forced exodus of thousands of Palestinians due to illegal Israeli settlements.

As Anas tells me, in fact:

“(…) I was born and raised in this refugee camp – Anas explains – my grandfather lives in the Palestinian city of Lod, on the Palestinian coast, and after the *Nakba, he moved to the Jabalya camp, then he built a house, settled there and built his life there (…) whose residents were refugees in 1948 (…)“

In fact, since 1948, Israeli governments have controlled and limited the movement and freedom of Palestinians through military force and the use of checkpoints, in violation of the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan.

“Gaza was like a big prison and exactly like a slaughterhouse – Anas continues – since my childhood, there was a war for almost two years, starting in 2008, then in 2012, then in 2014, then in 2018, then in 2019, then in 2021, then. Finally in 2023, and it continues until now (…)”.

The life of Anas and his family – like that of thousands of other Palestinian families – is marked by nomadism, helplessness and insecurity, due to the physical and, above all, psychological destruction inflicted by Israeli apartheid.

In a TRT World report, an Israeli soldier boasts about the destruction inflicted on the city of Jabalya, saying that from now on there will be no place called Jabalya, only Israeli settlements. (video below)

Another video document, testifies the transformation of Jabalya, Anas’ hometown, before and after the siege of the occupation army:

Anas continues by talking about the continuous evacuations:

“We have been displaced several times, first from Jabalya camp to Gaza City, then from Gaza to Hamad Town, then to Khan Yunis, then to Rafah, then to Al-Mawasi area, then to Nuseirat area. Finally, to Deir al-Lah. (…) Now we are in a tent that cannot stand the cold of winter or the heat of summer (…)“

“ Jabalya has been completely destroyed, turned into a pile of ashes, and we have nothing left to build anything, but we try as much as possible to survive this whole hell (…). The tanks have surrounded us more than once and forced us to flee under the blows (…) Every night the bombings do not stop and are random on all areas (…)“

This systematic oppression has allowed the Israeli regime – and its Western partners – to maintain control over Palestinian territories and resources, such as food, water and energy, causing serious negative effects on trade and daily life in general.

As Anas explains to me, in fact:

“We have difficulties especially in receiving the most basic requirements for living, such as clean water for showering, drinking water and access to food. In light of this famine, due to the impediment of the entry of aid and medicines, my brothers and I have become ill. Hepatitis C (…)”

Supporting Anas’ testimony, a 179-page Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, accompanied by satellite photos, confirms that the Israeli authorities deliberately deprive the Palestinian population of access to water.

But one of the consequences most felt by Anas, and by his generation, concerns education, as he explains to me:

“I struggle in difficult circumstances to get my education and complete my engineering studies, as it is my childhood dream to become an engineer. I studied primary, secondary levels in UNRWA schools (…) I moved on to the university level, where I studied engineering at Al-Azhar University in Gaza. I studied until the third year, until the war started and my dreams and future were destroyed, as my entire community, our home, our roads and our archaeological sites in Gaza were destroyed, and all our beautiful memories are now rubble.”

The devastation of Gaza’s cultural heritage – libraries, museums, mosques, churches, buildings – also amounts to Cultural Genocide.

Just as I write this report, I learn that only 17 hours ago the Israeli occupation bombed yet another UNRWA (UN Agency) school along with numerous civilian homes, killing dozens of children, right in the Anas camp. (video below)

Following the bombing of another United Nations school, Dr. Meds Gilbert denounced the complicity of governments with these words:

“Can you hear? Can you hear the screams from Gaza? The Israeli war machine has hit another UN school, killing 700 more people” (video below)

On the crimes of genocide and Western colonialism in Gaza, the Euro-American media and regimes have revealed themselves in their proper Fascism, repeatedly labeling Palestinians as “terrorists”, while openly supporting Israel’s genocidal campaign.

Besides, Nelson Mandela himself was considered a terrorist until 1992.

An attempt to censor human rights violations occurred when the Israeli army forced the Ramallah-based Al-Jazeera TV station to close.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a French diplomat, denounced Western censorship:

The dystopian silence in the face of these heinous crimes against humanity – 30,000 children murdered under the rubble of schools and hospitals (Source: Save the Children), between 130 and 200 journalists (Source: CPJ and Gaza Government) – embodies an unprecedented picture of the impotence of international law.

The crimes in the Gaza Strip, particularly the supply of weapons – with the US contributing 18 billion (Source: L’Indipendente) and the EU contributing around 340 million (Source: Euronews) – reveal the ruthless complicity of Western governments in the Palestinian genocide.

If the denial of the existence of a people is the foundation of fascism, these governments are responsible for having implemented a mass denial of the truth about the Palestinian genocide, through propaganda, arms sales, repression of protests and media censorship.

As Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur, states:

“Western media should be investigated for the role they are playing in covering up Israel’s atrocities.”

The positive effects of legal actions against war crimes and international complicity, such as arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC), are beginning to stir the global conscience, not only of peoples, but also of countries such as Africa, Spain, Nicaragua and Ireland.

People like Anas, forced into a life of hardship, must be free to self-determine their rights. States parties to the 1948 Genocide Convention are obliged to take measures to prevent the crime of genocide and, in this case, be forced to self-determine their own guilt.

To support Anas: Link GoFund qui