A holy land or graveyard?

"When I was 15, living in the UK, I was taught in my history course that the Palestinian Liberation Organization was a terrorist group. When I came back home and shared that bit of information with my mother, she audibly gasped, stating how Yasser Arafat was a freedom fighter, struggling to bring freedom to his people. I had fought with my mother, unable to fathom what she was saying as I'd do anything to blend in with my British peers. I'd take what I was taught at school as the gospel, internalising every single information."

That is the experience of one-half of this writing duo. This narrative is not far from how the West parades a pro-Israel and anti-Palestine stance to their citizens and the world.

Even now, as Israel continues to unleash hell on earth in Palestine, much of the West continues to vocally support Israel's genocidal actions, claiming that Hamas fired the first blow on October 7, thereby justifying Israel's inhumane retaliation. But what they ignore is the Palestinian reality of a conflict that has never ended. 

For the past 75 years, Israel has been terrorising the people of Palestine with the support of the US and UK, leading to Israel killing 24,000 people in front of the world. During the Second Intifada (uprising), when Palestinians threw rocks at Israeli soldiers, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) retaliated by firing a million bullets as reported by Al Jazeera. Israel has always acted disproportionately, and the recent attacks have been in line with how they have always treated Palestine.

People from our generation cannot comprehend why war crimes can be normalised in this day and age. Why is this particular genocide given a pass simply because of what Nazi Germany did? Why do the people of the East have to constantly suffer as a consequence of the actions of Western leaders?

Leading the charge in support of Israel's actions is the US. A country tied to the creation of a terrorist group, ISIS, which the former then tried to go and eliminate.

But is the US supporting Israel's actions as a means to double down on its own hypocrisy? Well, no. The simple truth is that the US benefits from having a good relationship with Israel because the latter is one of the biggest suppliers of military-grade surveillance tech for the former. Additionally, the US sees Israel as a "stabilising force" in the Middle East.

To add the symbolic cherry on top, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is always lobbying the US Congress on legislation related to Israel. When you're lining the pockets of politicians and Congress, surely you are likely to have all the support you need.

The main point here is that the US is hypocritical in how it chooses to arrive at its diplomatic positions. So hypocritical is their stance that their 11-year veteran at the State Department, Josh Paul, resigned.

In his resignation letter, the former director of congressional and public affairs for the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs said, "The response Israel is taking, and with it the American support both for that response and for the status quo of the occupation, will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people. I fear we are repeating the same mistakes we have made these past decades, and I decline to be a part of it for longer."

In a later interview, Paul said Israel's cutting off of water, food, medical care and electricity to the Gaza Strip should prompt protections in a number of longstanding federal laws intended to keep US weapons out of the hands of human rights violators. 

"We cannot be both against occupation, and for it. We cannot be both for freedom, and against it. And we cannot be for a better world, while contributing to one that is materially worse…," Paul concluded in his resignation letter.

See, if we really boil things down to a basic level, we can see that we live in a world where White people dictate the terms. Germans were responsible for the Holocaust and displacement of the Jewish people, which is the major reason why Israel even exists.

White people get to dictate when the killing of children can be categorised as genocide and when it can be wiped off the chalkboard as merely "retaliation." Why is it that the whole world has fallen into a recession over a war in Ukraine when similar actions in Gaza are termed as a response to terrorists? And while Israel continues to terrorise the people in Gaza, international leaders—the few who have even decided to criticise their actions—have failed to do more than share some harsh words. 

And while we wholeheartedly condemn Hamas' attacks that took many Israeli lives, it would be naive to think that a nation can be tortured for decades without any unfortunate consequences. 

In fact, if you look at the evidence, you will see that the current Israeli government has tried to use Hamas as a means to an end. During a 2015 interview, Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister of Israel, said, "The Palestinian Authority is a burden, and Hamas is an asset. It's a terrorist organisation. No one will recognise it. No one will give it status at the [International Criminal Court]. No one will let it put forth a resolution at the UN Security Council."

Regardless, at no point should the response to the deaths of innocent civilians be the death of even more civilians. That is the sort of sick plotline for an American revenge film that becomes a box-office hit, not reality.

Even putting aside Hamas' attacks, what about all of the Palestinians who were killed before this incident? A visual from CNBC shows that since 2008, over 18,600 Palestinians have been killed due to conflicts with Israel, while the number for Israelis was 1,500. If you ask these questions, however, you might immediately be called an anti-Semite, despite the fact that protesting the deaths of innocents has nothing to do with anti-Semiticism.

What is ironic is that the same group that suffered the consequences of the Holocaust now believes it has every right to reenact its own version of it.

On an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, US journalist Abby Martin said, "When you're in Gaza, you're born dead. You don't have a life. That is why these people are giving up their lives to send a message to us. That's all they can do, is to use their bodies."

It paints a picture of the reality in Gaza, where people have accepted that they are but a mere number in the death toll that tells the world of the human rights violations and atrocities Israel is committing. 

If the plight of the Palestinian people moves you, leaves you heartbroken and frustrated, know that the tides are turning, and you can take steps to support the cause. 

More and more protests are taking place worldwide. Diverse communities of people are coming forth to support Palestine's right to freedom, with even Jewish people and Israelis themselves protesting the ongoing actions of their government.

Even in Israel, many are protesting their government's actions and supporting Palestine. Some 20-30 years ago, these kinds of protests would only exist in a fever dream, yet now, we are seeing videos of marches in Israel in support of Palestine.

Actively sharing information on social media is definitely something that can help, no matter how insignificant it might seem, while the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement aims to end international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians and pressure the former to comply with international laws. However, the frequency of pro-Palestine and pro-ceasefire content circulating, at least on our social media feeds, seems to have dropped down in the last two months.

Add to that the fact that Christmas and New Year's celebrations have somewhat lifted the moods of people across the world, with most caught up in the festivity, the suffering of those in Gaza paints an even bleaker picture in stark contrast. So easy it is for us to move on and find joy in our peaceful lives, while thousands of people have their lives turned into a statistic that governments argue about back and forth.

Personally, we don't know where things will go. But we find hope amongst the people of our and younger generations, who generally have a better understanding of compassion and empathy than those who came before.

See, the difference between top Western leaders and people from our generation is that regardless of where injustice and crimes take place, we care. Regardless of race, religion, nationality, colour, our hearts ache for those suffering.

We do not have the solutions for a geopolitical crisis of this magnitude. But maybe it isn't naive or selfish of us to believe that in the current world we live in, children should not have to die or live in fear of death during every waking moment.

If we are to leave you with a message, it has to be this one from someone who has seen the devastation and tragedy in front of their own eyes.

Rami Elhanan, an Israeli man who lost his 14-year-old daughter to a Hamas suicide bombing 26 years ago, said, "We are in a circle of blood for the last 75 years, and this is just another round. Nobody expected the viciousness and the cruelty of this round, but it was expected. You cannot put two million people in a box, close the cover and expect nothing will happen."

"We are doomed to live here together and we have to choose—whether to share this land or the graveyard under it."

Aaqib Hasib is a sub-editor at The Daily Star.

Views expressed in the article are the author's own.

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