Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za
3-minute read
11 July 2025 | 09:15 CAT

📷 Defiant Amid Despair: Palestinians raise their flag in Gaza as global silence deepens and rhetoric shifts toward dangerous extremes.

As global attention wavers, the language used by Israeli officials around Gaza is shifting from alarming to outright dangerous, warns Israeli author and political commentator, Professor Ori Goldberg. Speaking to Radio Islam International, Goldberg described how Israeli rhetoric has moved from veiled insinuations to open references of “concentration” and “containment” of Palestinians terms heavily loaded with historical trauma and genocidal precedent.

“I don’t know if we’re witnessing a deliberate shift, but we’re certainly witnessing a shift,” Goldberg stated. “Israel gambled everything it had on the success of its genocidal campaign in Gaza, and it has failed abysmally.”

According to Goldberg, this linguistic evolution isn’t merely symbolic, it is a precursor to policy. He warned that decades of unchecked aggression and muted global responses have normalized collective punishment against Palestinians. “The world has stood aside and allowed Israel to do it for so long that the world itself has lost all sensitivity, not just to the plight of the Palestinians, but to the state of international humanitarian law,” he said.

Goldberg’s most chilling observation is that the Israeli military increasingly views Gaza as devoid of civilians. “There is a general acceptance of the fact that there are no innocents among the Gazans,” he explained, noting that this dehumanization extends to children, elderly people, and even those simply queuing for food. “Just this morning, the Israeli military shot and killed at least 10 children who were waiting in line for nutritional supplements in Deir el-Balah.”

With the war ongoing and the occupation intensifying, Goldberg warns that this mindset could persist. “The demon which apparently was nesting in the collective Israeli soul for quite some time has awoken,” he said, urging international intervention akin to the anti-apartheid efforts of the past.

Asked whether Israel still possesses a civic society capable of challenging this trajectory, Goldberg was blunt. “Unfortunately, I would have to answer in the negative. Civil society is much diminished… fearful for their institutional lives.”

Without external pressure, Goldberg fears the “logic that guided the genocide in Gaza hasn’t gone away.” His call to the international community is clear: silence, now more than ever, amounts to complicity.

Listen to the full interview on The Daily Round-Up with Moulana Junaid Kharsany and Professor Ori Goldberg.