INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
his own indulgence.This is the logic of conquest
First, invade and destroy; then, stand upon the ruins and declare the land empty.The long, blood-soaked tradition of colonialism speaks
through these politicians - settlers arriving on ravaged shores, massacring the natives, then announcing their discovery of a terra nova, a
land with no past.But Gaza is not empty
More than 200 heritage sites have been obliterated - not by accident, nor as collateral damage, but through a deliberate campaign to sever
Gaza from its own past.Wiped from the mapThe harbor of Anthedon, dating back to 800 BC, from where Phoenician ships once set sail, has been
for centuries, was bombed as civilians sought refuge within its ancient walls
three-quarters of which were completely levelled
Three churches were also destroyed and 40 cemeteries were targeted, in addition to graves being unearthed and bodies stolen, Palestinian
officials say.The past itself has been dug out of the ground and desecrated
This is not just destruction; it is an attempt to erase the very idea that Gaza and its people have ever belonged to this land.And yet, Gaza
was ancient when Rome was young
It was thriving before London and Paris were even imagined
trade in the first millennium BC
From here, goods flowed to the Mediterranean, Europe, Egypt and Asia.After Hashim ibn Abd Manaf, the great-grandfather of the Prophet
Muhammad, died in Gaza, it became known as Gaza Hashim in his honor
There, he secured the wealth of Quraysh, enabling the trade that would later make Mecca a center of commerce - a journey so vital that it
Hijra, the bishop of Gaza came to him with a remarkable account
He informed the Prophet that when his great-grandfather, Hashim, passed away in Gaza, his wealth was placed in the custody of the local
The bishop returned the trust, which was subsequently distributed among the leaders of Banu Hashim.This is one of countless anecdotes
illuminating the age-old, intimate bonds between Christians and Muslims in Gaza.Systematic targetingEmpires rose and fell
Byzantines built churches, Ottomans raised mosques and madrassas, and the Crusaders seized Gaza, only to be repelled by Saladin, who went on
justify genocide.The aim is clear: dehumanize the Palestinians of Gaza - make them seem primitive, incapable, unworthy
By reducing them to nothing, the world is led to believe that when they are wiped out, no great loss has occurred.But the truth exposes the
Before this war, Gaza had 12 universities that produced world-class scientists, doctors, engineers and thinkers
All of these institutions have now been destroyed, because an educated Palestinian is a threat - not to the world, but to those who wish to
The Israeli army has killed more than 90 university professors, along with hundreds of teachers and thousands of students.'We will have to
kill and kill'Gaza is not just a city
It is the backbone of Palestinian national identity.After the Nakba of 1948, when 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their towns and
villages to enable the creation of the state of Israel, Gaza became the last refuge for hundreds of thousands of people.From its camps and
streets emerged the leaders of the Palestinian struggle: Yasser Arafat, Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad), Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad) and Sheikh
Ahmed Yassin, among many others
And from its people came Said al-Muzayin, the poet of revolution, who composed the words of the Palestinian national anthem.In Gaza today, a
young boy sits amid the ruins, his small frame dwarfed by the devastation around him
His voice rises - clear, unwavering and beautiful
He is not just singing; he is declaring an unbreakable truth
Palestinians are the land
To erase one is to erase the other.The destruction of Gaza did not begin on October 7, 2023
Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam
The pressure at the border will be awful
So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill
This vision is not satisfied with mere death, the flattening of homes, the crushing of hospitals, or the silencing of classrooms where
It is not enough to bomb the living; this vision seeks to erase the dead - to turn Gaza into a void, a land with no past, no memory, no
people.This is the same cold calculus that justified the slaughter of millions of indigenous people in the Americas; the same ruthless hand
that wiped ancient nations from the earth in Australia, always in the name of civilization and progress
Because to leave is to surrender to the lie; to allow history to be rewritten in their absence.Every shattered monument, every torn
manuscript, every silenced voice is part of an old, familiar crime - one that does not merely kill, but also denies that there was ever
anything there to kill in the first place.In Gaza today, a middle-aged man sits in silence on the ruins of his home, the dust of destruction
His blood was spilled here
His bones lie beneath this rubble
But to the Palestinians who live here, it is sacred ground, where memories breathe beneath the dust, and the laughter of the departed
lingers in the silence.How can they abandon what little remains of their loved ones? How can they walk away, when every shattered stone is a
tombstone?Exile and erasureThe people of Gaza do not stand only upon the ruins of their homes; they stand upon the ruins of a stolen
woman who herself had carried a Palestinian passport before the state of Israel was born.To be exiled is one crime; to be erased is
another.And that is why Palestinians stay
Because to leave is to surrender to the lie; to allow history to be rewritten in their absence
They stay because every stone, every street, every ruin whispers their name, and to abandon it would be to betray those who walked before
them.The world must not allow this cultural genocide to succeed
Gaza must be restored, not erased.Gaza is not ruins
Gaza is human heritage.Soumaya Ghannoushi is a British Tunisian writer and expert in Middle East politics
Her journalistic work has appeared in the Guardian, the Independent, Corriere della Sera, aljazeera.net and al Quds
A selection of her writings may be found at: soumayaghannoushi.com and she tweets @smghannoushi.
