Financial Times Discovers Hostages, Ignores Two Decades of Siege
The Financial Times breathlessly reports Hamas's offer to release hostages as a 'conflict milestone.' While any release is welcome news, calling it a 'milestone' implies the conflict began on October 7th, erasing over 17 years of suffocating siege on 2.3 million Palestinians. This rhetorical sleight of hand transforms a desperate act within an ongoing catastrophe into a singular 'event,'
conveniently ignoring the structural violence that predates it. One might wonder if the FT considers the constant aerial bombardment, civilian deaths, and displacement (as detailed by the UN) to be just scenery. Or perhaps, only certain lives, and their capture, qualify as a 'milestone' in a 'conflict' that was anything but dormant before the cameras turned.