On Apr. 13, the immersive virtual reality exhibit started a short run at San Diego State University鈥檚 Digital Humanities, located in the basement of Love Library. The opening featured a talk by Dr. , Professor of Media Studies at CSU San Bernardino and co-founder and faculty director of the Phoenix of Gaza project.

The exhibit鈥攚hich started in 2022 and is touring schools up and down the academic ladder, including Yale, Tufts, and Salt Lake Community College鈥攁ims to preserve a record of Gaza before the present hostilities began (I鈥檒l return to the question of what to call this conflict shortly). Visitors strap on VR goggles and watch one of several videos 鈥渃apturing the untold stories of Gaza鈥檚 people and its transformation.鈥� We are invited to 鈥� into the lives of those who endured and rebuilt. It鈥檚 more than VR 鈥攊t鈥檚 a testament to resilience.鈥� This sounded like a fascinating, important project, featuring cutting edge technology. So I made a point of showing up for the exhibit and the introductory lecture by Dr. Muhtaseb.

My visit did not get off to a great start. When I entered the room, I saw a table filled with crayons and coloring pages, which seems a little infantilizing for college students. Then I saw what the students would be coloring:

While waiting my turn for the VR goggles, I got into a conversation with a grade school teacher who said he came to the exhibit to be educated. This man told me he was a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and he was working to get his school board to divest from Israel (so far, no luck).聽 After he told me about how Israel is colonizing Gaza, I asked him a few questions.

Did he know that Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005?

No.

Did he know that since 1948, there have been at least five major wars, none started by Israel?

No.

Was he aware that the Palestinians have been offered their own state numerous times, the most recent in 2000, when Yasir Arafat turned down a proposal that would have created a Palestinian state on 96% of the West Bank and East Jerusalem as the capital?

No.

Had he looked at the Hamas Charter?

No. Never heard of it.

So where does he go for information about the Middle East?

He said he relied on a 鈥淯N reporter.鈥� He couldn鈥檛 remember the name, but I assume it鈥檚 Francesca Albanese,

Fortunately, at that point, a chair opened up and I sat down, put on the goggles, and wrapped myself in images of Gaza鈥檚 past glory. The technology, I鈥檓 happy to say, is spectacularly effective. Unlike a movie, you feel that you are actually there. As you move your head, the images shift just as they would in real life. To say this is disorientating is putting it very mildly. More like jaw-dropping.

The videos featured scenes of Gaza city, many filmed by Yahya Sobeih, a journalist who was killed (or 鈥渕artyred鈥�) in an Israeli airstrike, with many showing 鈥渂efore鈥� and 鈥渁fter鈥� the destruction caused by the war.聽 Due to the goggles over my eyes, I couldn鈥檛 take notes, but the video that stayed with me was the seaside street. I saw a beautiful beach on one side, tall buildings on the other, and nice, new, clean cars zipping along, including a lime green Toyota 4×4 that gleamed in the sun.

While the project鈥檚 team says that their goal is to create a video archive of Palestinian life pre-recent conflict, the videos also have the unintended consequence of undermining the description of Gaza as , or a city under siege. The video of the seaside street, for example, could have been shot in Los Angeles, San Diego or, truth be told, Tel Aviv. The markets abound with produce. The church glows with gold-framed religious paintings. The bakery is redolent with all sorts of breads. The overall impression from this VR presentation is of a happy, prosperous city, not one subject to debilitating restrictions.

Then came Dr. Muhtaseb鈥檚 talk. After describing how 鈥渋mmersive technologies鈥� started as pure entertainment, gaming, and yes, porn, with little sense of how the technology could be used for other than 鈥渃apitalist鈥� purposes, Dr. Muhtaseb started in on how VR could be 鈥渂ent鈥� for other uses. By placing the viewer in the middle of the action, the viewer becomes 鈥減art of the action,鈥� fully immersed, in other words, in someone else鈥檚 reality. This 鈥渆nforced embodiment鈥� (her phrase) has the highly significant effect of turning VR into an 鈥渆mpathy machine鈥� which could be used as a force for good and to change social attitudes. If, for example, you see a VR video of police brutality, then you are likely to protest police brutality.

But Dr. Muhtaseb does not approve of VR as an 鈥渆mpathy machine,鈥� because: a.) empathy can be exploited for profit and 鈥渃apitalist purposes鈥� (which she opposes); and b.) empathy does not necessarily lead to action. In a surprising echo of the criticisms of land acknowledgments as mere virtue-signaling, the professor criticized empathy because it doesn鈥檛 lead to anything concrete; instead, you end up 鈥渇eeling good about feeling bad.鈥�

And here鈥檚 the key: The point of Phoenix of Gaza is not empathy for the sufferings of the Palestinian people, but responsibility and accountability for what happened and is continuing to happen in Gaza, and that is genocide, according to Dr. Muhtaseb. And every American, in her view, is complicit in the Gaza genocide because our taxes help underwrite Israel.

The extraordinary thing about the exhibit and Dr. Muhtaseb鈥檚 talk is that neither mentions Hamas or the invasion on 10/7. Instead, over and over again, we hear: 鈥渨hen the genocide started,鈥� 鈥渂efore the genocide started,鈥� 鈥渢he ongoing genocide,鈥� 鈥渄uring the genocide,鈥� etc. Leaving alone the fact that , there is zero acknowledgement of a precipitating event resulting in the Israeli bombing of Gaza. Neither the professor nor the exhibit acknowledges Hamas鈥檚 use of human shields, the Nova Festival massacre, the hostages, the rapes, the tunnels building, and Hamas using hospitals and schools for military purposes. In fact, there is no acknowledgment at all that Hamas bears the slightest responsibility for the destruction. Or that Hamas even exists. At one point in a video of a busy traffic circle, the narrator says, 鈥渁nd then the tanks rolled in.鈥� But there鈥檚 nothing about why the Israeli tanks rolled in. Instead, the impression the exhibit gives, amplified by Dr. Mehtaseb鈥檚 talk, is that one fine day, Israel decided, for no discernable reason, to bomb the shit out of Gaza.

To say the least, the exhibit鈥檚 narrative is completely inaccurate. Imagine talking about America鈥檚 entry into World War II and not mentioning Pearl Harbor. That鈥檚 what this exhibit does.

Imagine talking about America鈥檚 entry into World War II and not mentioning Pearl Harbor. That鈥檚 what this exhibit does.

Nor is it alone in presenting such a lopsided view. The New York Times recently posted a guest essay, 鈥�,鈥� which at least refers to 鈥渢he war,鈥� not 鈥渢he genocide.鈥� The essay details story after story about the terrible and tragic results of the war on Gaza鈥檚 civilian population. Homes are destroyed. Families killed. Nonstop shelling and missiles. But again, the word 鈥淗amas鈥� does not appear. 鈥�10/7鈥� is never mentioned. 聽Nobody sees any Hamas fighters.There is no acknowledgement of what started this war, or how Hamas could have stopped the destruction at any time by surrendering and returning the hostages. But since the point of the article, like the point of the Phoenix of Gaza exhibit, is to depict Israel (or 鈥渢he Zionist entity鈥�) as an unqualifiedly malevolent, evil, settler-colonialist, illegitimate apartheid state that must be dismantled for justice to be served, admitting Hamas鈥檚 responsibility would only complicate or confuse the issue.

In fact, both Phoenix of Gaza and The New York Times piece are part of a new literary and artistic genre, and just as all genres have certain expectations, the chief mark of 鈥淕azology鈥� is hatred of Israel, and to achieve that aim, 鈥済enocide鈥� is repeated over and over again. Not, to quote Friedman, as 鈥渁n analysis of Israeli operations but a tool designed to shift attention away from the people who started the war and built the twisted battlefield on which it would be fought, and to mass-produce a verbal weapon that can be used to anathematize opponents and obscure their concerns.鈥�

Consequently, the goal of the Phoenix of Gaza exhibit is not education, but indoctrination. Which makes the fact that the exhibit, created under the auspices of a university and traveling from university to university, so disturbing. Instead of presenting a complex, nuanced picture, one that gives due deference to both sides of the conflict, the Phoenix of Gaza gives students a false, entirely one-sided narrative designed to gin up hatred of Israel and all who side, or even slightly sympathize, with Israel.

Unlike Las Vegas, what happens in a university does not stay in a university, and the Phoenix of Gaza exhibit I visited also showed how anti-Israelism spreads into K-12 schools. The room was filled with undergrads because a prof brought her 鈥淢odern World History for Teachers鈥� class to view the VR exhibit and hear Dr. Muhtaseb鈥檚 talk. And the students (from what I can tell) ate it up. All of the subsequent questions were along the lines of 鈥淲hat can I do when people say there鈥檚 no genocide?鈥� and 鈥淗ow can students help you in this struggle?鈥� Nobody asked a critical question or presented a corrective. Nobody asked, 鈥淵ou repeatedly refer to a genocide, but what about 10/7?鈥� Having been taught about the 鈥済enocide鈥� at school, the expectation is that these future K-12 teachers will import this view into the classroom. By all accounts, .

Unlike Las Vegas, what happens in a university does not stay in a university, and the Phoenix of Gaza exhibit I visited also showed how anti-Israelism spreads into K-12 schools.

Afterward, I sent a note to the professor who brought her future teachers, asking how her students responded to the exhibit. She said that the students were really interested in using VR in the classroom. I responded with another note, this time asking specifically what they thought of the presentation and Dr. Muhtaseb鈥檚 comments about 鈥渢he genocide.鈥�

I did not get a response.

聽is a professor of English literature at San Diego State University. He has published books on Shakespeare, Milton and the literature of terrorism, and essays in Quillette, 91传媒week, Inside Higher Ed, and Times of San Diego. His latest book is 鈥�鈥澛�(搁辞耻迟濒别诲驳别).