'If Anne Frank were alive, she would write about the genocide in Gaza'

Through art and advocacy, advocates challenge the West’s selective morality on human rights and the crisis in Gaza.

This photograph of a young girl making bread in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp is one of many powerful images featured in PALI Think Hub’s Through My Eyes exhibition (Mahmoud Abu Hamda).
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This photograph of a young girl making bread in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp is one of many powerful images featured in PALI Think Hub’s Through My Eyes exhibition (Mahmoud Abu Hamda).

Despite Germany’s continued crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism, thousands gathered in Kreuzberg last week for a 'Victory March' following the ceasefire agreement, chanting “Freedom for Palestine” and carrying signs that read, “Ceasefire is just the beginning.”

While resistance can arise in the streets, it can also find its place on gallery walls. Last summer, while bombs fell on Gaza, an exhibition in Frankfurt served as a window to the horrors of war in Palestine. As part of Germany’s Palestinian Culture Festival, a series of photographs captured by Palestinian journalists bore witness to the very real humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the resilience of its people.

One image stood out. Taken by Mahmoud Abu Hamda in Gaza in April 2024: a young girl kneading bread amidst the ruins of the Nuseirat refugee camp, smoke from bombings still wafting in the air.

Upon seeing the striking image, a Spanish boy was so overcome with emotion that he returned to the exhibition to donate his savings in coins to help Palestinians, after his mother explained the hardships children in Gaza endure.

The exhibition, Through My Eyes, travelled across much of Europe last year as part of an awareness-raising initiative by PALI Think Hub, a human rights advocacy group.

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Emma Lo, one of the founders of PALI Think Hub, denounces the double standards of the West towards Palestinians (PALI Think Hub).

The NGO was launched by Emma Lo, an Italian-American expert in international law based in Switzerland, and Lise, a French-Palestinian graduate in International Relations based in Germany. Their mission: to expose the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and restore the human stories often lost behind media statistics and military reports.

"Through My Eyes often confronts people with the harsh realities of life under occupation and genocide in Gaza—many for the first time. Rather than simply walking away, we see them pause, reflect, ask questions, and even return with friends to continue the conversation,” says Lo.

“We want people to feel, not just see”

“Fostering connection is at the heart of our exhibitions,” she explains. “We aim to humanise Palestinian experiences, to move beyond abstract debates and into something deeply personal. People act when they relate.”

Emma’s empathy for the oppressed was shaped early on. Aged 10, she read The Diary of Anne Frank and was struck by the young girl’s ability to document the horrors of Nazism with a voice so close to her own.

“At the time, I was drawn to biographies of people who had shaped history, but Anne’s story stood out because it was told through the voice of a girl similar in age, with an innocent and relatable perspective,” she told TRT World. Anne Frank was a German-Jewish girl who, during World War II, hid with her family in German-occupied Amsterdam to escape Nazi persecution.

She kept a diary during the 25 months her family spent in hiding, documenting her life in vivid detail. Anne died in 1945 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. But her diary would go on to become one of the most influential books in the world.

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For Lo, Anne’s story is painfully relevant today, echoing the suffering in Gaza. “Anne dreamed of becoming a journalist. If she were alive now, she would be writing about the genocide in Gaza.”

Young Palestinian women documenting the crisis today in Gaza display that same courage, says Lo. “Journalists like Bisan Owda, Plestia Alaqad, Lama Jamous, and Hind Khoudary give voice to the Palestinian cause, capturing the horrors they witness daily. Their work is as powerful as Anne Frank’s diary, yet they are not just echoes of the past—they are forging their own legacies.”

By the age of 12, Lo had already met three Holocaust survivors in educational events. Their testimonies instilled in her a conviction: silence in the face of injustice is complicity. “I learned that the world can be brutal, but standing up for human rights is one of the most powerful acts of resistance.”

Freedom, equality, justice—for whom?

Despite growing up in the multicultural landscape of Washington DC, Lo encountered the Palestinian narrative for the first time in her mid-teens thanks to her parents.

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PALI Think Hub aims to dismantle the idea that Israel’s actions in Palestine are a distant or isolated issue (Darya Malets).

“Although Anne Frank mentions Palestine in a diary entry from May 8th, 1944; shamefully, I didn’t hear about post-48 Palestine until I was 15,” she recalls.

Jewish-American Norman G. Finkelstein's Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom was a significant point in her learning process. The book chronicles Israel’s military assaults on Gaza, the violation of international law, and the misrepresentation of Palestine in the Western narrative.

The values Lo had been taught at school—freedom, equality, justice—began to unravel. “The freedoms the US champions, such as the right to self-determination and justice are abandoned when it comes to Palestine.”

Lo doesn’t mince words when addressing Western hypocrisy. “Leaders should be ashamed. Their selective application of human rights undermines their credibility.”

One glaring example is the unwavering US military support for Israel, despite its blatant violations of international law. Israel remains the largest recipient of US aid since World War II.

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Challenging western narratives through art (Darya Malets).

“It’s simple,” Lo says. “Governments should stop funding violence. Instead of fuelling destruction, these resources should be invested in building a better future.”

For her, holding governments accountable is not just a choice—it’s an obligation. “I cannot claim to stand for justice while ignoring the actions of my own governments. Challenging these narratives is a duty.”

Through PALI Think Hub, Emma Lo and Lise dismantle the idea that Israel’s actions in Palestine are a distant or isolated issue. “The denial of rights anywhere weakens them everywhere,” she adds.

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