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Video From 2040 Begs This Question of Gaza Genocide in 2024: 'What Did You Do to Stop It?'
"Yes, we watched hundreds of thousands of children being killed, maimed, and starved—and we just kept watching," one writer said in response to the powerful clip.
Oct 09, 2024
To mark this week's anniversary of Israel's yearlong assault on Gaza—which has killed, maimed, displaced, starved, and sickened millions of Palestinians with no end in sight—Palestine defenders shared a video set in the year 2040 in which children around the world ask their elders, "What were you doing during this genocide?"
The video—which is reportedly linked to the Turkish government—was reposted by prominent international figures including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, and U.S. peace activist Medea Benjamin.
The clip shows the world commemorating Gaza in ceremonies, museums, and films, with kids asking their grandparents questions like, "What were you doing during this genocide?" and "Did you just watch it?" as the elders hang their heads in shame at images of slain and suffering Palestinian children.
The video ends with a message that fades from, "The genocide committed by Israel is killing Palestinians" to, "The genocide committed by Israel is killing humanity."
Benjamin called the video "haunting." Husam Zomlot, Palestine's ambassador to the United Kingdom, hailed it as "powerful." British author Jonathan Cook lamented that "yes, we watched hundreds of thousands of children being killed, maimed, and starved—and we just kept watching."
Varoufakis posted: "'Where were you,' they will be asking us, 'when this was happening? What did you do to stop it?'"
Erdoğan included a lengthy message with the video as he shared it on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
"Israel's long-standing policy of genocide, occupation, and invasion must now come to an end," he wrote. "It should not be forgotten that Israel will sooner or later pay the price for this genocide that it has been carrying out for a year and is still continuing."
"Just as [Nazi leader Adolf] Hitler was stopped by the common alliance of humanity, [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and his murder network will be stopped in the same way," Erdoğan continued. "A world in which no account is held for the Gaza genocide will ever find peace."
He added that Turkey "will continue to stand against the Israeli government, no matter what the cost, and call on the world to take this honorable stance."
Turkey has been one of the most vocal critics of Israel's Gaza onslaught. The country officially supports the South Africa-led genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. In 2024, the Turkish government halted direct trade with Israel over its invasion of Rafah, although commerce continued via third countries including Greece.
However, the Turkish government has also been criticized for not doing enough to support Palestine despite its scathing anti-Israel rhetoric. Some critics also noted the hypocrisy of Turkey vocally condemning Israel's genocide in Gaza while denying the 1915-17 Turkish genocide against Armenians in the disintegrating Ottoman Empire.
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80+ Groups Have Message for Biden: 'No War With Iran!'
"It is not in the national interest for the U.S. to be led into a war with Iran," the groups stressed.
Oct 03, 2024
On the same day that President Joe Biden said his administration and Israeli leaders are "discussing" an attack on Iranian oil infrastructure, a coalition of over 80 advocacy groups on Thursday implored the U.S. leader to "halt Israel's march toward regional war."
The National Iranian-American Council (NIAC) led the groups in a letter to Biden asserting that "it is not in the national interest for the U.S. to be led into a war with Iran" by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu's far-right government.
The letter's signers include Just Foreign Policy, Friends Committee on National Legislation, IfNotNow, U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, CodePink, Peace Action, and the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
"The primary ask behind this letter is that the Biden administration utilize the significant leverage it has to rein in Netanyahu as he continues to proceed with a consistently failed 'deescalation through escalation' approach throughout the region that has cost countless civilian lives," NIAC explained.
As stated in the letter, "It is in the strong national interest to utilize diplomacy, backed by full American leverage—including withholding further offensive weapons transfers to Israel's military—to move all the parties back from the brink and toward a cease-fire that ends the devastation of Gaza and Lebanon and reverses the slide to regional war."
"Moreover, we urge you to recognize and respect that Congress has not authorized military force against Iran or militias backed by Iran, and that any potential military action against Iran could only proceed following a debate and passage of a war authorization before entering our troops into any imminent hostilities in the region," the groups continued.
"President Biden has recently spoken of steps he has taken to wind down America's military footprint abroad," the letter adds. "However, unless he acts quickly and decisively through diplomacy, it appears that a new endless war will be his legacy."
The U.S. provides Israel with billions of dollars worth of armed aid and diplomatic cover for its yearlong war on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 148,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
Fears of a full-blown regional war have mounted recently as Israel escalates hostilities by assassinating Hamas and Hezbollah leaders in Tehran and Beirut and as Israeli forces invade southern Lebanon accompanied by a bombing campaign that has left thousands of Lebanese dead and wounded.
Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based political and paramilitary group, has been engaged in limited cross-border projectile attacks on Israel in solidarity with Gaza, resulting in scores of deaths and injuries.
"The wars in the Middle East are just getting more and more dangerous, not only with Lebanon, but now with Iran," CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin said Wednesday in a video urging Americans to call their members of Congress to demand peace. "Netanyahu has been trying to drag the U.S. into a war with Iran for years, and unfortunately, there are many members in this Congress... who are all too eager to go along with him."
Benjamin highlighted remarks by U.S. lawmakers including Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) who said Tuesday that attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities are "fair game."
"Let's remember it's Israel that has nuclear weapons, not Iran," said Benjamin, who added that attacking Iran would encourage Tehran's allies "to strike U.S. soldiers in the region."
Benjamin also noted Sen. Robert Wicker's (R-Miss.) call for regime change in Tehran—one of the latest in a long line of such calls over the past 45 years—and admonished U.S. officials for "forgetting the disastrous attempts of regime change that the U.S. did recently in Iraq, in Libya, in Afghanistan," and that "the present government in Iran is there precisely because of the U.S. overthrowing their democratically elected government in 1953."
"We want to live in peace," Benjamin added. "We want to stop supporting the genocide that Israel is carrying out... We don't want any more weapons sent to the region... We the American people don't want war with Iran. We want to live in peace."
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Biden Says Netanyahu Not Doing Enough to Free Hostages
"Netanyahu has been citing Biden's ironclad support of him as the *reason* he does not have to work harder to get a hostage deal," said one observer.
Sep 02, 2024
U.S. President Joe Biden said Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu isn't doing enough to secure an agreement on the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, a statement ridiculed by critics who asserted that the Biden administration's unconditional support for Israel empowers its far-right government to keep stonewalling a potential deal.
Speaking to reporters at a White House press conference, Biden
responded "no" when asked if Netanyahu is doing enough to reach an agreement to free the approximately 100 Israelis and others—including seven Americans—who are believed to be still alive in Gaza.
Biden added that his administration is "very close" to presenting a final draft agreement to negotiators working toward securing a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of remaining hostages.
More than 240 Israelis and others were kidnapped and taken to Gaza during the October 7 attack on Israel. Hamas has released 109 hostages, while eight have been rescued by Israeli forces, who killed or wounded more than 600 people during a June raid to free four people. Numerous other hostages have been killed by Israeli airstrikes, so-called "friendly fire" accidents, and deliberate attacks under the Hannibal Directive, a policy meant to prevent Israelis from being captured by enemy forces. Hamas is also believed to have executed some of the captives.
The president's comments came after six hostages held by Hamas, including 23-year-old American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, were killed in a tunnel in Gaza. Their deaths sparked massive protests in Israel and beyond at which demonstrators demanded Netanyahu do more to free the remaining captives.
Numerous observers blamed Biden for enabling Israel's obliteration of Gaza with his "unwavering" support, including billions of dollars in arms shipments and diplomatic cover in the form of United Nations Security Council cease-fire resolution vetoes.
"Netanyahu has been citing Biden's ironclad support of him as the *reason* he does not have to work harder to get a hostage deal," U.S. journalist Ryan Grim said on social media. "Incredibly rich of Biden to complain about the consequences of his own actions."
Jack Mirkinson, a senior editor at
The Nation and co-founder of the Discourse blog, said that "everyone, including Biden, knows that Netanyahu is *actively sabotaging* a deal, not simply 'not doing enough.'"
"Biden can't say this because he is helping Netanyahu prolong the war," he added. "But there's no reason for anyone else to indulge this fiction."
Referring to Monday's general strike in Israel—in which workers across the country walked off their jobs to protest Netanyahu's refusal to agree to a cease-fire and hostage release deal—Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the peace group CodePink,
said on social media: "If Biden truly stood with hostage families, he'd halt weapons to Israel until a cease-fire is reached. Maybe it's time for a general strike in the U.S. too!"
Many critics also repeated accusations that Netanyahu is stalling or trying to torpedo a potential deal so he can prolong the war and delay his ouster from office. The prime minister is currently on trial for corruption and also faces bribery, fraud, and breach of trust charges over three cases. He could be jailed for 10 years if fully convicted on all counts.
Asked earlier this year if Netanyahu is deliberately prolonging the war for his political self-preservation, Biden said that "there is every reason for people to draw that conclusion."
Meanwhile, Israel's Gaza onslaught continued Monday with attacks including a bombing of yet another school-turned-shelter in Gaza City that killed at least 11 people, including a woman and a child.
With unconditional U.S. support, Israel has killed at least 40,786 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and international organizations. Israeli bombs and bullets have injured more than 94,200 others, forcibly displaced over 2 million, and pushed much of Gaza into famine.
Israel's bombardment, invasion, and siege—which are accompanied by genocidal statements from numerous Israeli leaders—have led many
legal experts and scholars to assert that it is committing genocide. Israel is currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice and the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has applied for warrants to arrest Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders—at least one of whom, political chief Ismail Haniyeh, has been assassinated by Israel.
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