By Xavier Villar
Ramadan, one of the most sacred months for Muslims worldwide, blends spiritual introspection with family life in the community, especially during the breaking of the fast known as iftar.
But for the inhabitants of war-ravaged Gaza, this month will be different from all previous ones.
Gaza has been enduring a genocidal war marked by bombings, siege and the dehumanization of Palestinians. This dehumanization turns children, pregnant women, and the elderly into legitimate targets of Zionist colonial brutality.
Harrowing images from Gaza have become symbols of the cruelty of the settler-colonial entity.
This Ramadan, the residents of Gaza are facing famine due to the occupying regime’s policy of deliberate starvation, with the sole objective being to make Gaza virtually uninhabitable.
This situation arises because Israel has failed to weaken the Hamas resistance group militarily or propose a plan for Gaza’s future that does not involve Hamas as a representative of the people.
As a consequence of these abject failures, Israel has opted for a new strategy in Gaza: to create a situation where no one emerges victorious, even though it is the regime that has faced defeat.
The strategy of rendering Gaza uninhabitable and ungovernable involves provoking absolute chaos in the territory and creating a situation of full-scale famine.
According to this toxic colonial strategy, if no political force is capable of maintaining even a minimum of governmental stability in the territory, it becomes entirely dependent on humanitarian aid.
In the case of Gaza, the famine strategy designed by the Zionist colonial occupation is complemented by the distribution of “humanitarian aid” by the United States, described by many as a show, reinforcing the dependency of the Palestinian territory and keeping it in a state of permanent chaos.
Already, nearly 31,200 Palestinians, including 14,000 children and 9,000 children, have died due to the genocidal war. The famine imposed by Israel has claimed the lives of at least 27 people, most of them children, who died due to malnutrition and dehydration.
The images of malnourished bodies have become common on social media in recent days, even though the mainstream Western media continues to reduce these colossal human losses into cold statistics.
The graphic images of mutilated bodies or malnourished babies are part of the daily reality faced by Palestinians. The issue is not to create despair or evoke sympathy but to expose the atrocities of Zionist colonial occupation, which has assumed frightening proportions since October 7.
Israel obsessively concerns itself with its public image, making desperate attempts to hide its genocidal crimes. However, in the battle for narratives, Zionist hasbara, the propaganda organ of the colonial entity, has failed to conceal the reality of genocide and starvation it has imposed on Palestinians.
During this holy month, it is also important to highlight the colonial expansion in other parts of Palestine, such as in the occupied West Bank. Last week, the colonial entity approved the construction of more illegal settlements in the region.
Many tougher restrictions have also been imposed on Palestinian worshippers from accessing the Al-Aqsa Mosque during this sacred month, with reports of multiple deadly raids on several parts of the occupied al-Quds on Tuesday night resulting in the death of at least four Palestinians.
One of them was a 13-year-old boy who was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper while bursting firecrackers outside his house near Shufat camp in occupied al-Quds.
The genocide and starvation in Gaza are meticulously designed to inflict harm and create atrocious conditions for the local population. Several Gaza residents have spoken about the deliberate destruction of farmland in the area, aiming to keep the population subdued and deprived of any ability to feed themselves.
The destruction of fertile soil in Gaza, with the clear aim of causing famine, can also be understood through the decision of the occupying army to flood tunnels with seawater.
According to several experts, this action would have led to the destruction of these soils and their potential agricultural use.
Amidst this death destruction, Israel continues its psychological warfare against Palestinians. The leaflets dropped by the regime urged people to “feed the needy,” which rights activists perceive as a cruel irony given the situation of famine imposed by the regime itself.
The message of “feeding the needy” reveals the insignificance of Palestinian lives to the colonial forces. Furthermore, it underscores the dehumanization of the Palestinian population and, along with it, the normalization of extermination, domination, exploitation, premature death, and even conditions worse than death, such as ruthless torture.
For decades, Palestinians have lived in constant anticipation of death, a reality dating back even before 1947. Colonized individuals live anticipating degradation, humiliation, and murder.
During the month of Ramadan, the Muslim community is particularly aware of the divine blessings in their daily lives. The notion of divinity should not be interpreted as something separate from earthly reality. On the contrary, the divinity of the Quran implies a political struggle to establish a just community in this world.
We cannot speak of justice, much less build a just society, while Gaza and the rest of Palestine continue to suffer genocide and starvation. This must be the message during Ramadan.
Xavier Villar is a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies and researcher based in Spain.
(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV)
