Normalization. The Politics of Ignorance in the Aftermath of the Ceasefire in Gaza

Normalization in the Middle East usually refers to Israel's relationships, on one side, with the Palestinians, consisting in enforcing oppression of the people and occupation of the land, and on the other, with its Arab neighbors, allowing for diplomatic rapprochements and economic exchanges in disregard of the question of Palestine. It is thus a local project of coercion and a regional strategy of avoidance. The present article is an attempt to also apprehend normalization as a global politics of ignorance. In the aftermath of the 10 October 2025 ceasefire in Gaza, as killings of civilians by the Israeli army went on and everything that could have made lives livable kept being hindered, a new normality and a new norm were imposed on Palestinians and consented to by the rest of the world, while being denied or effaced. The continuation of the military campaign disappeared from the global public sphere. For Israel, it was crucial that the world would ignore what was occurring in Gaza, and for the world, ignorance—both unawareness and unwillingness—was a condition for its inaction and indifference.