Moral Abdication

Consent to the obliteration of Gaza has created an enormous gulf in the global moral order. History will record how Western governments and large sections of their elites have supported the war waged by Israel against Palestinians after Hamas's attack on 7 October 2023 and silenced voices calling for a ceasefire, a just peace and a respect of international law.

Not only have buildings been devastated and civilians massacred, but also language and thought have been damaged. Providing an archive of the first six months of the war, nourished by multiple sources, Moral Abdication examines how the past of occupation and oppression of Palestine has been negated, how a vocabulary and a grammar of facts have been imposed, and how accusations of antisemitism have produced censorship and self-censorship. It also investigates how mainstream media have been restrained and biased.

The book addresses the acceptance of the unequal worth of lives and the differential treatment of deaths. It questions the invocation of the existential threat for Israel and the debt contracted because of the Holocaust. It analyses how the geopolitical and economic stakes in the Middle East, along with the growing rejection of Muslims and Arabs, have contributed to the abdication of values and principles claimed as foundational.