Between Tyrants’ Echoes and Victims’ Voices: Words as Weapons, Awareness as Salvation

By: Dimitri Deliani

At the heart of every historical tragedy lies the question of memory and dignity, and in the heart of Palestine that question acquires an existential meaning that transcends place and time. The Palestinian besieged in Gaza, or squeezed in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, does not face a passing circumstance but an entrenched colonial system that seeks to erase his identity and crush his humanity. Yet Palestinians remain able to turn suffering into testimony of their resilience and an affirmation of the legitimacy of their struggle.

History has seen tyrants use words as a weapon directed at their victims. Hitler did so when addressing the Jews of Europe about extermination policies, turning speeches heard in the ghettos into a means of entrenching humiliation before stripping them of life. Stalin did likewise when he addressed millions in Ukraine during the man-made famine, presenting a humanitarian catastrophe as if it were a project of progress. In the Balkans, Milosevic and Karadzic sent televised messages directly to those besieged in Sarajevo, reminding them each day that their siege was deliberate and their killing intentional. In Africa, Mussolini used speeches aimed at Ethiopians to justify colonial invasion and impose obedience, while Italian aircraft dropped poison gas on villages. These examples show how words became tools of psychological repression, matching bullets and artillery in their brutality.

Today, Netanyahu is attempting to impose his rhetoric through loudspeakers on wounded Gaza, repeating the behavior of tyrants who believed a victim could be driven by verbal threat. But the Palestinian experience has shown that the collective voice cannot be broken, and that national consciousness rises above the aggressor’s noise. Every speech addressed to victims becomes a historical witness to its speaker’s criminality, while the voice of Palestine remains resistant to erasure, bearing witness that the dignity of our people is the last to perish on this land.