Paralyzed by Tantura, revived by Amnesty

As a Palestinian, I have always known the pain of injustice; it came in many bitter flavors, some of which I will be sharing with you.

As descendants of the Nakba, the pain of longing for Palestine has struck countless families, including mine. Families who have been dispossessed from their homes, forcing them to scatter all over the world.

The fear of loss, expecting yourself, or your loved ones, to be put in harm’s way at any time.

The pain of PTSD, which resurfaced with every Israeli F16 and Apache airstrike,
in some way or another, resembling, but incomparable to the horrors endured during the war on Lebanon.

The pain of living under the oppression of a horrendous occupation, which enjoyed inflicting all sorts of humiliating and dehumanizing tactics to instill dread and surrender in the hearts and minds of the indigenous Palestinian population under its control.
These tactics intensified in their malice as Israel realized it had underestimated this nation.

But, if you think my experience sounds odd or terrible, think again.

As a child and as a young adult, I was considered one of the lucky ones.

Most Palestinian kids and youth have suffered far more pain than what I had to go through, and unfortunately, kids in Gaza are still living a never-ending nightmare to this day.

The Palestinian struggle continues to have a straightforward solution to it, a solution proposed decades ago and accepted by the Palestinians for supposedly symbolizing international consensus. A solution that was in theory based on international legitimacy and international law, and was presented as the only possible path to guarantee a just and fair resolution for all. Yet, we, the Palestinians, find ourselves today struggling to convince the creators of that solution to adopt it, respect it, protect it, and stand by it. In some dramatic irony, the occupied developing Palestine winds up being the party striving to implement international law and attain equality and fairness within the world order.

Ideally, such norms would be embraced first and foremost by the nations that have produced and validated social constructivism. Countries that emphasize the importance of the international community and the value of the global citizen; Declaring that obligations towards the wellbeing of others do not stop at one’s borders. States that affirm their foreign policy designs are not based solely on self-interest, wealth, and security but rather constructed to mirror their identities, adding a moral and ethical aspect to them. Sadly, in the case of Palestine, neither theory nor practice has ever embodied that vision of a free world built on common norms, shared values, and universal interests.

However, the international community has the power and the means to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and today, it gained yet another tool with the Amnesty report, enabling it, more than ever before, to hold Israel accountable.

So there is a way, what is left is a will!

I have always known that inconceivable atrocities were committed against the defenseless Palestinian population in historic Palestine.

I have heard the stories from my own family as well as other Palestinian families. Stories that inflicted sadness and grief with every word told. But when the Haaretz article in which some Israeli monsters admitted to massacring over 200 helpless Palestinians in Tantura and then acknowledged disposing of their bodies in such a savage way, that moment represented a significant turning point in my life, a paradox of powerlessness and fury.

For decades these merciless soldiers and leaders knew where the bodies lay, yet they went on to build a parking lot on top of them. A parking lot through which millions of people have driven, walked, and ran in excitement on their way to have fun at the beach. Not realizing they would be stepping on more than 200 bodies while enjoying the ruins of an ethnically cleansed Palestinian village.

Is this cruelty fathomable! The hidden Machiavellian-style policies makes plain what kind of democracy and law-abiding system Israel embraces.

So, as much as I hate to admit it, after the details of the Tantura massacre came to light, and until today, I have experienced devastation and total powerlessness.

I could not get over the paralyzing brutality, and the lack of a befitting response to such a travesty, was all sorts of disturbing.

But after skimming through the Amnesty report and watching the press conference, I felt revived.

I realized that only by sharing our truth as victims of this dreadful occupation will we be able to challenge its twisted existence.

Tantura represents one piece of a harrowing picture, that will only continue to unravel in the coming months and years, despite how hard Israel tries to prevent that from happening.

In the end, that picture will depict the ugly hidden truth of the Nakba that has fallen upon the Palestinians.

Today, publishing its report, Amnesty also confirmed the sad reality that Palestinians have been asserting for decades.

This illustrates how important it is for us to make our voices heard in all venues and how essential it is to build on the support of those who stand for truth, freedom, and human rights.

We do not need an apology in a decade; we want accountability now.

To honor those who persevered in the face of oppression, racism, and apartheid, we need to stand tall and united in calling out Israel’s violations.

And, in honor of those buried in the atrocious Israeli mass graves, we will tell their stories, and our stories; We will Speak Our Nakba!

Things could seem bleak right now. But we have to cut through the noise, the propaganda, and the intimidation and keep going. Exposing the true face of the occupation is vital in defeating it, and we might be much closer to achieving that than we think.