Podcast Summary: "Two Years of Genocide in Gaza: On the Struggle for Decolonization"

Podcast: Drop Site News
Date: October 7, 2025
Host: Sharif Abdul Kutus
Guest: Noora Erakat – Palestinian Human Rights Lawyer & Professor at Rutgers University

Episode Overview

This episode marks the grim two-year anniversary of what the hosts and guest label as the genocide in Gaza, highlighting unparalleled violence and devastation perpetrated by Israel with U.S. backing. The focus is a critical reflection on the struggle for Palestinian liberation, the collapse of international legal, journalistic, academic, and medical institutions in confronting Israeli actions, and the global implications for decolonization. Guest Noora Erakat, who just addressed the UN Security Council on these issues, offers legal, historical, and personal insight into the realities on the ground and the global movement for justice.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Humanitarian Catastrophe in Gaza

• Two years of conflict have resulted in over 67,000 Palestinian deaths, more than 20,000 of them children; numbers continue to rise with thousands missing.
• Major civilian infrastructure—homes, hospitals, schools, mosques, bakeries—has been decimated; 92% of residential buildings are damaged or destroyed ([01:25]).
• Forced famine is a reality: at least 460 Palestinians, including 154 children, have starved to death.
• 95% of Gaza’s population has been displaced, many repeatedly; health care, education, and journalism have been targeted with unprecedented loss of life.
• The violence and colonial dispossession now extend to the West Bank and throughout the region.

"There is so much that is unprecedented... And all of this has been backed and supported and armed by the United States more than any other country."
— Sharif Abdul Kutus ([05:30])

2. Institutional Collapse and Complicity

• Erakat points to a systemic failure: legal, academic, medical, journalistic, and political institutions have collapsed or become complicit, allowing Israeli actions to proceed unchallenged ([09:10]-[15:59]).
• Boards of universities are dominated by those with vested financial interests in the arms industry; journalistic integrity has been compromised.
• Freedom of speech, protest, academic freedom, and even medical ethics have been gutted in the name of supporting Israeli actions.

“Nobody could have anticipated, I certainly could not have anticipated, a suicide pact across industry and field ready to destroy itself for the sake of enabling Israel to finish the job.”
— Noora Erakat ([14:50])

3. The Limits of International Law & the UN

• Despite deep cynicism, Erakat explains why she addressed the UN Security Council: it is the only global mechanism with theoretical enforcement power under Chapter VII ([17:12]-[22:03]).
• International law is described as a double-edged sword—site of both colonial oppression and a tool exploited by those pursuing justice. However, enforcement is non-existent:
  • The U.N. has legislative (General Assembly) and judicial (ICJ, ICC) organs, but only the Security Council can enforce.
  • The Security Council, especially the U.S., blocks any measures of accountability.

“The Security Council is the sole source of enforcement authority... Theoretically, it’s the most significant. And addressing it is quite a big deal. Yet what I found...they are not going to do it for us.”
— Noora Erakat ([20:50])

4. The Debate Over Genocide and the "Peace" Proposals

• The label “genocide” is discussed as both legally relevant and a distraction, as Palestinians already have the historical concept of 'Nakba' ([25:02]).
• The latest ceasefire and peace proposal—framed as a surrender for Hamas and permanent Israeli impunity—is critiqued as illegal, vague, and a whitewashing of genocide. It leaves no path for Palestinian self-determination, accountability for Israeli crimes, or justice ([25:02]-[36:06]).
• International efforts and new “peace plans” are seen as attempts to rehabilitate Israel’s image and set up generations of continued violation.

“What they’re trying to do is to rehabilitate and save Israel... in a way that is full of illegalities and that will set us up for what you call surrender, but what becomes a permanent occupation even more severe than preceding October 7th.”
— Noora Erakat ([30:55])

5. Zionism, Apartheid, and the Need for Decolonization

• Erakat argues that Zionism is not just a racist project, but a colonial one, with elimination at its core.
• Highlights the historical effort to define Zionism as racism and colonialism at the U.N., and the subsequent global and Palestinian struggle to unmask and dismantle these structures ([37:45]-[47:43]).
• Warns against “normalization” without genuine decolonization: drawing on post-apartheid South Africa’s failures to redistribute land and power.

“We are at a fork in the road. We are either going to normalize apartheid or we’re going to dismantle this regime.”
— Noora Erakat ([44:40])

“What does it mean to decolonize? It is redistribution, it is repatriation, it is return, it is dismantlement of the law, but also of the colonial institutions...”
— Noora Erakat ([46:55])

6. Hope, Resistance, and the Global Movement

• The host notes the unprecedented scale of global solidarity with Palestine—mass protests, boycotts, campus occupations, refusals in the arts & culture sectors ([47:43]).
• Erakat reflects emotionally on the necessity of hope-driven action, the intergenerational nature of the struggle, and the dialectic of resistance as the generator of hope ([50:38]-[55:30]).

“It is our duty to have hope. It is our duty to resist. It is our duty to fight. There is no alternative.”
— Noora Erakat ([50:40])

“We have ancestors that have been doing this work for over 100 years who... could not imagine that there would be an entire generation and millions across the world in protest. And here we are... We continue.”
— Noora Erakat ([52:00])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On institutional collapse:
  “Nobody could have anticipated...a suicide pact across industry and field ready to destroy itself for the sake of enabling Israel to finish the job.” — Noora Erakat ([14:50])

• On the UN and international law:
  “It was emblematic of, wow, we're it, we're it. They are not going to do it for us.”
  — Noora Erakat ([21:20])

• On peace proposals:
  "It’s as if that [genocide] hasn’t happened. There’s no accountability for Israel, only Hamas." — Noora Erakat ([31:30])

• On the global movement:
  “We are the most hopeful when we're doing the most work together, and we are the least hopeful when nothing is being done…your work and labor is the source of hope.”
  — Noora Erakat ([50:55])

Suggested Resources & Further Reading

• Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine by Noora Erakat
• Forthcoming: Confronting Zionism (Haymarket Books)
• Race and Palestine (Anthology by Lana Tatur, Ronit Lentin, Stanford)
• Pamphlet: Zionist Colonialism in Palestine by Fayez Sayeh ([ca. 1965])
• Articles on the legal framework of Nakba and decolonization (see Erakat & John Reynolds, Agel Journal)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Gaza War Statistics & Consequences: [01:25]–[06:04]
• Noora Erakat’s UN Security Council Speech: [06:04]–[07:19]
• Collapse of Institutions: [09:10]–[15:59]
• International Law & Security Council Analysis: [17:12]–[22:03]
• Genocide Legal Debate / Ceasefire Critique: [25:02]–[36:06]
• Colonialism, Zionism, Decolonization: [37:45]–[47:43]
• Hope & the Way Forward: [50:38]–[55:30]

Tone

Urgent, analytical, personal, and morally forceful. The episode combines rigorous legal/political critique with personal testimony, historical context, and a clear call to global action and solidarity.