what do you say, in the face of such barbarity? in the face of such utter and blatant disregard for human life? what are you left with other than the desire to just scream and scream until someone stops to listen. until bombs stop falling. until people stop dying. until palestinians stop being killed. until responses to said barbarity cease being "here we go again" and expressions of "grave concern". until killing is no longer routine and thus ignorable. until gaza and all of palestine isn't just living because it's not dying, but living because there is life, future, blossoming.
we are here, again. i am in dc, and bombs fall far away killing people i do not know, but whose faces look like those of my friends and whose names are familiar and pronounceable to me. names i've said a million times. names whose meanings i understand and make me wonder if those names are a window into the dead's past life.
israel's actions are cruel and strategic, and the world's reaction is predictable and disgusting.a "shock and awe" campaign. is there ever really true shock in war? and i doubt israel's violence is inspiring awe in anyone with a humane soul. this "operation clad iron" comes right before the new year, right before the palestinian elections and israeli elections. olmert is giving one last ditch effort to redeem his war reputation after not winning in lebanon or gaza in 2006. they say they hope the palestinians "overthrow" hamas, but i think really they hope palestinians remain divided between loyalties. a divided people is much easier to subjugate than one united..."divide and conquer"...throwing gaza into chaos ensures the palestinian elections will not take place in the coming weeks and israel can keep abbas. and the world looks on, either silent, or placing the blame on hamas for "laying a trap"...for goading them into this inevitable response of cruelty by launching rockets into southern israel. how quickly the world forgets that israel has been starving gaza since november 4th (nearly 2 months), destroying the capacity of its infrastructure through a denial of electricity and medical supplies. how quickly the world forgets this...always looking at palestine-israel through the lens of today's headlines, disregarding what was reality just a week ago. these things do not happen in a vacuum, as CNN would like us to believe.
i wonder what would happen if somehow a hamas qassam rocket killed 300 jewish israelis. would condoleeza rice express "grave concern" then? or would the IDF be restocked with more destructive weapons, maybe free of charge this time. would israel be blamed for bringing it on its own people through its destructive actions? probably not. why doesn't the international community "freeze out" israel like they did to syria? or impose sanctions on them for "misbehaving", according to Western standards, like they did with iran? and why is the syrian foreign minister the only arab leader i have seen quoted who has anything worthwhile to say?
in 5 years, 15 jewish israelis have died from hamas rockets. in 2 hours over 200 palestinians were killed by israeli "precision" bombs.
indeed, the silence is thundering, but more painful is the blame that is put squarely on the shoulders of hamas. that hamas brought it on the palestinians, with no more depth of analysis. how dare they. how dare they forget the inequality of power between israel and an occupied people-- militant groups or not. how dare they ever ever ever in any capacity justify killings of this magnitude. in one of my classes we were presenting on the effects of war on health (a huge topic in and of itself) and one exercise we had the class participate in was everyone sharing what war meant to them. most people talked of death, most people talked of their distance from war. when it was my turn i said what war means to me is being told your life counts less, or worse, that somehow you deserve it. having always experienced war at a distance, and mostly in very zionist atmospheres, this is always the ultimate message. you kidnap 2 soldiers, we kill 1000+ of you. you launch a few rockets that kill a few civilians, we bomb you and leave craters where there were once buildings and 285 corpses where there were once police, sons, sisters...
for those on the fence, who say "there is suffering on both sides", who placate the racism of israel with such blandness, yes, jewish israelis suffer. suffering is difficult to quantify. but step back and look at the imbalance, see the disparity, the magnitude of injustice israel executes against palestinians. there is certainly suffering on both sides, but not in equal proportions. ever. one people is occupied. another is an occupier.
synopsis headlines is all most people will read about gaza's suffering now. because people are lazy and there are a million tragedies going on all over the world right now and people are tired. very very tired. dueling realities always compete for people's attention. the fb ads staring at me right now as i write this are for zappos.com winter sale, and fixing your credit score. the two headlining stories today for the guardian are gaza and how huge the sales are on high st. eenie meenie miny mo...
i know all of you know everything i'm writing and perhaps feel similarly...but to counter the sense of despair and isolation, i write...in all the silence, and all the misplaced blame, it has comforting to see the outrage expressed through fb statuses and postings. really it seems trivial, but it is comforting to know that there is outrage. maybe they spark people who might otherwise have opted for the high st. article to take a minute and read...i am personally very tired, and verging on hopeless (verging, not there yet) but am thankful that others are trying too, somehow, to draw attention to the latest atrocity. that other people are screaming with me. that there is outrage. because ultimately...everything we do...it all will add up to freedom and blossoming. i really do believe it. in the rubble of gaza, we have to somehow hold on to our humanity so its still there when palestine is one day free.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment