The Tribune

By ALICIA WALLACE

Yesterday marked two years since the beginning of a heightened awareness of the genocide in Palestine. This week, while discussion of a “20-point Gaza Peace Plan” take place, the genocide continues.

I continue to write about the genocide in Palestine, enacted by “Israel”, because the genocide continues. I write about it because it is far too easy to ignore it. I write about it because it is too convenient to leave it to someone else and to determine that it is the duty of someone else to speak up. I write about it because I know that relatively few people are watching news stories about it, reading the history for themselves, or engaging in conversations with other people about what is happening, why it continues, and how it is relevant to us.

Two years later, it may seem “normal” to see tents being bombed and people scrambling to collect what little they own before moving on to a still-unknown location, only to be pushed out again. What we are seeing, or refusing to see, on social media, day after day, is colonisation. It is the system we would like to believe is in the past, never to rear its head again. It is the systematic murder of a people, destruction of the land, and an attempt at erasing their culture. It is a series of acts of domination and the complete violation of human rights. It is a testing of weapons and tactics that will not end with the Palestinian people—certainly not if we remain silent as it happens to the Palestinian people.

Though more States have recognised the State of Palestine, there is little action to end the genocide. It is absolutely necessary for governments to end their diplomatic relationships and economic engagement with “Israel.” There is no utility in “recognising” Palestine while supporting, implicitly or explicitly, the genocide “Israel” is committing every single day, with money from governments and corporations all over the world.

This week, in Middle East Eye, Palestinian journalist Fareed Taamallah wrote, “Recognition, while important, will remain meaningless unless it brings about the permanent end of occupation and genocide through a serious, firm and effective challenge to Israel’s crimes. For decades, Palestinians have endured occupation while the international community failed to uphold its political and legal responsibilities, applying international law with a blatant double standard. What Palestinians need most are decisive measures: ending cooperation with Israel, imposing economic sanctions and prosecuting its leaders for war crimes.”

“This year, the timing of international recognitions coincides with the olive harvest - the most important agricultural season in Palestine, vital for sustaining thousands of families and deeply symbolic in our identity. My family and I should be among the olive trees in our ancestral village of Qira, near Salfit. Instead, we face relentless obstacles, not only from seasonal droughts or pests, but from systemic restrictions imposed by the occupation. For Palestinians, harvesting olives is more than an economic necessity - it is an act of resilience and belonging. Across the West Bank, however, families like mine are denied access to our groves by military orders and forced to watch settlers uproot and burn our trees,” Taamallah wrote.

Taamallah noted that the recognition of the State of Palestine is symbolic, and seems to be an easy way for governments to feign a moral stance when their true intent is to quiet the discontent in the public and quell any action. It should not be a single step that gives governments permission to look the other way, but lead to more decisive action to end the genocide. “[Recognitions of the State of Palestine] must drive us to establish a democratic, inclusive system based on freedom and justice, rather than one that excludes key political factions at the demand of foreign governments.” The Palestinian people need governments to end their complicity in the genocide.

Palestinian American human rights attorney Noura Erakat spoke at the Security Council 10011th meeting with a focus on women and peace and security on October 6. She grounded her statement in Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security which acknowledges the role of women in conflict resolution, peace negotiations, peace-building, and humanitarian response. It calls on States to “ensure increased representation of women at all decision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict.”

“Twenty-five years ago, when this body adopted Resolution 1325, the Security Council made an unabashedly feminist commitment to advance gender equality because you understood that women are critical agents for a just peace. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Palestine where, for decades, courageous Palestinian women have resisted dispossession, removal, apartheid, and now genocide, yet nowhere have the [Women, Peace and Security] tenets of equality, inclusivity, accountability and respect for human rights been more out of reach, said Erakat.

“In Gaza, one woman and one girl have been killed every hour for the past 730 days. Despite the recent enthusiasm to end this war, the terms of the current proposal are setting up Palestinians to live under permanent occupation and siege. The end of the genocide cannot come at the expense of accountability and justice for its survivors. The voices of Palestinian women have been notably absent from this chamber.”

Erakat noted that her participation was in representation of Palestinian sisters who could not be there due to restrictions on travel and the denial of US visas. “Others face reprisals for speaking out,” she said. “This Council should be doing everything in its power to recognise and support Palestinian women as agents of change, but when a people are enduring genocide, the first priority is life. Today, I will show how Israel’s ongoing Nakba in Gaza intends to destroy the Palestinian people in violation of the Genocide Convention.”

Erakat’s statement was specific to the reproductive genocide taking place in Palestine, and she listed four points to make clear goal of “Israel” to “eliminate the possibility of a Palestinian future”.

In the first point, Erakat stated that just surviving is a struggle. The destruction of buildings has left no room for intimacy. Engagement in sexual intimacy is made even more difficult, if not impossible, by the sexual violence enacted against Palestinian people including rape and electrocution of genitals. From 2022 to 2025, there was a 41 percent decline in the birth rate of Palestinians in Gaza.

Secondly, Erakat noted that even in cases where women were able to conceive, it has been difficult to carry a pregnancy to term. “In addition to the trauma of incessant bombardment, attacks on medical facilities, hunger, and disease, it is impossible for women to meet basic needs, let alone access their sexual and reproductive rights.” She shared the story of a pregnant woman having to flee a bombed shelter with nowhere to go. The woman was informed, one week later, that her pregnancy would end.

Thirdly, for Palestinian women who are able to carry their pregnancies to term, it is difficult to deliver. It has been almost impossible for Palestinian women to access prenatal care which increased the risk of postpartum haemorrhage. Palestinian women are delivering in deplorable conditions, including in hospitals where there is no anaesthesia.

Fourth, for those who manage to deliver living babies, it is a struggle to keep them alive. “Over 60 percent of pregnant and breastfeeding women are unable to produce milk due to malnutrition,” Erakat said.

Babies have been born and killed during the genocide which is severely impacting the ability of Palestinians to continue life. Erakat said, “This was always the intention.”

“Israel” is not just dropping bombs on nameless, faceless people. It has been taking aim at medical professionals and journalists—people who could save lives, and people who could report on the events. It targeted areas it had declared safe. It indiscriminately killed people, many of whom were women and children. It continues to create circumstance that threaten life. It is destroying the land and it is trying to control reproduction. The elimination of then Palestinian people has always been the goal, and States need to be at least as decisive and intentional in their resolve and their actions to save lives and support the Palestinian right to self-determination. The genocide will not end when the State of Palestine is recognised by all, but when all States withdraw their support from “Israel” and its genocide.

What are you prepared to demand of your own government? What changes are you prepared to make in your spending? Join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Stop funding genocide.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Shakespeare in Paradise. The Amen Corner opened this week at the Black Box. Shakespeare in Paradise says it will be “a singing, preaching extravaganza”. Tickets are available for the show tonight and Saturday night, starting at 8pm. Shakespeare and the Alchemy of Gender is a one-woman show with visiting performer Lisa Wolpe. It “details Wolpe’s journey to find out more about her father, whose death all to early had lasting impacts on her life”. It is at Fiona’s Theater at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas on West Hill Street, on Thursday, October 9 at 8pm. Tickets can be purchased from shakespeareinparadise.com at $37.50.

2. Women’s Wednesdays. This month, Equality Bahamas is hosting a session that will start with a presentation by Dr Talietha Minnis on breast cancer screening and radiology. It will then transition to a Feminist Standards for Governance workshop on the Environment, making the connection between the physical and social environment and our health. Women’s Wednesdays will take place at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas on West Hill Street this evening, October 8, at 6pm. Register: Lu.ma/femniststandards