‘We open our eyes despite the pain it causes’: a role for historians in these genocidal times

Abstract

We write this piece across February, March and April 2025, as the ceasefire – which was never fully in place – was completely wiped aside by Israel. Bombing resumed, with Gazan journalist Anas Al-Sharif reporting one day that: ‘The airstrikes that hit Gaza tonight were unlike anything witnessed since the beginning of the war.’ These ongoing horrors are recognised by almost every reputable source around the globe – and most significantly by Palestinians – as genocidal. The events perpetrated by Israel against Gaza since 7 October 2023 form part of a longer historical chain of events that are often articulated under the name of Nakba, or Catastrophe. As in Patrick Wolfe’s formulation that ‘invasion is a structure, not an event’, so too Nakba structures and continues...