When the oppressed become the oppressors

Amidst the scale of barbarity inflicted on Gaza and her neighbours, perhaps one of the glaring ironies of the conflict is the threat Israel recently delivered to Druze communities in Lebanon to desist in hiding Muslims in their homes. [1]

BACKGROUND

Since 2 March 2026, the Zionist state has ramped up its horrific attacks on neighbouring Lebanon, displacing over one million and killing over 1,400
Israel claims to be targeting 'Hezbollah infrastructure' but is bombing civilian areas near hospitals and homes
In Gaza, the Zionist regime has already killed or wounded an estimated 186,000, with no sign of winding down its brutal genocide despite opening up a renewed theatre in Iran
As part of its destruction in Lebanon, occupation forces have threatened Druze communities to stop sheltering Muslims
Among the most extreme elements of the Zionist regime are those who are pushing for annexation of all territory up to the Litani River, thereby permanently displacing millions

The inversion of victim and oppressor

The situational irony is palpable.

Holocaust survivor Hajo Meyer wrote in his book The End of Judaism: An Ethical Tradition Betrayed that the victimisation and brutality inflicted on the Palestinians closely resembles the way the Nazis persecuted Jews in the Holocaust.

Mechanisms of othering including the stripping of human identity, theft of land, social death, murder, imprisonment, genocide, all speak of the production of a hubristic and transgressive Zionist “self” in order that the Palestinian “other” is carved out of it.

A history of protection across faiths

Narratives of honourable assistance given to Jews being hounded by Nazis are an important emblem of hope amidst the barbarity of violence.

Take for example Muslims in North Africa who disguised Jews as Muslims, and transported them to safer areas, or Besa (code of honour) in Europe, which meant Albanian Muslims knew what to do.

Look to the Imams in Paris who used mosque basements to hide Jewish children, and plentiful accounts of Muslim bakers and Muslim midwives who paid extra attention to the safeguarding of Jewish victims.

And let us not forget the protection offered by the Ottoman state in the Maghreb — and in Bosnia and elsewhere — to Jews following the Spanish Inquisition of 1492 as well as Salāh al-Dīn’s revoking of a Crusader ban on Jews setting in Jerusalem.

All of these actions meant that, for centuries, Muslims offered Jews a safe haven at the height of oppression.

When history is totally turned on its head

Today tells a very different story.

The persecuted have become the persecutors: the oppressed are now oppressors on a massive scale.

The level of horrors inflicted by the Zionist state is beyond all proportion; yesterday’s gas chambers are today’s drones and modern killing machines. Whereas Nazis would say the fans are doing the killings, today’s Nazis instead gloat on full view of the world as they kill and destroy.