As the bombs and white phosphorus (illegal near civilians) rain down on Gaza, I am reminded of the bombs that lit up the night sky over Baghdad. How land and resources are stolen.
First batch of US military aid making its way to Israel
Two million people are imprisoned in Gaza, half of them children. They cannot leave, run or hide.
Israel Announces ‘Complete Siege’ of Gaza: No Electricity, Food, Water. Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced on Monday that he has ordered a “complete siege” of the Gaza strip, according to the Times of Israel.
“There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed,” he was reported as telling commanders at the Israel Defense Forces’ Southern Command.
“We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly,” he added, per the paper’s translation of his remarks.
The fact that Israel can do this to another people says it all. Their absolute control over a concentration camp, their complete dehumanization of indigenous Palestinians. This is what Hamas is trying to fight with limited resources and opportunities. There is no Palestinian air force or army. They don’t have the luxury to drop bombs on their colonizers.
And then the constant censoring of language, the non-stop need to reassure colonizers and not trigger pre-existing trauma. The deeply condescending advice from American liberals (whose democratically elected government actively funds Palestinian oppression) on how Palestinians living under siege should defy death and everyday colonial dispossession.
Israelis expressing their bloodlust openly on social media without much thought for those who have been abducted:
Nagasaki 2 and Hiroshima 2 in Gaza right now.
The war is not against Hamas, but against the people of Gaza. They came in and abducted children. We must eliminate all Gaza residents, and especially the mothers who raised them that way, otherwise they will slaughter us all.
Rather than pray for peace (a peaceful return to Palestinian subjugation), there is a way to move forward and put an end to the violence. Settler colonialism and apartheid must end. Injustice and barbarity towards indigenous Palestinians must stop. Ethnic cleansing, murder, and blockades must cease.
The Algerian War of Independence went on for 8 years, killing 1.5 million Algerians and tens of thousands of French people. But it was successful ultimately. It’s not about who has the biggest army, the most toxic weapons, or the best produced propaganda. It’s about what is just and how balance will be restored in the end.