Walking around the suburban park near my mother’s house on the shortest day of the year, I can’t imagine a greater gulf between my world and Palestine. We are steeped in privilege in the U.S. And while the holiday lights are cheering — the globes of light suspended high in oak trees, the reindeer family on the wide lawn — they are also displays of wealth and insulation.
We are nestled in the bosom of empire, safe from violence. We have studied history, we know life is fragile and provisional. So we’ve taken steps, to preserve our hopes for the future.
Then I think of Gaza. Where millions of people have no such insulation, and are living through a holocaust. Day after day after day of enraged bombing by a deranged nuclear power. And Netanyahu’s lapdog Biden makes one weak statement after another to let it continue. As children suffocate in the rubble, and the world looks on.
The six adults in this two-room apartment take turns to go to the bath, to take sponge baths of sorts, take care of their respective children, maintain some human dignity, and some minimum hygiene. There is this undeclared competition for the bath water,
Azhaar Amayreh reports for us.
At our site, we understand why the polling shows strong Palestinian support for Hamas. Why promising Palestinian writers dedicate their lives to ending “the Zionist hell” that has destroyed their families. We understand why they have canceled Christmas festivities in Bethlehem and across the land. We understand why Palestinians declare that Christmas is a Palestinian story— and why young Americans overwhelmingly oppose Biden’s alignment with the savage state.
Yet people live on hopes, even the families sharing a gallon of filthy water, and I will tell you where I find hope today in the U.S.
I am hopeful that the world sees. Hopeful that we are not preaching to the choir but to the general public. Hopeful to see that brave mainstream voices are refusing to lie to their bosses or their donors, and trying to tell the truth about a genocide. (Matthew Aromliwala is on BBC saying the Israeli spokesperson is putting “lipstick on nonsense.” Amna Nawaz holds up Mosab Abu Toha and his story on PBS, and through him, honors the late Refaat Alareer. Ali Velshi insists on the accuracy of the Palestinian death count on MSNBC. Khaled Elgindy explains Palestinian sympathy for Hamas to Christiane Amanpour on PBS. All these mainstream journalists are defying incredible career-pressure.)
I’m hopeful because Rashid Khalidi is in my community, New York, standing up to all the Columbia deans on the insane policy of suppressing the word “intifada.” It is hard to imagine an approach more contrary to the most basic idea of a university, he says.
I’m hopeful that Refaat Alareer’s last testament is scrawled on the floor of the fancy train station in New York City.
Yes, I’m hopeful that this is too big a moment for some Westerners to turn back to complicity in persecution. I’m hopeful that the long Palestinian spirit of sumud, or steadfastness, is infectious.
PW: “We are steeped in privilege in the U.S. And while the holiday lights are cheering — the globes of light suspended high in oak trees, the reindeer family on the wide lawn — they are also displays of wealth and insulation.”……..PW: “We are nestled in the bosom of empire, safe from violence.”
Not in any way, shape or form do I want to imply that poverty, pain, violence that I see in the U.S. in downtown Dayton, Ohio, in the hills of Appalachia outside of Athens Ohio, or yes the path along Boulder Creek in Boulder Colorado is comparable to the horrendous tragedy in Gaza. However, your mothers neighborhood may be a reflection of privilege and empire but I see massive amounts of poverty and suffering in the three places I spend lots of time in. Zombies addicted to heroin, meth, fentanyl stumbling down alley’s in Dayton Ohio off of Smithville Rd and elsewhere. Massive amounts of theft, violence in areas across Dayton. Hollowed out eyes of those addicted wandering those streets. Gun violence all over town. A corporate led Dem city government that always leans in favor of the elite in Dayton.
In the hills of Appalachia, broken down trailers and shacks with “Fuck Biden” signs next to deflated Christmas blow up plastic lawn ornaments that will be filled at night. Dead (deflated) plastic blow up Santa’s, reindeers, Disney characters like Pluto, Mickey Mouse in Santa clothing that are blow ups lying dead on lawns in front of these poverty stricken, ram shackled homes until they are blown up at night. Meth, Fentanyl etc rampant in this area, snotty nosed poor white kids out on lawns with no shoes,parents working at Wal Mart or cleaning rooms on Ohio Universities campus. Lots of the parents of these kids on heavy drugs. I have talked with some of them who go around ripping off homes in the country when residents are gone. Have caught some of these characters on friends and my land as well. Poverty stricken, addicted, beat down and desperate.
Cont: Along Boulder Creek in Boulder tons of homeless living in tents in the winter. Lots of Vets (have talked with many) Broke, homeless, addicted often dirty, smelling…I ask questions and listen to their stories. Many tax payers in Boulder outraged that their ivory towers have been pierced for I would say about 15 years where it has turned into a serious problem. My own 8 year old grandson was accosted by a homeless woman. She ran after him trying to grab him screaming “come here little boy”…he pissed his pants and escaped her reach with a soccer move. My oldest daughter, other grandson in the car while she allowed him to go drop off books in return slot. As she called the police she watched this very disheveled, angry woman harass two other kids who were with two adults. One man was close to hitting the woman with his son’s skateboard when she became so aggressive. Maybe your mom’s neighborhood is all unicorns and privilege but not the case everywhere
None of this compares to the tragedy in Gaza, however, had a reaction to your painting of every place in the states being a reflection of privilege of the winnings of empire.
Personally I am ripped to shreds as I listen, read and watch the news about what is taking place in Gaza. Democracy Now, BBC, PBS, DW of course Mondoweiss, Al Jazeera, some others providing the distressing, depressing low down. 2 million displaced, 21,000 and counting massacred by Israel. People living in plastic tents if they are lucky, wet blankets, tiny children having legs amputated before they can walk, little children in the streets crying out for help, parents holding their dead children in shrouds likely holding them for the last times….sobbing. A 12 year old girl who had lost her arm in an Israeli bombing, who had also lost her parents and one sibling, bombed to death in the hospital she was recovering in. Fucking rat bastards Netanyahu, Gallant and Gantz sitting in a room somewhere discussing how much more they will flatten Gaza, how many more lives it is ok to destroy. Men, women, children calling out for help from the world. What the fuck can we do? We donate, we write our Reps, we challenge and try to demean P Biden at his fb page, we put on panel discussions, we protest….what else can we do?
Hope you guys do a piece on how many of the humanitarian groups are on the ground and trying their damdest to save lives and get the world out. I have been amazed by the Directors and heads o these organizations and how brutally honest they are being about the ongoing disaster on main stream outlets. Again PBS, BBC, DW having so many of them on.
Phil Weiss doesn’t mention the kidnapped hostages in Gaza, our brothers and sisters , for whom time may be running out. We don’t even know how many are still alive.
Yesterday the weekly Torah portion read throughout the Jewish world on the Sabbath included the dramatic story of Joseph revealing himself to his brothers with the words ” I am Joseph . Is my father still alive?” (Genesis 45:3 ). The families of the kidnapped are asking that question regarding fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers, all being held in inhuman conditions by cruel terrorists.
As the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians continues, this is what gets me ““57.5% of Israeli Jews said that they believed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were using too little firepower in Gaza, 36.6% said the IDF was using an appropriate amount of firepower, while just 1.8% said they believed the IDF was using too much fire power”
Looking forward to the consensus for the Palestinian cause settling on equality under the law, human rights, the original solution of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. That will captivate public minds in the West and reframe influential narratives, including around 10-7.