If Palestinian lives matter, violence in Gaza cannot be normalized

Indonesian diplomat Aloysius Selwas Taborat recently responded to our article titled “Indonesia’s cabinet secretary is sanitizing genocide in Gaza.” His response argues that our criticism of Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya misrepresents a factual observation about declining casualty numbers and misunderstands the realities of diplomacy. The disagreement, however, is not about statistics or the complexity of diplomacy. It concerns how mass civilian suffering is framed in public discourse. Mr. Taborat argues that recognizing declining casualty figures simply reflects factual observation and may suggest that diplomacy is helping reduce hostilities. According to his reasoning, acknowledging that deaths have decreased from tens of thousands to lower figures does not imply that remaining casualties are acceptable but rather indicates that diplomatic efforts may […]