How we see October 7

The history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict did not begin on October 7, nor did suffering end on that day.

October 7 was a horrific day of condemnable acts committed by Hamas against innocents. The stories of those who were murdered or taken as hostages must be told as we hear their cries and mourn their loss. Hamas must be condemned for their crimes. But history did not start on that nightmarish day, nor end.

Since then, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed, 97,000 wounded, and 20,000 or more are missing. Entire Palestinian families have been wiped out, neighbourhoods leveled, most housing, schools, hospitals and infrastructure in Gaza destroyed. Aid restrictions have resulted in deaths from disease, starvation and malnutrition. And psychological disorders have resulted from prolonged trauma. Respected international agencies call what Israel has done genocide, the destruction of a society, its culture and well-being. And now the devastation and trauma are being extended to Lebanon.

When America’s political leaders and media commemorate the horror of October 7, what happened on October 8 and has continued until now will be ignored. Worse, those who dare speak of the tragedy that followed will be denounced for insensitivity to Jewish suffering. The cries of Israeli victims will drown out those of Palestinians, as one people’s pain is prioritised over another’s. It is what Arabs have come to expect, not being seen as equal human beings.

This also serves as a reminder that history is written by the dominant group, the story told from the perspective of the person relating it, and its meaning determined by where they choose to start their narrative.

When I was in school, the American history we learned began with Columbus’ “discovery” of “the New World”. In reality, of course, the “New World” was populated with ancient civilisations that had built magnificent cultures. But that story is at best only part of the real history, because those who have written what we learned in school began their story in 1492 and told it from the perspective of Americans or Europeans looking out at the world.

Back to October 7. Palestinians have a tragic story to tell of dispossession, displacement and horrific oppression that began a century ago. In the US, their story is not the dominant narrative. The nightmare they have lived is not understood or is outright rejected.

In mid-October 2023 I met with a senior Biden administration official. When he spoke passionately about October 7 and the trauma it evoked for Jews everywhere, I told him I understood. I noted how my uncle, a US soldier in WWII, had told me about what he saw on entering the concentration camps in Nazi Germany. His stories and “The Diary of Anne Frank”, which I read in high school, helped me understand Jewish trauma and be understanding of their fears. I cautioned him, however, that another people had a history of trauma, and for Palestinians the current situation evoked the nightmare of the Nakba. We must, I insisted, be sensitive to the horror and trauma of both peoples. He angrily dismissed my observation as “whataboutism”. I was stunned. It was one thing for Israelis to feel that only their suffering matters and that anyone who attempts to distract from that one-sided view is either dismissive of Jewish pain or is defending those who inflict it. It is quite another for US officials and major media figures to share this view.

US public opinion is changing with more Americans understanding the Palestinian story and empathising with their pain. This broader view, however, has not taken hold in official political and media circles. They still see history through the eyes of only one side. For them, only Israeli lives and suffering matters and the story of the current tragedy began and ended on October 7th.

The writer is president of the Washington-based Arab American Institute