Stan
Cox
In
February, the public health specialist Muna Abed Alah published a paper in the
journal Current Psychology titled “Shattered Hierarchy: How the Gaza Conflict
Demolished Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs.” The idea of a hierarchy of needs—first
published by the psychologist Abraham Maslow in 1943 and subsequently modified
in various ways by Maslow and others—has long been pervasive in the world of
pop psychology, while some in academia have poked holes in Maslow’s logic. Now,
Alah suggests that the Palestinians of Gaza have rendered the hierarchy of
needs wholly obsolete.
Briefly,
Maslow and others who followed have identified universal human needs—including
but not limited to basic physiological requirements, safety, cognition,
self-actualization, and transcendence—and listed those needs along with others
in a precise order. They maintain that an individual’s physiological needs
(food, water, shelter, etc.) must be satisfied first and that each subsequent
need can be fulfilled only after the needs that precede it in the list have
been at least partially fulfilled.
Well,
Alah writes, the people of Gaza have torn up and thrown away Maslow’s
blueprint.
Regarding
non-fulfillment of physiological needs, Alah of course cited Israel’s campaigns
depriving Palestinians of food, water, fuel, shelter, sleep, and other
necessities. Safety was being totally erased by Israel’s relentless bombing
throughout Gaza. Endlessly repeated destruction of hospitals, assassination of
medical personnel, and targeting of trucks and people that gather at
food-distribution locations has prevented the satisfaction of both
physiological and safety needs. With serial displacement of millions of people,
separation of family members, and deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians,
the need for esteem has been swamped; people’s sense of dignity and control
over their lives has been wrecked. Israel’s intentional bombing of schools and universities
has blocked their pursuit of cognitive needs. Regarding the need for
self-actualization, Alah wrote, “The relentless focus on mere survival in the
face of constant threat overshadows any opportunity for self-fulfillment . . .
In such an environment, where safety and basic needs are a daily struggle, the
luxury of realizing personal potential becomes nearly impossible.”
But
what about transcendence, the peak of the hierarchy of needs? In Alah’s words,
it “involves connecting with something larger than oneself, including spiritual
experiences, deep connections with others, and contributions to the broader
society.” With none of the prerequisites being satisfied, transcendence should
have receded completely out of reach months ago, according to Maslow’s thesis.
Instead, Alah, observed, transcendence is the one need that was being realized:
“Amidst ongoing conflict and siege,
achieving transcendence is notably difficult, yet it manifests itself in unique
and meaningful ways. Despite the limitations in aid and resources, many people
in Gaza have started to help each other, fostering a strong sense of community
and solidarity. This mutual assistance not only addresses immediate needs but
also serves as a powerful form of transcendence, allowing individuals to
connect with and contribute to something greater than themselves.”
The
coordinated service, heroism, and sacrifice personified by Palestinian
journalists, taxi drivers, first responders, and health care professionals
during the war is by now legendary. But countless other people in all walks of
life have demonstrated similar degrees of transcendence. In his article, Alah
focused on the resilience of Gaza’s civilian population. Here, I’ll just add
that the armed resistance forces in Gaza—encompassing the al Qassam Brigades
(Hamas’s armed wing) and others—also have transcended unbearable hardship by
mounting an extraordinary collective effort.
“Something
Greater than Themselves”
A
report released in August by Ground Truth Solutions and Arab World for Research
and Development (AWRAD) revealed the extent of mutual aid occurring in Gaza
over the past year. Conducted in June and July, the survey of 1,200 civilians
confirmed that none of the fundamental needs at the base of Maslow’s hierarchy
were being fulfilled in Gaza. As expected, when asked about their most
immediate priorities, 90 to 99 percent of the respondents listed Maslow’s basic
needs: food, water, shelter, and safety.
But
more than 90 percent also listed priorities such as “care for marginalized
groups” and “doing something to contribute or support.” A large share of people
also provided food, water, help with daily affairs, electric power, housing,
childcare, or psychosocial support to others in the community—and received such
help from others. Community volunteer groups organized early in the conflict,
and about one-third of respondents told interviewers they had benefited from
support provided by these groups.
Displaced
families or communities taking refuge in a new location said they’d found
plenty of help. Local leaders and committees helped them set up tent
encampments or “find other housing arrangements in host families.” Furthermore,
“When asked about the most important resources available to them, people often
mention community kitchens, which provide a means through which local aid
groups can provide support and residents can pool resources to try and reach
those in greatest need.”
At
the time Ground Truth Solutions and AWRAD were conducting these interviews, the
Israeli onslaught and aid blockade had been going on for nine months. When
families and communities are forced to live with constant hunger and thirst, to
go without medical care, to watch family members and compatriots die all around
them for months on end, sustaining a functional society can become physically
impossible. As a result, the report noted, “During in-depth discussions, both
aid providers and community volunteers mentioned the erosion of mutual aid
within communities as resources become scarcer.”
Burdens
of scarcity, displacement, and death-risk accumulate over time. There’s only so
much that people can take, however brave and generous they are. But that
doesn’t mean the Palestinians are giving up. One woman told Ground Truth
interviewers, “We are a mighty people who have dignity and we will prevail.
We’ll die standing like palm trees and we will not kneel.” It may be that
colonized people just don’t fit Maslow’s model. Alah himself noted that its
“Western-centric origins may not adequately reflect the collective experiences
of trauma and resilience that significantly influence societal dynamics in
regions like Gaza, where cultural heritage plays a pivotal role in shaping
communal responses to adversity.”
No
Choice but to Fight
The
Palestinian armed resistance too is exemplifying transcendence. As part of a
great tradition established by wars of liberation throughout history, they have
held their own against a far larger, more powerful army—one equipped and
supported by the world’s biggest military-industrial complex, that of the
United States and other Western powers.
Gaza’s
fighters have so far thwarted the occupiers’ efforts to depopulate Gaza. They
are mounting fierce resistance against the army’s attempt to drive all
Palestinians from northern Gaza into the South, annex and resettle the North
with Israelis, and let the South become one big, uninhabitable “deportation
camp” (somehow inhabited by millions of Palestinians until they are pushed
out).
The
Palestinians are fighting with antitank weapons, rifles, and mortars that they
designed and manufactured themselves. In so-called “return to sender” missions,
they’re blowing up IDF tanks and troops using “barrel bombs” filled with
explosives they’ve recycled from the Israeli “dud” munitions that litter Gaza’s
landscape. They’ve also gained remote control of Israeli drones, landed,
reprogrammed, and armed them, and then sent them back out to attack IDF sites.
In these and many other ways, the resistance forces have shown great
resourcefulness.
They’ve
shown not only ingenuity but great courage as well. In resistance videos
(starting at the 2 hr 6 min mark in this one), we can see fighter after fighter
dash from a bombed-out building across dozens of meters of open ground, highly
exposed to drone fire, lugging a 45-pound, locally manufactured explosive
device. They place them just a few feet behind an IDF tank, dash back across
the open ground, and take cover just before the bomb explodes.
The
resistance fighters attack only military targets that threaten the people of
Gaza. After they strike, and IDF ambulances and medevac helicopters arrive to
carry away the wounded and dead, the resistance fighters film from a distance
but do not attack them.
Some
readers might object to the inclusion of resistance fighters among examples of
how people of Gaza are rising above their demolished hierarchy of needs. But
focus on the than 2 million-plus people who have lived through more than 13
months of unspeakable horrors—preceded by 18 years of open-air imprisonment and
a blockade that has deprived them of fundamental human needs, a siege
punctuated by deadly IDF bombing campaigns in 2006, 2008-9, 2012, 2014, and
2021, along with massacres of nonviolent protesters in 2018. (And Israel’s
unlawful occupation of Gaza goes back another four decades, to 1967.) No population that’s been under deadly siege
and bombing for two decades would accept an open-ended continuation of such
savagery without fighting back.
The
death and destruction that occurred during the Palestinian resistance’s October
7, 2023 military action could never justify Israel’s attempted eradication of
an entire society—even if one chose to believe every one of the
now-debunkedclaims that the Israeli military, government, and press have made
about that day.
Even
if on that day the resistance had committed every act of which the Israelis
have falsely accused them, the latter’s genocidal campaign of the past 13
months (and counting) is a monumentally extreme violation of two fundamental
principles of international conflict: proportionality (retaliation must not be
disproportionately more severe that the acts being retaliated against) and
distinction (military targets may be attacked, but civilians or civilian
targets must not).
In
Gaza, Nonviolence Is a Nonstarter
My
friend Justin Podur, author of the 2019 Gaza novel Siegebreakers, points to the
2018 mass protest known as the Great March of Return as conclusive evidence
that nonviolence had no chance of ending the Israeli occupation of Gaza—that,
indeed, nonviolence has never freed a people from a violent colonial power.
Every
Friday for a year starting in March, 2018, Palestinians, by the tens of
thousands on some days, carried out nonviolent actions at various points along
the giant fence that (along with a sea and air blockade), separates Gaza from
the rest of the world. The groups protested on their own land, along their own
side of the barrier. By sticking to wholly nonviolent resistance, March of
Return protesters did what many around the world are constantly urging the
people of Gaza to do. But starting on the very first Friday, Israeli forces on
the other side of the fence fired with abandon at the unarmed protesters. Over
the next twelve months, the troops shot and wounded 30,000 people, killing 266.
The dead included dozens of children. Though a horrific massacre, it was just a
peek-preview of the crimes Israel would commit against Gaza’s civilian
population during this genocide half a decade later.
The
Israeli regime will use any excuse at any time to kill, maim, or displace
Palestinians. The regime, not the resistance, is the driving force behind the
conflict. In Podur’s words, “the slaughter of Palestinians at the Great March
of Return was not the fault of the nonviolent protesters any more than the
genocide in 2023-24 was the fault of the Palestinian armed groups.”
Recently,
the Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed, who reports from Deir al-Balah in
central Gaza, was asked if he has a message for Westerners who demand that
those of us protesting the genocide answer the question, “But do you condemn
Hamas?” He responded,
“Regardless
of political affiliations, do you really condemn someone who defends you and
has your back against a terrorist state? Israel has been butchering,
dehumanizing, torturing, and bombing us for 76 years. And has imposed a strict
siege on us in Gaza for 17 years. In this context, where does this question
even fit? It’s incredibly enraging that people are trying to justify Israel’s
genocide by asking such silly questions.”
Those
of us who live in a country that’s supplying unlimited support for Israel’s
all-out military assault and starvation campaign have no right to demand that
the Palestinians refrain from fighting back. Our time is better spent demanding
a total embargo on the provision of arms, money, or anything else to Israel. We
too are responsible for bombing Gaza’s people out of access to their basic
Maslow needs. Now, to do nothing more than celebrate the valiant perseverance
into which we ourselves have forced them would be a hollow gesture indeed. And
to engage in pious tut-tutting over their armed resistance would be
immeasurably worse.
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