Palestinians’ legitimate claims continue to be silenced at the expense of sustaining Israel’s longstanding myths of being the safe haven for world Jewry and a democracy with the world’s most moral army. As if we are not as worthy as the children of Holocaust survivors of freedom, security, justice and dignity.
As I write this, I recall the many times I had to sit in a room where Europeans discuss their deep-felt guilt over the atrocities committed against their Jewish communities. I recall the many deeply painful times I felt completely unseen during discussions over racism, colonialism, social justice and refugee and migrant rights. My racing heartbeat that overcome me as countless memories of terror and pain surface, silenced a cry that desperately wanted an answer: Why is there no guilt felt towards us as European countries fuel and enable more Israeli terrorism against Palestinians? Or do we not count as people? How about Palestinians’ most longstanding refugee problem in our modern history?
I wish I could shake people’s consciousness and face them with a century of complicity which if they acknowledged, they would have a feeling of backbreaking guilt towards Palestinians. The situation was, is and will continue to be grim until concrete action is pursued to halt (not ease) these grave injustices happening in daylight before the eyes of the whole world for 70 years of Israeli colonial occupation and apartheid.
Until then, the unfulfilled desires of our grandparents who died while clinging to their right of return to the last breath, will haunt you. The lives of the many patients who died of minor illness due to shut barriers and checkpoints, will haunt you. The dreams of our children. The cries of Palestinian mothers. The stolen years of our political prisoners. The pictures of all our victims, young and old. The drops of blood that shed from every and each wounded person. The amputated limbs. The uprooted olive trees. The demolished houses. The memories made at each of its corners. The deserted lands. The sleepless eyes that long waited for a dawn of freedom. The executed bodies that were left bleeding until they were drained of blood. The lifeless body of Malak Rabah Abu Jazar, a Palestinian girl from Gaza whom the sea waves pushed to Turkish shores after a failed escape from Gaza’s open-air prison to a more secure life. All that will haunt you, and ignoring it is at our peril.
Along Gaza’s separating fence, massive crowds still confront Israeli snipers hiding behind sand mounds and in their military jeeps, going forward and backward depending on Israel’s level of lethal force used against them. The Great Return March continues for its 7th month, with the field repeatedly turned into a traumatic scene of bloodshed and repression, all documented by local news and people on the ground who want to remind the world of the gruesome injustices Palestinians endure and push for an action that could bring it to an end.
As these atrocities continue with impunity, dominant western media discourse is turning these horrific events into a spectacle that diverts attention from the unjust reality that Palestinians live under Israel and their legitimate claims, and still start every news report with an Israeli military statement justifying its crimes. If the media succeeded in desensitizing you, just remember that if you accumulate the tears of all the families who are grieving at least a member killed, maimed, or drawn in the sea, or jailed, those floods of tears would bury earth underneath the sea.
Despite this longstanding and ongoing process of dehumanization, demonization, and pacification, and the consequently intensified Israeli repression, protesters are not deterred from returning to the fence. For them, the choices remain between a living hell or a dignified death. They are desperate for the world to bare witness to Israel’s criminality. They express the urgency of a political solution that is not limited to the boundaries of Gaza and lifting the siege, hence the demand for the Right of Return.
Palestinians also call out for a competent Palestinian leadership to invest in this inspirational popular resistance and sacrifice. They call upon them to correct the path that 1993 Oslo peace accords marked with internal divisions and marginalization of the backbone issues of our anti-colonial struggle for delusional autonomy over bantustan-structured territories (where they are actually servants of the Israeli occupation).
Palestinians sacrifice to remind internal and external actors that our anti-colonial struggle is about liberation, not independence. This was, is and will continue to be the nature of our struggle despite the damning hands that attempt to redefine it and distort it.
The photo of the man with his head turned back looking at the camera is haunting.
How much longer does Israel plan on practicing Holodomor?
There is no comparison here. Palestinians have been in a state of perpetual grief, anger, pain and suffering for over 70 years FFS. How in the hell does the child of a holocaust survivor (or as they are very old and dying off, I guess they will be going on to the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of holocaust survivors and their unspeakable trauma – give me a damn break – jews don’t own suffering!!!!!!!!) compare to the people representative in the picture above – they are alive and their trauma, pain and suffering is ongoing!!
The Holocaust is over. Palestinians had nothing to do with it.Israel is the new Confederacy, built on human rights abuses and the repression of dignity . I still can’t figure out how this is linked to Judaism.
The Great Return March gets no air time on US corporate news media.
For the record:
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Press Release
October 23/18
http://www.mezan.org/en/post/23301
“Israeli Naval Forces Open Fire at Fishermen, Detain Four and Seize Boats”
“At approximately 6:30 am on Tuesday, 23 October 2018, Israeli naval forces opened fire at Palestinian fishermen sailing off the coast of northwest Beit Lahia town in North Gaza district. The warships seized one boat that carried two fishermen, detaining the two and confiscating the fishing boat and equipment. Al Mezan’s documentation shows that the boat was at a distance of around two nautical miles from the coast, well within the Israeli-enforced restricted fishing zone, when it was seized. The two detained fishermen are: Awad Al-Sultan, 21, who is a resident of Beit Lahia, and Ahmed Syam, 20, who is a resident of Al-Shati’ refugee camp in Gaza City.
“At approximately 1pm on the same day, Israeli warships opened fire at fishermen sailing within four nautical miles from the coast of Al-Sheikh Ijleen area in southwest Gaza City. The Israeli naval forces seized one boat carrying two fishermen, detaining both and confiscating their fishing boat and equipment—despite, again, being within the Israeli-enforced restricted fishing zone. Al Mezan’s documentation shows that the two fishermen are: Mahmoud Meqdad, 35, and Hasan Meqdad, 26. Both are residents of Al-Shati’ refugee camp. The four fishermen have been taken to an unknown detention center.
“Al Mezan’s documentation shows that from the start of 2018, Israeli forces have carried out 270 attacks on fishermen—267 of them with live fire—killing one fisherman, injuring 16, detaining 59, and confiscating 18 fishing boats. In the meantime, Israeli authorities continue to impose restrictions on the entry of fishing equipment into Gaza within the context of closure.
“Al Mezan condemns the violence against fishermen, and stresses that the constant harassment, detention, and shooting, which results in death and injury, as well as confiscation and destruction of equipment, is part of an unlawful closure and blockade policy that amounts to a prohibited collective punishment. Fishermen must be protected so that they can work and earn living with dignity and safety, yet the Israeli authorities restrict them to a zone between three and nine nautical miles in which to fish— and still target them when in the permitted zone.
“These attacks are in violation of international human rights law and compound the dire conditions of the fishing community in the Gaza Strip, 80 percent of whom live below the poverty line. The Israeli authorities’ policy to unduly hinder Palestinian fishermen’s access to Palestinian territorial waters restricts their enjoyment of Palestine’s natural resources, stifles what would otherwise be a viable sector within the Palestinian economy, which violate international law.
“Al Mezan calls for the immediate release of the four fishermen in detention at the time of drafting. Al Mezan urges members of the international community to take immediate steps to protect Palestinian civilians and to seek an end to Israel’s closure and blockade.”
Ah, yes, “Israel, a ‘light unto nations’ NOT”