US President Donald Trump says that while not for historical nuances, Gaza’s best plan is to “level the site and remove the destroyed buildings,” paving the way for US acquisitions and redevelopment projects.
Reformed Britain leader Nigel Farage made equally ignorant remarks, imagining Gaza in “casinos and nightlife” and talking to the coincidence of the colony who believes history begins with his own dul.
This is the logic of conquest. First, infiltrate and destroy it. Next, stand in abandoned ins and declare the land to the sky.
The long, bloody tradition of colonialism speaks through these politicians. Settlers arrive on a devastated coast, massacre the natives and announce the discovery of Terranova, a land of nowhere.
But Gaza is not empty. Gaza is never empty.
What unfolds in front of the world is not just war, but cultural genocide – a calculated attempt to erase Gaza’s past, so people’s claims about the future could be denied.
Israel’s attacks target not only life, but history itself. Over 200 heritage sites have been wiped out – not by coincidence, not as incidental, but through a deliberate campaign to cut Gaza from its own past.
I wiped it off the map
The port of Ansadon, dating back to 800 BC, was wiped out from the map from where the Phoenician ships once departed. The largest and oldest great mosque in Gaza survived the empire, not this war.
The Church of Porfirius, a saint that Christians have prayed for centuries, was bombed with civilians seeking refuge within its ancient walls. Even one of the oldest monasteries in the world was damaged by the war.
Over 1,100 mosques in Gaza reportedly have been attacked, with three-quarters of which have been fully leveled. Palestinian officials say that in addition to the excavation of graves and the bodies were stolen, three churches were also destroyed, and 40 cemeteries were targeted.
The past itself is being dug up from the ground and is being abusive. This is not just destruction. This is an attempt to erase the very idea that Gaza and its people have belonged to this land.
Still, Gaza was old when Rome was younger. London and Paris flourished before they could be imagined. British archaeologist Flinderspetry tracks the existence of Gaza five or even thousand years ago, telling El Ajr, who had all left their marks by the Canaanites, Egyptians, Philistines, Persians and Greeks.
One of the early civilizations of the Arab civilization, the Kingdom of Yemen made Gaza a trade center in the first millennium BC. From here, the products flowed to the Mediterranean, Europe, Egypt and Asia.
Hashim ibn Abd Manav, the great grandfather of the Prophet Muhammad, died in Gaza and became known in his honor as Gaza Hashim. There he secured the wealth of Kleish and allowed trade to later make Mecca a centre of commerce – which is very important for the immortalized journey in Kleish’s Qurangsula.
A few years later, during the ninth year of the Prophet Muhammad’s Hijrah, the bishop of Gaza came to him with a surprising explanation. He informed the prophet that when his great grandfather, Hashim, died in Gaza, his wealth was placed in detention at a local church. The bishop returned his trust and was then distributed to the leaders of Banu Hashim.
This is one of countless anecdotes that illuminate the old intimate bonds between Christians and Muslims in Gaza.
Systematic targeting
The empire rose and fell. The Byzantines built churches, the Ottomans raised mosques and madrasas, and the Crusaders seized Gaza.
In Gaza, one of Islam’s greatest jurists, Al Shafiy, was born. His longing for his birthplace never faded.
But now, amidst relentless attacks by Israeli-Americans, the Fox News host has dismissed the Palestinians of Gaza as “uneducated” and parroted the rhetoric of the same colony that has always been used to justify genocide.
The purpose is clear: dehumanize the Palestinians of Gaza – making them appear primitive, incompetent and unworthy. By reducing them to anything, the world is led to believe that when they are wiped out, there are no major losses.
But the truth reveals a lie. Palestine is one of the highest literacy rates in the world, with around 97%. Before this war, Gaza had 12 universities producing world-class scientists, doctors, engineers and thinkers. All of these institutions are destroyed because educated Palestinians are a threat – not for the world, but for those who want to be erased.
In addition to targets at Gaza schools, Israel systematically killed scholars, scientists and scholars. The Israeli military, along with hundreds of teachers and thousands of students, killed more than 90 university professors.
“We have to kill and kill.”
Gaza is more than just a city. It is the backbone of Palestinian national identity.
After Naqba in 1948, Gaza became the last shelter for hundreds of thousands when 750,000 Palestinians were forced out of towns and villages to enable the creation of Israel.
From the camp and the streets, leaders of the Palestinian struggle emerged. And from those people, Al Muzain, the revolutionary poet who coined the words of the Palestinian national anthem, said:
In Gaza today, a boy sits inside an abandoned ins. His voice rises – transparent, unshakable, and beautiful. He sings: “My hometown, my hometown, my hometown is who I am.”
His heart-wrenching words have passed through silence and have decades of struggle and resilience. He’s not just singing. He declares an unbreakable truth. The Palestinians are the land. Erasing one is erasing the other.
The destruction of Gaza did not begin on October 7, 2023. It has always been part of Israel’s Western-backed plans.
Twenty years ago, Israeli strategist Arnon Sofa gave him a horrible prescription for Gaza’s future. Those people will be even bigger than they do today with the help of insane fundamentalist Islam. The pressure at the border will be terrible. It would be a terrible war. So, if we want to continue to live, we must kill, kill, kill. Every day, every day. ”
First, the Israelites were sealed from Gaza. Then they starved it. Now they’re trying to wipe it out.
Cold Callaus
Trump’s vision for Gaza is one of the colonial pest control companies. This vision is not satisfied with mere death, flattening the house, crushing hospitals, or the silence of classrooms where futures once took root. It’s not enough to bomb your life. This vision is about to erase the dead – transforming Gaza into a land with no emptiness, past, memories, and people.
This is the same cold calculus that justified the massacre of millions of native peoples in the Americas. The same ruthless hands that have always wiped away the ancient nation from Australia’s earth are always in the name of civilization and progress. The city was turned to dust, language was swallowed up by silence, and history was rewritten by the conqueror’s pen.
That’s why Palestinians stay. Because leaving means surrendering to a lie. To ensure that history is rewritten in the absence of the house.
All the monuments that have been crushed, all the torn manuscripts, all the voices of silence are part of an old, familiar crime – not just to kill, but to denies that there was something there to kill in the first place.
In Gaza today, a middle-aged man sits silently at the ruins of his house, dust of destruction clinging to his skin. When asked why he doesn’t leave, why he stays in the shadow of devastation, his answer is quiet, but not shaken. “My son died here. His blood spilled here. His bones are under this tile ble. I’m sitting here, I’m approaching him.”
That single sentence weighs 1,000 untold stories.
For the world, Gaza is just a shard and abolishes abandoned. But for the Palestinians who live here, it is a sacred ground, where memories are breathed under the dust, and the rest of the laughter left in silence.
How can they abandon the small remains of their loved one? When all the crushed stones are gravestones, how can they leave?
Asylum and elimination
The Gaza people do not stand alone in the ruins of their homes. They stood on stolen ruins of history, clearing the memories of cities and villages from the earth, giving way to other people’s dreams. “A land without people,” they were told.
“There was nothing like Palestinians,” said Prime Minister Gorda Meir, a woman who carried a Palestinian passport before the state of Israel was born, and declared Israeli Prime Minister Gorda Meir.
Being expelled is a crime. Being erased is something else.
And that’s why Palestinians stay. Because leaving means surrendering to a lie. To ensure that history is rewritten in the absence of the house. For they are all stones, all streets, all ruins whisper their names, and to abandon them is to betray those who walked before them.
The world must not allow this cultural genocide to succeed. Gaza needs to be restored and will not be erased.
Gaza is not abandoned. Gaza is nothing. Gaza is a human heritage.
Soumaya Ghannousi is a British Tunisian writer and expert in Middle Eastern politics. Her journalistic works appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, Corriere Della Sera, Aljazeera.net, and Al Quds. A selection of her writings can be found at soumayaghannoushi.com, where she tweets @smghannoushi.