Ceasefire
It's hard to write this editorial. The developments in the Middle East over the past few weeks have been shockingly swift, yet at the same time slow. The harrowing events across the past 15 months have shocked the Imperial community and the world at large. Following the horrific attack on the Nova Festival on 7th October 2023, and the capture of 251 hostages by Hamas, Israel's retaliatory war has spun out across multiple fronts and has scarred the landscape of the Gaza Strip beyond recognition. Recent analysis by CUNY and Oregon State University have indicated that approximately 60% of buildings within the strip have been destroyed or damaged. Our social media feeds have been filled with videos, first of the taking of hostages in October, then with the fatal outcomes of Israeli bombing campaigns. Members of the Imperial community have lost their homes, their families, their friends, as a result of this conflict.
The Imperial community is, by large, not particularly political, but the events in Israel and Palestine have mobilised the student and staff community in a way unheard of. Last year, an open letter to the College called for a divestment from all "goods made by Israel or Hamas," and to issue a "point black condemnation" of the bombing of health facilities as well as the killing of medics, journalists, and UN officials, reached 1,000 signatures in three days. The protests and the encampment captured a nationwide sentiment/feeling that our institutions should be doing more. It was unusual to see such a level of fervour within the student body for the first time in a while.
But for now, a ceasefire has been agreed to, brokered in part due to Donald Trump and the efforts of Steve Witkoff, now Middle East envoy under the 47th President's administration. Witkoff, dispatched in late November 2024, managed to succeed in three weeks where the Biden administration had failed, despite having no prior experience in diplomacy. Despite Biden's efforts to claim some credit, it's hard to believe considering the ceasefire deal has remained constant since May 2024, and because Biden, and his government, have not shown any signs of wanting an end to onslaught. It is more than embarrassing for the Biden administration - in fact it is an emphatic indictment - that Trump was able to solve this issue, the same man whose "first buddy" Elon Musk (very recently spotted performing what has been described by most people as a "Nazi" salute, and by others as "a man with Asperger's exuberantly throwing his heart out to the crowd"), and who has been indicted several times on allegations too numerous to count, as well as being described as a threat to democracy. This is not an endorsement of Trump; we're not interested in joining what is ostensibly a tech oligarchy based on the audience he courted at his inauguration. It doesn't bode well that one of the executive orders signed on Monday was a rollback of sanctions on settlers in the West Bank, a policy which Mr Biden signed in via executive order last February.
As the hostages return to relieved families and to rebuild Gaza begin, we hope this peace lasts, and that a better, brighter future emerges.
