Since creating this blog I have used it as an outlet for my personal opinion on lots of real-world matters. I did a similar post about the BLM movement back in 2020. Just like then I find myself at a loss for words when there is such violence in the world. It feels so important to push past that and to keep the conversation going and find your voice so these people aren’t forgotten. It’s okay to not know what to say, to maybe not have the right words but to use them anyway. Decentre the discomfort that might come with saying the wrong thing and keep learning, keep speaking, and keep going.
There is currently a genocide taking place in Palestine, it’s important I use that word because that’s exactly what it is. It’s not a war, it’s not a conflict, it’s a hugely powerful government setting out to purposely destroy and kill a group of vulnerable people. This is not a battle between one state and another, it is not a battle between two equally powerful forces. It is an Israeli response to a non-state actor, disguised as a response to Palestinian people wherever they are. It is a response rooted in apartheid and oppression over the last 75 years, not a terrorist attack that took place on October 7th. I would like to also address that I condemn anti-semitism and the loss of innocent lives everywhere. However, the violence we have seen daily for the last 8 months is unjustifiable. I saw someone the other week make a comparison of the Boston bombing and state how crazy it would be for America to bomb the whole of Boston to find the attacker. This is what we are seeing take place in Gaza.
Israel has been killing Palestinians since the Nakba in 1948, persecuting them and illegally occupying their homes and territories for years. I remember people speaking about Palestine back in 2016 when I was at uni, in 2021 when Israel was displacing Palestinians from East Jerusalem. They have been suffering continuously at the hands of a Zionist regime that persecutes them for simply being Palestinian. Since October 7th over 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, and their hospitals, places of worship, universities, and homes decimated. Israel then declared Rafah a safe zone where more than a million Palestinians fled to reach safety. Now the Zionists are dropping bombs on the very place they claimed was safe. Who is supplying these weapons? The West is complicit in this genocide, by providing political and military support to the IDF, the United States and the United Kingdom have blood on their hands. We are living in a lawless world, where we claim we have democracy but genocides are being carried out and no government is actively trying to top it. Everything has to change, the system is broken and we must be the ones to change it.
Britain has a huge individual part to play in not just the current day suffering but a long history of oppression the Palestinian people have endured, our involvement in colonialism and apartheid runs deeply. I feel ashamed when I think of our country’s history, it’s why I think it’s so important to read up on what they didn’t teach us in history class. Our current day government and media continue this racism through their news outlets. The way they have portrayed violence in the Middle East for centuries has continued to build our country’s Islamophobia and prejudice. It’s present in how they speak about migrants, present in the silence of the genocide of Uyghur Muslims in China, and present in the laws to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. It’s there in plain sight. It is why there was an outcry for Ukraine, yet several genocides and atrocities are happening across the globe, and people with power remain silent.
Congo and Sudan are both currently experiencing huge humanitarian crisises. What is happening in Congo is modern-day slavery. People are working in degrading conditions due to the exploitation of their naturally occurring cobalt. Miners are operating in extremely dangerous situations for what works out as only a few pounds a day. There is no choice and no alternative for these people. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced from their villages as they have been bulldozed to make place for mining concessions. Sudan is currently at war, whilst the women and civillians are experiencing a war of their own. Women have no access to hospitals to give birth, less access to social needs and face gender-based violence and neglect. One year into the war 24 million people require immediate medical assistance, whilst North Darfur is on the brink of genocide as the Sudanese Government prepares for a full-scale attack. Both countries are beautiful places, filled with vibrant culture and wonderful people. They deserve the right to life, liberty and more importantly freedom.
Does a crime against humanity only exist if the victim is white? If what is currently happening to Palestine, Congo, to Sudan was happening to a city in Europe the world would stop in its tracks. It is White Supremacy that is halting a worldwide pause. It is at the root of our society and always has been, it’s now our job to break this. We cannot become numb to seeing brown skin and bodies suffering. Just as throughout history acts of violence against black bodies have been ignored. The media will portray them as ‘other’ to us but they are us, they’re your brothers and sisters. Racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia will drive a wedge between us as humans, it is our job to confront the systems in place, whilst unlearning our biases and privilege. As we sit here in Western comfort, staying silent on these atrocities is not a choice. It is a privilege to be able to ignore a crisis that others are dying from. Our descendants will speak of these events one day, we cannot look away.
I have seen lots of discussions online around the LGBTQ+ community supporting Palestine. I can be against certain laws/policies within the Middle East and quite a lot of the world. I can be against how parts of some religions view Queer people, whilst knowing that bombing and killing innocent civilians is deplorable. All forms of oppression – racism, homophobia, misogyny, occupation, colonialism, they are connected. Over 500 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced this year in the US alone, yet we expect people living under occupation to be completely progressive. There are Queer Palestinians currently being bombed too, children, the elderly, and whole bloodlines are now wiped out. Fathers are having to drag their children out of the rubble and from burning fires. To stand with them is to stand with humanity. Someone can be against how I choose to live my life, but I still wish them safety and security. Human rights are not transactional when it comes to genocide.
With everything going on in the world it can feel overwhelming to know where to centre your attention. Going to work, and going out with friends feels abnormal when there is this amount of suffering. It’s important that we don’t stay complacent in that feeling of overwhelm. It’s easy to think ‘Oh I’m just one person’ but if every person collectively takes small actions, that is where real change is born. Keep talking about these beautiful people who are just like me and you. Each statistic and number we are seeing is a person, with their own dreams, hobbies and lives. The only difference between us and them is the geography of where we were born. They deserve safety, an end to the violence and the promise of a brighter future. So join boycotts, spread the word on social media, email your MPs, take part in protests but more importantly talk. Have those difficult conversations offline, listen and be heard.
Munroe Bergdof said something on social media the other day that stuck with me ‘What is happening in Palestine is a moral litmus test for our global society and our collective humanity. If we accept this brutality and injustice for anyone, we also accept it for ourselves.” If we let the heinous atrocities that we are seeing go unpunished and unspoken about then we have failed as a society. We must keep demanding change and applying pressure until that change happens. Palestine will not be free overnight, liberation is a long process, but this resistance’s strength has proven that Israel’s siege will end. The world is watching and Israel can no longer treat Gaza and Palestinians how it has done for decades.
It feels difficult to even comprehend in words the scale of loss. The trauma that these people have been endured and are still enduring will run deep for generations. These people are our own, the women, the men and the children. We owe it to them to keep pushing for change, to keep our feet on the powers of this world’s necks. Stay researching the history of what has been happening to Palestine, and to all countries under oppressors and speak their truth. We owe it to them to keep fighting for a safe future. A future where kids can play freely, adults can love and there is peace. A free world for all.
Free Palestine, Free Sudan, Free Congo, Free Kashmir, Free all oppressed people.
Here are some resources and great people speaking out on Palestine and other injustices. As well as amazing charities and links to email templates to send to your MP’s. Keep applying pressure, lives depend on it.
Cover image by Digital Abdulla – Instagram
Palestine Protest, Bahrain
Katherine O'Rourke 