Nov. 11, 2023

In Whole or In Part*: The Ultimate Protest

Armistice Day. The biggest pro-Palestinian protest breaks out in London.

The crowd chants:

“Gaza, Gaza, don’t you cry, we will never let you die!”

“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”

It is difficult to chant that first line, knowing people in Gaza are dying.

A reporter asks me the “No. 1 Question”: “Do you condemn Hamas?”… “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”

Here, a war on narrative –— there, a war on life.

Why isn’t a dead child in Palestine called a "war victim" but a "martyr"? Is it because they’re dying by the hundreds, by the thousands, by the tens of thousands, so that millions of people worldwide will rise to demand Palestine’s freedom?

Oppression strengthens resistance. As vengeance begets vengeance, the cycle perpetuates itself. And yet, in this hopeless struggle, the solution may lie in hope itself.

Persevere, Palestine. Persevere! The tide will turn.

*"In whole or in part" is an often-discussed phrase in the legal definition of "Genocide."

Nov. 24, 2023

A "humanitarian pause" begins today in Gaza.

Working on the right panel–––the Israeli side: 

a）insecurity; b）the struggle of borders

One could argue that Israel’s paramount concern, the value surpassing all others, is “security.” Yet, in the relentless pursuit of this security, Israel’s policies have rendered its bordering neighbours–––Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt—–increasingly insecure. The irony, of course, is that this insecurity breeds further hostility, perpetuating the very danger Israel seeks to avoid. The Arab world forms a “unified front” against Israel’s territorial assertions, while Al-Aqsa, the symbol of Islam, stands beleaguered, encircled by Israeli power.

Borders delineate a people and a land. They give rise to existence as well as conflict.

Dec. 3, 2023

The bombing has resumed, claiming over 700 civilian lives in Gaza in the last 24 hours.

W. H. Auden, in his poem September 1, 1939, writes:
"Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return."

If that’s true, how did an Israeli grandmother, held hostage, shake hands with her captor when she was freed? She told the press, “In the web-like tunnels, they treated us well… we ate what they ate.”

Why is it that those who have enlightened me on the lesser-known dimensions of this conflict—–its layered contexts, histories, and human faces—–are often themselves Jewish, Holocaust survivors, their descendants, or even Israeli Jews? Figures such as Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappé, Norman Finkelstein, Jeffrey Sachs, Max Blumenthal, Gabor and Aaron Maté, Gideon Levy, Omer Bartov, Daniel Levy, and others.

In this cycle of devastation, it is these voices—–those to whom evil is done—–who offer the sharpest critiques, not out of cynicism but out of passion and compassion. They have shown me that history, for all its repetition, is not merely the sum of evil perpetuating itself, but a complex dialogue between past and present, between survival and moral choice.