Genocide remembered, genocide ignored
The commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide in July this year, not only recalls the horrors of the genocide but also shifts one’s attention to the future, especially at a time when similar horrific incidents are taking place in Gaza. Commemoration serves as an important event of collective memory for the prevention of such crimes and against the denial of justice to them. It works as a moral obligation against hatred and intolerance. A commemoration is held to honor the victims and to encourage the hope and resilience among the survivors. However, the exercise of commemoration is far from simple, as it may appear to some, because it carries with it many social, economic, and bureaucratic challenges that extend beyond the event itself.
Every year, in Bosnia, the dismembered bodies or sometimes only a small fragment of body parts dug up from the mass graves from different locations are laid to rest at the Srebrenica Potočari Memorial Center. With each burial, while giving them a dignified resting place the families of the victims re-experience the trauma and the loss of their beloved. Isreal’s ongoing genocidal war in Gaza most tragically against its children, shows us how an organized and systematic exercise of dehumanization takes place in history. This exercise is akin to the Serbian attempt of dehumanizing Bosniaks before their extermination. And for many survivors, the plight of Palestinians has triggered painful memories of their own past experiences.
Although it is unjust to compare the sufferings of the victims and scale of trauma they are enduring at the hands of their oppressors, in any war. But one cannot deny that the victims of the Srebrenica genocide and those who are being murdered in Gaza share same fate, and both were intentionally targeted due to their ethnicity and religion. The entire gamut of violence is rooted in an identity-based resentment, in which Muslims of Bosnia and Muslims of Gaza are either perceived as the community to be eliminated from the land which they call holy. Within this narrative, only those who are supposed to be ‘chosen people of God,’ be it Serbs in Serbia or Jews in Israel have the right to exist in this holy land.
Looking back at the history, both Serbs and Jews have consistently engaged in the politics of victimization and self-pity to draw sympathy for themselves. At the same time, to legitimize their inhumane actions, tactics such as the killing of babies, targeted strikes, forced starvation and bombing civilian infrastructures are done with intense impunity. Unlike the Serbs, the Jewish people themselves have undergone one of the worst atrocities in history under the Nazis. Yet, instead of drawing upon the painful legacy to empathize with the suffering of others, the Zionist leadership has still been fully committed to the forced displacement of Palestinians from their homeland. A recently leaked Israeli intelligence report revealed that 83 percent of those killed in Palestine are civilians. Furthermore, a study published in The Lancet medical journal suggests that the actual number of dead and missing may be nearly 40 percent higher than officially reported.
The Srebrenica genocide has taught us many meaningful lessons, yet the pertinent question is what lessons we ought to draw from the horrific atrocities now unfolding before our eyes in Gaza. The truth is that the lessons learned from earlier experiences should not remain confined to the history books but should serve a purpose to act to stop genocides from happening anywhere.
In a recent report released by the Integrated Food Phase Classification (IPC), the UN’s global hunger monitoring body, has declared that the city of Gaza is experiencing conditions of severe famine and the starving children are so weak that they cannot even cry. In stark contrast, both the United States and the European Union stand by in silence and inaction, enabling the loss of human lives. This raises serious concerns that even if the current conflict in Gaza gets to end, its future will remain deeply distraught. We already know from the conflicts around the world that the prospects for long-term peace and stability are very low, as the intergenerational trauma of loss reverberates for many decades. Against this backdrop, one may ask, is the shifting global order triggering new wars, or are these wars reshaping the global order, just as history has taught us repeatedly?
Ambreen Yousuf, JMI, New Delhi
