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A review by samdalefox
Moral Abdication: How the World Failed to Stop the Destruction of Gaza by Didier Fassin
challenging
informative
medium-paced
4.0
This is a short, succint, book split into manageable chapters. It does what the title says. 'The present essay is an attempt to analyse what made it impossible for a majority of the leaders, and many among the elites, in Western countries, to grasp the meaning of these two series of events [Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and Israel's response] and recognize the ethical responsibility they entailed.'
I think the book is written clearly enough that most people will be able to engage with it without having to have any formal study of moral philosophy or a thorough understanding of Israel-Palestine history. Having said that, I did have to look up a few words and political events. So maybe this is best suited to lay-people with an active interest.
The essay covers the relevant arguments with effective anylsis and appears reasonably balanced and well referenced. There were a couple of points of view I hadn't heard before which was nice surprise. The reason this is 4 stars, not 5 is because I think there were three pretty big topics not touched upon sufficiently: 1) the morality of guilt, 2) missing analysis about the specific confinement of armed resistance, and 3) economic arguments linked to capitalism/empire. The other verso publication "The Destruction of Palestine Is the Destruction of the Earth" does explore the economic/empire topic in more depth so is good supplementary reading, but is more poorly written in my opinion.
Some of the topics covered in the book: the language used to describe events, inequity between Israelis and Palestinians, revisionism, the interpretation of terrorism, the legal definition of genocide, the changed official and unofficial definitions of Antisemitism, strategic philosemitism, the arms industry and war economy, Islamophobia , the changed position of PLO, freedom of speech, censorship and self censorship, critical expression, necessary conditions for reconcilliation.
Further resources:
I think the book is written clearly enough that most people will be able to engage with it without having to have any formal study of moral philosophy or a thorough understanding of Israel-Palestine history. Having said that, I did have to look up a few words and political events. So maybe this is best suited to lay-people with an active interest.
The essay covers the relevant arguments with effective anylsis and appears reasonably balanced and well referenced. There were a couple of points of view I hadn't heard before which was nice surprise. The reason this is 4 stars, not 5 is because I think there were three pretty big topics not touched upon sufficiently: 1) the morality of guilt, 2) missing analysis about the specific confinement of armed resistance, and 3) economic arguments linked to capitalism/empire. The other verso publication "The Destruction of Palestine Is the Destruction of the Earth" does explore the economic/empire topic in more depth so is good supplementary reading, but is more poorly written in my opinion.
Some of the topics covered in the book: the language used to describe events, inequity between Israelis and Palestinians, revisionism, the interpretation of terrorism, the legal definition of genocide, the changed official and unofficial definitions of Antisemitism, strategic philosemitism, the arms industry and war economy, Islamophobia , the changed position of PLO, freedom of speech, censorship and self censorship, critical expression, necessary conditions for reconcilliation.
Further resources:
- 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
- Reports from The UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Occupied Territories, Francesca Albanese
- Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition, of antisemitism: ‘antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews which may be expressed as hatred towards Jews’, ... ‘criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic’.
- The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism, 2020
Quotes
"The notion of consent probably requires some clarification. There are two distinct dimensions to it. The first is passive: not opposing a project, whose realization is thereby facilitated. The second is active: approving that project, whose realization is thus supported."
"Faced with this refusal of history, it must be recalled that to understand is not necessarily to condone, and that one can attempt to analyse an act even though one condemns it."
"Palestinian resistance is in a catch: when it uses violence it is oppressed, and when it uses diplomatic negotiations it is ignored."
"The point is not to use history to relativize the violence of political organizations classified as terrorist by Western nations, yesterday or today. It is, rather, to conceive that they might be seen differently elsewhere in the world, and that their very status can change over time depending on the balance of forces they have succeeded in establishing in international relations."
"Words matter, especially when they have historical resonance, political meaning and legal implications"
"This querying of the number of dead is a double punishment for the victims of war. Their life has been taken; their death is denied."
"Barbara Cassin has identified the three conditions of success that had to come together to make the transition from war to reconciliation, and thereby deal with hatred: ‘a policy of remembrance, a policy of justice, and a policy of speech’."