The Deadly Theatre: Outlook Bears Witness To War

In 2023, yet another brutal siege began. It was in that “yet again” category. Israel had started bombing Gaza after a brutal killing incident by Hamas in which hundreds of Israelis had been killed and a few had been taken hostage. The retaliation was disproportionate by Israel and buildings were razed and children were killed and in newsrooms, a debate over history raged yet again. That November, we decided to bear witness to the brutality of the siege and the fact that thousands had been killed and the world had turned a blind eye, and decided to find voices from Palestine in order to move beyond the events to the heartbreaking stories of survival and loss in a place that was far away.

We scouted the social media to find people who would tell us about their everyday lives in a place that was under siege. It is the everyday life that is the most poignant of all war stories. We wanted to tell stories about that bloodied shoe of a toddler soaked in blood left on the streets and the father who bore the burden of the killings of his children. The act of bearing witness was a statement from us that war is never elsewhere and as people of any country, we must know what war does to people on either side. That’s the journalism we have done over the years at Outlook Magazine, while documenting wars and the human toll they take, asking questions about who waged them and for what and using the terminology that was right and was not neutered or neutralised.

That’s how irreverent Outlook has been in deciding to not follow the code that was and is imposed by the media on the media and chart our own path where poetics and suffering and the human stories were not disallowed and dismembered but given their rightful place.

Wars and displacement have not done anybody any good. That’s why the act of bearing witness is important. To put Palestine on the magazine’s cover was an act of courage in a world where such voices are shut down. To document the wars that have been going on for years in the world was our way of not forgetting what must be remembered.

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This article appeared as The Deadly Theatre in Outlook’s January 01, 2026, issue 30 years of Irreverence which commemorates the magazine's 30 years of journalism. From its earliest days of irreverence to its present-day transformation, the magazine has weathered controversy, crisis, and change.