Nothing justified Oct 7. Does Oct 7 justify everything?*

Ta-Nehisi Coates travels among Palestinians. A US policy veteran sums it all up

Gaza, roughly two months after Israel responded to the Oct 7, 2023 Hamas attack with a sustained bombing campaign, which still continues. Image by Emad El Byed, Unsplash

Nothing justified Oct 7. Does Oct 7 justify everything?*

*The framing of this headline comes from a remark I heard on the BBC’s Broadcasting House programme on Oct 6, 2024. The programme brought together Mohammed Ghalayini, a British Palestinian with family in Gaza, and Sharone Lifschitz, a London-based film-maker and academic whose parents were taken hostage on Oct 7.