The bombs may have stopped falling on Gaza, but the violence against Palestinians never truly ends. Israel’s latest ceasefire isn’t a step toward peace but a calculated effort to distract from the ongoing violence, occupation and systemic oppression of Palestinians – a reality perpetuated by American complicity.
Israel’s shiny new ceasefire is an agreement for only six weeks of a “partial withdrawal of Israeli troops in Gaza,” according to Al Jazeera. After that, Israel has refused to rule out a resumption of its attacks.
Not only will violence in Gaza continue after the ceasefire, but elsewhere in Palestine, the attacks remain just as heavy. Just three days after the order was signed, Israel invaded the West Bank city of Jenin and left dozens dead or wounded, according to the Associated Press.
But by shifting the public conversation away from the attacks and toward a seemingly good-intentioned effort for peace, it reveals a deliberate strategy to normalize small-scale violence that escapes the international spotlight.
Since 2004, Google searches for “Palestine” and “Gaza” have peaked every time a major bombing is reporting by Israel. First in 2008, when Israel launched Operations “Hot Winter” and “Cold Lead” that included a full-scale invasion of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, again during the 2014 Gaza War that killed thousands of Palestinians, according to the United Nations, and most recently after Oct. 7.
But what each of those peaks miss is the violence that occurs in between. In 2011, when relative searches for Palestine were at their lowest since 2004, there were still incidents like March 22, when Israel Defense Forces killed four and injured dozens of civilians in a mortar shelling of Gaza. It’s a killing of civilians so unnoteworthy that it will likely be lost to the annals of history, because in comparison to larger-scale violence it’s just another incident.
Even though it didn’t end the conflict, the ceasefire served its true purpose: to distract the public from what was really happening. After it was implemented, both outgoing President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump focused on claiming credit for the ceasefire instead of the embarrassing lack of American restrictions on arming Israel while they continue to kill civilians.
Instead of reducing military aid, the agreement maintains America’s current deal to provide at least $12.5 billion in direct military aid to Israel every year and have sent $17.9 billion since the start of the war on Oct. 7, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
With total annual Israeli military spending amounting to about $27 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, mathematically almost half of all the weapons used to murder Palestinian citizens were paid for with American tax dollars.
Even if Israel decided that for now, they were done leveling Palestinian cities, history has shown that any ceasefire is temporary, and they will inevitably invade again.
Furthermore, even if Israel gave up all military action in Palestine permanently, they still have turned Gaza into a death camp. Over half of Gaza, around 1.1 million people, are experiencing catastrophic food insecurity and famine, according to Integrated Food Security.
“What the world has learned is that no number of facts, no degree of horror, no amount of death and pain is enough to trigger a global response to starvation or genocide,” a Palestinian delegate told the UN. “Children in Gaza are dying of starvation and severe malnutrition. At this stage, children are too weak to cry.”
Palestinians aren’t just being subjected to famine, but to a state of apartheid, according to a 2022 report by Amnesty International stating, “Israel imposes a system of oppression and domination against Palestinians across all areas under its control: in Israel and the [Occupied Palestinian Territories], and against Palestinian refugees, in order to benefit Jewish Israelis. This amounts to apartheid as prohibited in international law.”
But all is forgiven by the American government because they get to wave a piece of paper that says that Israel ended military action for a few weeks.
Any meaningful and lasting resolution to the ongoing genocide in Palestine will require much more than a ceasefire. It will require dismantling a decades old system of American aid to Israel; it will require allowing food supplies into Gaza; but more than anything, it will require America enforcing international law against apartheid and refusing to be further complicit in a genocide.
Until then, we must not let Israel get away with sweeping what they’ve done under the rug by claiming they’ve agreed to a ceasefire. We must continue to fight to end violence against Palestinian people, whether or not the bombs are falling.