The Humanitarian Gaze: Apoliticism as a Form of Violence in Gaza

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are being deliberately starved. Depoliticizing the Palestinian struggle is not the helpful tactic you might think it is. Let me explain.

According to the UNRWA, since May 19, Israel has allowed limited aid into Gaza after an 80-day blockade, but only through select UN agencies and NGOs. While some supplies have entered, UNRWA has been unable to deliver any aid since March 2 (UNRWA, 2025). In fact, this is not a new phenomenon. Amnesty International affirms that for almost 18 years, Israel has enforced an unlawful blockade on the occupied Gaza Strip. Since the start of the war in October 2023, it has further intensified these restrictions. Israel has been limiting access to food, fuel, and medical aid, thus leading to the worsening of the humanitarian crisis in what appears to be a deliberate effort to inflict severe harm on the Palestinian population in Gaza (Amnesty International, n.d.).

With this recent dire news on Gaza, it is important to talk about the depoliticization of the Palestinian struggle and the global narrative’s fixation on humanitarianism. What I mean by that is the consequent disregard of the issue’s initial causes, such as settler colonialism and violence. It is important to mention that the intent of this article is not to criticize the humanitarian aspect of the struggle, nor the necessity of global humanitarian aid, but rather to critically look at the inaccurate framing of the struggle. The critique this article tackles is not directed at humanitarian organizations. Instead, it focuses on the political discourses that purposely stop at humanitarianism.

Photo by Mohammed Ibrahim on Unsplash

To begin with, I will unpack 2 key concepts: depoliticization and humanitarian framing. In this case, what I mean by ‘depoliticization’ is the process of stripping the conflict of its political context and looking at it as a neutral and apolitical ‘crisis.’

In the case of Gaza, this means reducing a long struggle against occupation and colonial violence to a story about passive victims who lack access to necessities such as food, shelter, and medicine. Although these needs are clearly urgent and vital, focusing exclusively on them conceals the political reasons behind the suffering.

This is where the notion of ‘humanitarian gaze’ comes in. It acts as the lens through which much of the international media and discourse views Palestine: through emergency relief, aid convoys, and pictures of injured and/or dead civilians. While this approach may seem compassionate, it ultimately perpetuates a narrative where Palestinians are seen as passive victims instead of political agents fighting against occupation. In the end, this framing is rendered ineffective when it is not accompanied with a critical understanding of why the humanitarian crisis exists in the first place.

This narrative is very much present in the West. For instance, I currently reside in a Western European country, where talks, events, and protests related to Palestine are usually allowed, but this permission comes with a price. The accepted discourse is then often depoliticized.

Unless the discussion or the event is taking place within a purely activist and/or political organization, talks on Palestine are very much focused on short-term goals or vague premises. This tendency is intentional.

Indeed, once Palestine-related protests use explicitly political language, by critiquing Zionism, or calling for resistance and liberation, they often face repression. In the United States and Europe, university students have been arrested or suspended for organizing sit-ins or encampments. To illustrate this, in Belgium, after two VUB students respectfully confronted a member of Parliament at a campus event over his party’s support for Israel, the university launched disciplinary proceedings against them (VUB, 2024). This response reflects how Western institutions often depoliticize the Palestinian struggle by accusing acts of solidarity of disrupting order.

In Berlin, German police detained several pro-Palestinian demonstrators and stopped them from playing music and chanting Arabic slogans criticizing Israel’s actions. The protest drew hundreds of participants carrying Palestinian flags and banners with messages such as “Stop arming Israel,” “Freedom for Palestine,” and “Palestinian children deserve to grow up.” (Mogstad, 2023)

In other words, this suppression exposes the limits of “acceptable” activism and shows how even the right to protest is constrained by the humanitarian framing.

If the blockade were lifted and a ceasefire declared, activism would likely come to a halt, despite the decades of occupation and systemic violence that persist. Such a shift would risk reducing political engagement to reactive, short-term humanitarian concern, leaving the root causes of Palestinian suffering unresolved.

This takes us to the following question: Why is Palestinian suffering only taken seriously when it is stripped of politics?

There are several reasons why the current genocide is mainly framed through a humanitarian lens. The most prominent ones are appearing more ‘objective,’ gaining legitimacy in Western discourse, and/or easily appealing to Western empathy, and they all pose significant problems. This approach may offer short-term visibility or support for the Palestinian cause.

Undoubtedly, the Palestinian issue is fundamentally political. Neglecting the role of resistance in favor of a purely humanitarian framing reinforces the idea that only suffering is legitimate, while resistance or political discourse is radical or extremist. This dichotomy not only depoliticizes the conflict but also delegitimizes Palestinian voices that assert agency and self-determination.

Photo by Emad El Byed on Unsplash

Liberal frameworks also play a central role in emphasizing humanitarianism over resistance. They often prioritize neutrality, which can undermine the structural roots of violence. When it comes to Gaza, liberal ideology reduces political struggle to apolitical suffering and deems calls for resistance or liberation as inherently radical. In other words, it is not a neutral arbiter. It reshapes the terms of engagement and paves the way for interventions that emphasize reform over justice.

For example, in the past, international donors have drastically reshaped Palestinian grassroots and nationalist movements to realign them with neoliberal and liberal peace frameworks. This project of liberal reformism involved the demobilization, depoliticization, and deradicalization of civil society, stripping it of its resistance-oriented character in favor of liberal reformism. In doing so, international aid has contributed to a discourse that favors humanitarian relief while neglecting the political demands of justice and liberation (Alashqar, 2018).

Lastly, the ‘double standards’ phenomenon should also be called out. Dominant narratives demand that the international public opinion affirm Israel’s right to self-defense, unequivocally condemn the October 7th attacks, and denounce Hamas as a “terrorist” organization. Criticism of Israel is also often dismissed on the basis that anti-Zionism overlaps with anti-Semitic sentiments. Yet, any discussion of Palestinian resistance, settler colonialism, or systemic issues such as Islamophobia and white supremacy is quickly marginalized.

The conflict is depoliticized when it comes to Palestine, while remaining deeply politicized in Israel’s favor.

In addition, even seemingly neutral terms such as “evacuation” or “humanitarian pause” are often framed as apolitical gestures, yet they hide long histories of forced displacement and settlement expansion that have defined Palestinian life since Israel’s founding. Such framings demand critical thinking, especially when they are not tied to concrete commitments to Palestinian rights, including return, self-determination, and statehood (Mogstad, 2023).

In an interview, renowned Palestinian writer Mohammed El-Kurd expressed hope that the global movement in support of Palestine is not solely driven by images of massacres or feelings of sympathy and pity. He emphasized the importance of the movement being grounded in a clear and critical understanding of Zionism as an ideology that is expansionist, supremacist, and racist (Jahshan, 2025). In other words, this is not the time to be apolitical. Apoliticism is a privilege. It is time to get educated and to conduct ‘uncomfortable’ conversations. This is not the time to adopt a liberal perspective that solely focuses on ensuring a humanitarian perspective to trigger more empathy.

This is not a crisis. This is a genocide, and it should be treated as such.

Bibliography

1. Alashqar, Y. (2018). The politics of social structures in the Palestinian case: From national resistance to depoliticization and liberalization. Social Sciences, 7(4), 69. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7040069 

2. Amnesty International. (n.d.). Lift the blockade on Gaza and stop the genocide [Petition]. Retrieved June 19, 2025, from https://www.amnesty.org/en/petition/lift-the-blockade-on-gaza-and-stop-the-genocide/

3. Jahshan, E. (2025, February 26). Mohammed El-Kurd’s perfect victims and the Politics of Appeal. https://www.newarab.com/features/mohammed-el-kurds-perfect-victims-and-politics-appeal 

4. Mogstad, H. (2023, October 31). Gaza is not a humanitarian crisis: On self‑defence, depoliticising language, and contextualisation [Blog post]. Chr. Michelsen Institute. https://www.cmi.no/publications/8976-gaza-is-not-a-humanitarian-crisis-on-self-defence-depoliticising-language-and-contextualisation

5. TRT global - several arrested in German police crackdown on pro-Palestine Protest. TRT World - Breaking News, Live Coverage, Opinions and Videos. (2025, February 8). https://www.trtworld.com/europe/several-arrested-in-german-police-crackdown-on-pro-palestine-protest-18262995

6. United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. (2025, June 13). UNRWA situation report #175: Situation in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem. https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-175-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem 

7. VUB Palestine Network Solidarity. (2024, December 19). Vub Palestine Solidarity Network Statement on disciplinary action taken against VUB students*. Vrede. https://vrede.be/en/news/vub-palestine-solidarity-network-statement-disciplinary-action-taken-against-vub-students

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed herein belong solely to the columnist and do not represent the official position of our think-tank. Humanotions cannot be held liable for any consequences arising from this content. Content published on Humanotions may contain links to third-party sources. Humanotions is not responsible for the content of these external links. Please refer to our Legal Notices & Policies page for legal details and our Guidelines For Republishing page for republication terms.