On Oct. 7, the paramilitary wing of Hamas and several other groups situated in Gaza launched an incursion into Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,139 people. In the following days, a barrage of support flooded in. Celebrities pledged their allyship with Israel, the United States approved billions of dollars in funding for Israeli arms, and mainstream news sources reported 24/7 on the events as they unfolded. If you, like many, were underinformed about the situation in the region, it may have seemed that things in the region had been peaceful up until Oct. 7. They had not been. From 2014 to 2022, over 3,559 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces to the tune of relative silence.
The reality is that the lack of interest in preserving the lives of Palestinians is the result of a tried and true tactic: dehumanization. There has been a concerted effort in the U.S. and Israel to paint a picture of the Palestinian people as somehow less than human. It is the reason why politicians can get away with comparing them to monsters, or proudly saying they’ll turn Palestine, the home of millions, into a parking lot. This sort of behavior is a testament to rhetoric that encourages “us” and “them” thinking and tells us to reserve our sympathy only for people who seem similar to us.
Dehumanization tactics have been used time and time again by governments as an excuse for atrocities they commit. Throughout history, there have been countless attempts to strip certain groups of people of their humanity. By using words and phrases that imply either covertly or outright that certain groups are subhuman or somehow inherently monstrous, these groups have been construed as acceptable targets of violence. While the form this violence takes may change, the use of dehumanization against its victims remains a constant.
Dehumanization is a useful tactic for governments around the world because it quells empathy for targets of violence, keeping backlash at a minimum. Currently, dehumanizing language is used toward Palestinians to justify high levels of brutality against them and the destruction of their homes. In addition, the use of softening language — or claims that imply the wide scale death and destruction on display isn’t as bad as it seems — are also being implemented in the midst of this shocking campaign against human rights. By making it seem as though the victims of violence are lying about what’s happening, others can justify their ignorance toward victims’ suffering and humanity.
It is the use of these tactics that explains why deaths of Palestinians over the years have gone underreported and unacknowledged by the general public. In essence, people have been primed not to care. By framing Palestinians as less than human and their tragedies as unimportant, their lives have been made disposable. As a result of this effective dehumanization campaign, Palestinian deaths have been made to mean less. The loss of life on Oct. 7 was deeply tragic, but so is the loss of thousands of Palestinians who were murdered in the years leading up to it without justice or even acknowledgement.
Even for those who do care about the horrific loss of life in Gaza that has resulted since Oct. 7, it can be tempting to view Palestinians as a monolith. Constantly seeing images of them dying can make it seem like their situation is hopeless. But this, too, is a form of dehumanization, and one that is wholly unhelpful. Viewing the people of Palestine as a faceless group of casualties has the same effect as viewing them as though they’re subhuman. It makes it far harder to empathize when they’re killed, allowing us to turn off the part of our brain that is supposed to care.
It is not normal that those in charge of our governments can compare a group of people to animals and face no tangible repercussions, such as removal. It is not acceptable to witness the deaths of thousands of children and react with a shrug. And it is never okay to imply an entire group of people deserves to die on the basis of their race, religion or country of origin. The language of dehumanization has kept the suffering of Palestinians out of the public consciousness for decades, despite the fact that they have been denied equal rights under Israeli rule for years.
The language of dehumanization has allowed us to ignore Palestinian suffering over the years and today. This does not have to be the case, however. Unlearning dehumanization, even if it has been deeply ingrained, is possible, but only if Dartmouth, as a college community, makes moves to facilitate that. Instead of allowing the ignorant spouting of dehumanizing rhetoric, the administration and the student body must check themselves and others when it arises. We must remember every person who has been killed since the start of this tragedy — and decades before it — was a human being with a life, a family and aspirations. We are all human, and anyone who tries to argue a particular group isn’t has an ulterior motive.
What’s happening in Palestine is a genocide, but the governments of the U.S. and Israel have used language of dehumanization to try to convince us that it's not. Unless we recognize the ways we’ve been taught to see the lives of Palestinians as less valuable than other lives, we will never be able to hold their killers accountable — and accountability is the only way towards justice and peace.
Opinion articles represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
