Infinite License: Reflections on Gaza and Historical Violence

In a powerful essay for The New York Review of Books, historian Omer Bartov explores how the memory of the Holocaust has been distorted to justify the ongoing destruction of Gaza and the silence surrounding it. His article, titled "Infinite License: The World After Gaza," draws troubling parallels between current events and past atrocities.

Bartov opens by recounting the 1904 Herero genocide in German Southwest Africa (modern-day Namibia), where German colonial forces issued an extermination order that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Herero people. He argues that such colonial frameworks of mass violence echo in the way Gaza's destruction has been rationalized and tolerated today.

The piece warns that invoking past traumas like the Holocaust to shield present-day violence erodes moral standards and undermines the very principles of human rights developed in its aftermath. Bartov stresses that this distortion is not only tragic but dangerously corrosive to international law, memory, and justice.

The essay ultimately calls readers to recognize the historical patterns repeating in Gaza — and the urgent need to resist the normalization of unchecked violence.

Read the full article here:
Infinite License: The World After Gaza — The New York Review of Books