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GAZA CEASEFIRE: THE WORLD MUST ENSURE ISRAEL DOES NOT RESUME A SLOW
GENOCIDE  
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Majed Abusalama
October 18, 2025
Middle East Eye
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_ The goal now is to turn eyes away from Gaza and deflect
accountability after two years of global mobilisation demanding not
only peace, but also justice, liberation and return _

A Palestinian child mourns the death of a relative killed in an
Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, on 19 October,
2025, Reuters

 

The “Trump deal” on Gaza, like many similar agreements, does not
acknowledge the roots of the Palestinian
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liberation. This is not peace - far from it. It is Oslo
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Illusions were embraced without resistance, even by many liberal-left
imperialists who have championed the two-state framework. They imposed
no conditions on Israel
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or uphold accountability. 

While demands for the demilitarisation of Palestinian resistance
groups, including Hamas, echo loudly, there have been no parallel
calls to sanction Israel, halt military aid to Tel Aviv or
demilitarise the state. 

The imbalance is stark. We, the native people - those against whom
genocide
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has been committed - are left to bear the heaviest costs.

The political and capitalist elite must be held accountable. The
current proposals for Palestinians are not solutions; they are
betrayals, violating the principles of justice and international law
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conditional self-determination, legitimising Zionism, entrenching
colonialism and advancing capitalist interests. 

Such a framework does not serve liberation. It serves power, the
Zionist national project and capitalism. We must commit to dismantling
these structures in the long term - not only for the sake of
Palestinians, but for the integrity of humanity itself.

The deal imposed by US [[link removed]]
President Donald Trump is a brutal farce that will deepen the divide
between the Global North and Global South, the latter of which refuses
to accept the destruction of the Palestinian national project. It
seems as if the millions of people who protested in the streets have
no agency in this matter. 

Trump’s approach to Gaza is best understood as a necropolitical plan
- a strategy that governs through death, not diplomacy. By celebrating
mass killing, military aid and settler expansion, it reduces
Palestinian life to something disposable, stripped of rights and
recognition.

Even the so-called ceasefires operate under the same logic: they are
necropolitical ceasefires, not meant to protect life, but to manage
its destruction, reset the machinery of violence and prepare for the
next round of annihilation. This is not peace; it is the choreography
of empire.

The Palestinian leadership, civil society and grassroots movements
have been systematically ignored. The Trump plan imposes conditional
self-determination, while stripping us of our political agency.

Erasing Palestinians 

Palestine is not one of Trump’s or Elon Musk’s companies, nor does
it belong to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It is not a
sandbox for imperialist experiments or corporate-style governance. 

And yet, that is precisely what is unfolding: real estate developers
are circling, and capital is poised to flood in - not just to
"rebuild" Gaza, but to rebrand it. 

According to reports, it could take two decades
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just to clear away the rubble, but plans are already underway to
construct new urban identities and reshape narratives to serve
capitalist exploitation. This is not reconstruction; it is erasure: a
final phase in the Zionist national project to dissolve Palestinians,
not only as a people, but as a metaphor of resistance.

Still, I choose hope, because the lives of my people matter more than
anything else. I choose an end to the live-streamed genocide.

For the past two years, I have lived in constant panic, haunted by
fears of another ethnic cleansing. My people are exhausted. The
struggle for survival has been torturous, as we have been repeatedly
forced to flee death just to satisfy our basic needs for food and
water.

Before the current ceasefire began, Israel intensified its
bombardments in some of the last remaining neighbourhoods of Gaza with
buildings still standing. But my family, and my people as a whole,
will take our tents and live atop the ruins of our homes. 

We will return to our shattered refugee camps and our cities, which
have been erased and reduced to rubble. We will return to another
conception of home, where new identities will be formed and political
demands will rise for full liberation. 

Our ultimate goal remains unchanged: to go back to the homes from
which our grandparents were expelled in and around 1948.

As part of the Gaza ceasefire, the Israelis held captive in the
enclave have returned home, receiving a hero’s welcome in the state
that continues to colonise our lands. Conversely, the released
Palestinian captives
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are returning to destroyed homes after enduring brutal torture. With
no support, they will live in tents, mourn and attempt to rebuild.

But Israel failed to “empty Gaza”. It failed to destroy the
Palestinian struggle. Now, more than ever, we have enlightened the
world about the plight of the Palestinian people - tragically, through
one of the bloodiest genocides in modern history.

Global responsibility

It is a rare joy to witness the happiness of my family, friends and
neighbours in Gaza - many of whom have lost more than 10kg of body
weight and aged prematurely over the past two years of genocide. I
pray that the drones and warplanes will finally leave our skies, and
that this ceasefire will hold, even in these times of deep mistrust.

It is a joy to see the smiles of relief. But I must remind you - and
the world - that Israel has a habit of breaking ceasefires. Once
global attention shifts, it resumes its slow genocide. Its political
strategy is to exploit the passage of time to expand its colonial
project, approving fake ceasefires to distract international
solidarity, calm global uprisings, depoliticise trade unions and
weaken political organising. 

The goal is to turn eyes away from Gaza and deflect accountability
after two years of global mobilisation demanding not just peace, but
also justice, liberation and return.

Gaza has paid an unimaginable price - a Holocaust of its own - with
tens of thousands of people killed, and scores of thousands more
orphaned or suffering catastrophic injuries, including amputations. 

We must ensure that no neocolonial project takes root in Palestine,
especially Gaza. We refuse to let our territory return to being a
ghetto under Israeli military law.

As Palestinians begin the gradual process of rebuilding, the whole
world has a collective responsibility to continue the struggle for
justice and self-determination. We must reclaim and decolonise every
space for Palestine. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS
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minimum of what is needed.

We must hold states, political parties and international institutions
accountable for failing to protect Palestinians and prevent genocide.
These actors have whitewashed Israel’s crimes.

The Palestine solidarity movement must work to enforce accountability
and protect Palestinian political rights, including by working to
block all investment and trade with Israel - especially the arms
trade. The world now has a strong memory of a global betrayal, as the
West supported a live-streamed genocide, while continuing to arm and
fund the perpetrator. It defied humanity and the entire framework of
international law.

As Palestinians who lost so much in Gaza - our families, homes and
memories - we are only now being allowed to cry, to grieve, to rest,
to breathe. I will do all I can to recover, but the truth is
inescapable: we are no longer who we once were.

Palestinians won the world over, and Israel forever destroyed its
image. We must build on this shift to escalate our calls for a new
global order free of apartheid and colonialism. We will remember who
stayed silent as humanity witnessed a live-streamed genocide.

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Majed Abusalama is an award winning writer, political activist and
doctoral researcher at Tampere University. Raised in Gaza’s Jabalia
refugee camp, he campaigned against the military siege and co-founded
Palestine Speaks in Germany. He now chairs Sumud Finland and leads the
Coalition of Lawyers for Palestine in Switzerland, advancing
accountability and Palestinian political rights in Europe.

_The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not
necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye._

Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and
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* Gaza ceasefire; US and Israel; Palestinians; Palestinian
Solidarity Movement;
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