During the darkest days of the Second World War, Anne Frank and her family hid in a secret attic in Amsterdam to escape the horrors of Nazi persecution. His posthumously published newspaper offered the world an obsessive overview of fear and trauma endured by Jewish families at the time.
Today, a tragically familiar story takes place in Palestine. This time, they are children like Anne Frank – tens of thousands of them – faced with death by famine and implacable bombardment by the Israeli government. They don’t even have an attic to hide; The buildings surrounding them have been reduced to rubble by blind Israeli attacks.
Eight decades after the holocaust, another genocide takes place – this time with Palestinian children as victims and witnesses of ethnic cleaning. Each of these children has a heartbreaking story that the world must hear. One day, we can read their accounts in memories – if they survive long enough to write them. But the international community should not wait so long. He has to face the suffering of these children now. This is why we have given children in Gaza a platform to ask a burning question in the world: “Why are you silent?” – through a documentary that has become one of Turkiye’s most shared efforts to expose the brutal reality of the genocidal campaign of Israel in Gaza.
Many Western states have lost their moral authority and their hegemonic discourse by acting as accomplices – or catalysts – genocide. Even more tragically, some have sought to justify their positions by invoking a genocide which they itself perpetrated eight decades ago. Those who once stood on the wrong side of history – to commit crimes against humanity – now close their eyes to the almost total destruction of another people. The guilt of past atrocities cannot be absolved by complicity in the news. Consciousness cannot be cleaned by choosing a fresh shame to cover the old shame. If the words “never again” should not gain any weight, they must apply not only to the victims of yesterday – but also to the victims of today.
A few days following the launch of his military assault on Gaza in October 2023, the president of Turkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, publicly condemned the operation as an amount for the genocide. In the months that followed, Turkiye took concrete measures to oppose the brutal Israeli campaign and stop the disaster that takes place in Gaza.
The Turkish government and the people have always opposed a genocide. President Erdogan refused to remain a passive observer in history; Instead, he chose to stand in the foreground of the moral conscience of humanity.
This has been Turkiye’s position for many decades.
During the holocaust, Turkish diplomats such as Necdet Kent and Selahattin Ulkumen risked their lives to save the Jews from Nazi deportations. Decades later, during the genocide in Bosnia, Turkiye again urged the international community to act. Over the past 20 years, wherever human suffering has appeared – from war areas to disaster areas – Turkiye has acted to protect vulnerable and maintain the rights of oppressed in the face of humanitarian crises.
Turkiye responded to the blind attacks of Israel with decisive humanitarian and diplomatic action – despite considerable political and economic costs. He broke up trade relations with Israel and led efforts to the United Nations to put pressure on an international weapon and commerce embargo. Diplomatic links have been cut and Israeli officials are now prohibited from Turkish airspace, disturbing attempts to standardize genocide. While many governments have hesitated or have published statements, Turkiye has acted – offering help for children forced to drink contaminated water, mothers in search of a shelter among ruins and families crying dear without tombs to bury them.
By joining the case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Turkiye firmly defended international law and justice – principles that many powerful nations invoke in theory but abandon when they are annoying. Western governments that once sworn “never again” now on tiptoe around the genocide, paralyzed by the fear of offending Israel, even if children die under ceilings that collapse. It is not a simple indifference. It is a betrayal of historical proportions.
A key catalyst for Western silence and complicity in the Gaza genocide was the intense campaign of disinformation of Israel. In the direction of President Erdogan, Turkiye’s communications management worked to cut this noise. The management combat center of management has, among other initiatives, launched the innovative platform The Lies of Israel, which thwarts the false stories in six languages. It was only the first step – cleaning the space so that the truth emerges and strengthening the pressure for a significant change.
More dangerously, Israel does not see more and more need to hide his actions behind disinformation. It exploits the insensitivity of major segments of the international community to current violence. By referring to the Gazans as “children of darkness”, Israeli politicians try to legitimize the genocide against them. This effort to normalize inhumanity has been firmly rejected both by management and the Turkish people. Turkiye is difficult not only the distortions of the Israel propaganda machine, but also the deeper decadence of global consciousness. Management work is an act of resistance – not only against lies, but against a world order where apathy has become the default response to atrocity.
The sophisticated messaging strategy used by the communications department – a mixture of traditional and digital media – has brought the reality of the disproportionate use of Israel and the suffering of Palestinian civilians for the world. It strengthens the continuous efforts of President Erdogan to put pressure on Western governments and the broader public to be up to their own professed values.
In coordination with Turkiye’s diplomatic response, management assured that social media and other online platforms – where most people are now consuming news – cannot be transformed into genocide accomplices. He did this by producing a wide range of cultural materials, including books, films, exhibitions and other public events. These gatherings are not simply intended to testify; They recall the moral responsibility that is the responsibility of all of us. An important example of Turkiye placing the truth in the service of justice was the compilation and dissemination of a book documenting the evidence of the crimes of Israel – an effort which turned out to be decisive in the support of the case at the International Court of Justice.
Turkiye has the conviction that the era of obsolete paradigms – those who prioritize the close interests of hegemonic powers – ended. A new international order must be built on the basis of the maintenance of rights and dignity of all people, especially helpless. To this end, the communications department has amplified the voices of the Palestinian victims, in particular children, giving them a platform to tell the truth in international forums and express themselves through cultural initiatives such as the bulletproof Dreams exhibition in Istanbul.
The coherent and early moral leadership of Turkiye on Gaza has maintained the crisis of the World Day and has helped to shape international conscience – creating the conditions under which Western leaders began to take hesitant steps of their prolonged silence. After months of inaction, the United Kingdom, France and Canada have now called Israel to “stop its military operations in Gaza”, facilitate humanitarian aid in the band and promised “concrete actions”, if Israel does not comply. The United Kingdom has since suspended commercial negotiations with Israel, imposed sanctions on violent settlers in the West Bank and has expressed its strongest condemnation of the “morally unjustifiable” actions of Israel and “monstrous” public threats to ethnically clean the Gaza.
This change in tone of Western governments is welcome, although limited and long awaited. Rhetorical change must be followed by a concrete action and a fundamental change in policy – if not, it will remain hollow. The time of shy diplomacy has been passed for a long time. What is necessary now is a coalition of consciousness: nations are daring enough to align their values on decisive action and the leaders have prepared to exchange comfort for courage. Justice will not come alone; It must be delivered by those who are courageous enough to direct.
Should they fail, they must understand that millions of children-those asking, “Why are you silent?” – will continue to keep them responsible. Each day of delay in the confrontation of the genocidal government of Israel brings more crimes against the Palestinians: more lives lost in Gaza, more houses burnt down in the West Bank. This failure deepens not only Palestinian sufferings, but also renders poor service to the Israeli people, many of which aspire to a new leadership.
The path was clearly placed by Turkiye. At this point, the simple fact of withdrawing support from Israel is no longer enough. What is necessary is an initiative coordinated and led by the conscience of the Allied nations to transform the growing impulse of Palestinian recognition into a real reality with two states based on the borders of 1967. This must include the construction of a political framework which refuses to tolerate permanent injustice under the cover of neutrality. The starting point for this effort should be the rescue of children.
Act now – so that Palestinian children, like Anne Frank, did not have to die in silence to remember. Let them live – so as not to be sanctified, but to prosper.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.
