COLUMN | Stand for Palestine
Ignacius Carell Cruz
The unprecedented Hamas attack last year on Israeli towns, which resulted in hundreds of civilians dead and thousands more injured, is the result of decades of oppression, abuse, and violence towards Palestinians who live in the Gaza strip and the West Bank. There is no doubt that the boiling point has been breached, and there is no one to blame but the West, the government of Israel, and the ignorance of the rest of the world for its failure to recognize the needs of the nation of Palestine.
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Cartoon by Lucas Mendoza. |
On the morning of October 7 last year, Hamas launched an offensive that saw them riding paragliders to a nearby music festival, while launching missiles towards Israel and open firing on civilians. The story has pretty much been the same for all the other towns they raided and decimated with only one goal in mind: inflict terror on Israel, showcase the anger the Palestinians have tried to temper for so long, and push back against the unjustified oppression the Muslims have endured from the Jews.
Of course, the United States, together with its allies were quick to condemn the ‘inhumane’ and ‘unjustified’ Hamas’ attacks. US President Joe Biden affirmed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Allies’ support will be there for an imminent counteroffensive on the Gaza strip. At the same time, Netanyahu assured the entire country of Israel that they will do whatever it takes to maintain peace and order and that the ‘terrorists’ will be dealt with.
As bystanders living almost half of the globe away from the conflict, where do we, or rather, with whom should we stand? To provide context, the Israel-Palestine ‘conflict’ did not begin with the Hamas’ attack a year ago, nor did it start with the war back in 2017, nor with the First and Second Intifada. This struggle between the Jews and the Muslims goes way back to the end of the 19th century, wherein Israelites cited the need for a homeland after being persecuted for years. Finally, the Balfour Declaration by the British government set forth its commitment to the establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine.
And then the terrible Holocaust during World War 2 led to greater Jewish immigration together with the growth of Zionism. With this, the United Nations decided to split the land between the Jewish state of Israel and the Arab state of Palestine. Obviously, violence would ensue as the original settlers, the Palestinians, were only allotted 44% of their own land while the majority went to the Jews.
The ‘conflict’ did not stop there as the Nakba and Six-Day War ensued in the following decades which saw Israel killing Palestinian children and women while illegally taking over all lands, even the Muslim-occupied areas. The present day Israel as we know consists of the country of Israel with the open-air prison of the Gaza strip and the West Bank, with illegal Jew settlements growing each day with the help of the Israeli military. Who would have thought that keeping Palestinians as second-class citizens in the land they originally owned will not trigger any form of dissent? Did Israel expect Palestinians to embrace and throw them a party for heartlessly stealing the land that was theirs?
Thus, we can say that Hamas is simply the byproduct of all the hatred Palestinians have kept and long tempered. Being formed in 1987, Hamas was democratically elected as the leaders of the state of Palestine in 2006 as they have ultimately represented what the people want: freedom from Israeli intervention in their own country and an end to all the violence against the Muslims. This is the reason why it is no surprise that some individuals living inside the Gaza strip and the West Bank justify the actions of Hamas because they believe that this is the only way they can earn back the land that is rightfully theirs.
What is laughable then about the ‘conflict’ is how the West and the media portrays the ‘war.’ They paint Israel as the abused and widely decimated country while there is little to no discussion about how the relentless bombardment of Gaza strip without any regard for civilian life has led to the deaths of thousands of Palestinian children, women, and the elderly, with hundreds dying or getting injured on a daily basis. There is so much discussion about how Hamas should not launch missiles towards Israel, but what about Jerusalem bombing Palestinian buildings even before the Hamas’ attacks where hostages and innocent people have become casualties? It somewhat feels like there exists selective empathy in the world as to who we should feel pity for and as to who we should not care at all.
It is also disgusting how the Israeli propaganda machine has been topnotch in its goal of spreading misinformation and fake news in all platforms, primarily spearheaded even by officials of the Israeli government. They initially reported that Hamas were heartlessly beheading babies but then go on to backtrack on the statement because they have no proof to support it. Despite this, news has already reached people that Hamas is inhumane, that they only exist because they want to kill individuals, and that they do not really stand for anything at all aside from terrorizing communities. It is as if Netanyahu and his government are doing everything to keep the world from realizing the root-cause of all of this.
If they are adamant on branding Hamas as ‘terrorists’, then what about Netanyahu and his government who purposely target Palestinian hospitals in the Gaza strip, killing children and the elderly who were receiving medical attention only to needlessly perish because of Israel’s bombs? If we strictly adhere to what the West and UN have defined to be humane, is it not true that Israel’s inhumanity is comparable to those of the devil we know in our holy texts after they have aimed at refugee camps full of unarmed civilians? If we even care about life and the beauty of it, then why are we hesitant to condemn and push back against Israel and its allies who just take lives as if they are gods themselves?
But to be clear, it is indeed true that there is no place for kidnapping children, using them as human shields, or even pointing guns towards innocent civilians in modern warfare. We should mourn the thousands of Jews who perished from the attacks. We should recognize that they did not deserve to have their lives cut short by bullets fueled by outrage. We should demand justice for the women abused and harassed by Hamas. These actions are never going to be acceptable by society’s standards, but to completely ignore and not recognize the intent of Hamas and let the West dictate the narrative is a mortal sin humanity has committed since time immemorial and will continue to keep the oppressors in power and impunity at an all time high.
What is more concerning then is how Israel gets away with the same atrocities they try to throw towards Hamas and that includes cutting off food, water, and electricity in the entire Gaza strip while knowing that there are millions of Palestinian children and women who will probably starve without access to the basic necessities. What is humane about forcing millions of already imprisoned Palestinians to leave their homes and move towards Southern Gaza just so Israel can wipe out Hamas? How is bombing a hospital full of patients or bombing of supposedly ‘safe routes’ not a war crime that should prompt immediate international condemnation and grave sanctions even from Israel’s strongest allies? It is unbelievable how the world allows this ‘conflict’ to progress since it is clear as day that it is just Israel flexing their millions of dollars of artillery and warfare technology they got from their allies and rubbing them off of the faces of dead Palestinian children, women, and the elderly.
At the very least, not all countries are deaf or willingly shutting their eyes from the atrocities done to Palestinians. Countries such as Egypt, Iran, Turkey, and even Canada have expressed their support for the people of Gaza by providing humanitarian aid. Biden and the rest of the Western world must realize that painting Israel as the bullied little kid will no longer fly in the eyes and minds of an informed population. Admitting that Netanyahu and Israel are escalating the war and prompting them to immediately stop any ground operation they have in mind will be for the betterment of the region. The US and its allies must stop funding the war and providing artillery to the already trigger-happy Israeli soldiers. These so-called leaders must realize that children should not shed any more tears or blood for their incompetence to resolve the oppression of Palestinians which led to the status quo.
It should also be common knowledge that this war is not a ‘conflict’ and we should stop calling and viewing it through the lens of Israel and its allies. It is heavily portrayed as one but in reality, it is a one-sided domination of Israel against millions of poor, starving, and unemployed Palestinians whose only request is to stop the illegal occupation of Jews in the West Bank and greater freedom in the Gaza strip. This is not going to be the last of Hamas even if Netanyahu and his heartless military eliminate every single one of them. There will be more uprisings, more violence, more towns being burned to the ground, and more women and children dying needlessly from rockets and bullets for as long as Israel and the Western world continue to neglect and trample on the rights of the Palestinian people.
Soon, the world will realize that Hamas is not an armed group, rather, Hamas is the materialization and humanization of Palestinian anger and struggle. To say that Hamas’ actions are unreasonable is to also neglect many successful armed revolutions in the past such as the Katipunan of Andres Bonifacio. Though violence is not the answer, sometimes it is and we should recognize that there are instances that it is the only viable option for people to be heard and for them to attain what they need and deserve. If we continue on lambasting Hamas, we are distorting what needs to be done in Palestine and that is to put an end to Israeli violence against the Muslims and to provide greater freedom for the original owners of the land.
If we are indeed serious about the de-escalation of the situation and achieving ‘peace’ in the region for even a short period of time, it has to begin now, and the first concessions must come from Israel and its allies. Food, water, electricity, and humanitarian assistance must be allowed to pass through Gaza without any resistance. The Palestinian people must be allowed to rebuild their homes in the Gaza strip and take back the stolen land in the West Bank. The al-Aqsa compound must no longer be handled by the Israeli government alone, rather, the peace and security should also include Palestine to ensure checks and balances in the area.
But most importantly, Netanyahu and his military must put an end towards their indiscriminate bombings not just in Gaza or the West Bank, but also in Beirut where they continue to also fight Hezbollah, another armed group with deep-rooted hatred against Israel’s illegal occupation in parts of Lebanon decades ago. The government of Israel must listen to their own people screaming for a ceasefire to finally put an end to one of the deadliest conflicts in recent memory that have left hundreds of thousands dead and displaced, with no ‘home’ to call. They can no longer pretend to be deaf nor turn a blind eye when protests and boycotts of companies supporting Israel have erupted across the globe, majority of them led by the younger generations who have rejected the Western propaganda and realized that the Palestinian oppression must end now.
If you support Israel because of Hamas' attacks on civilians and its disruption of regional peace, you are not wrong in that regard. However, if you believe that the Jews have the right to retaliate and cause piles of Palestinian bodies buried beneath bombarded buildings, then you do not have a complete grasp of what justice is. Justice is when Palestinians are no longer forced to evacuate their homes just so Israelites can build their own. Justice is when the Muslims can enter the al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest place in Islam without any discrimination from Israeli police. Justice is when Palestinians finally get equal access to basic necessities in their homeland which their ancestors have cultivated and built from the ground up. Justice is when you recognize that there is a valid reason behind the aggression of Hamas and that is the decades of inhumane oppression their brothers and sisters have received from the Jews, giving them no other choice but to fight back; they must in order to survive. Justice is when a Palestinian child can finally have a birthday celebration while having a complete family without any fear of Israel’s bombs dropping on their home at any moment.
Peace will be a never-ending discussion in the foreseeable future. But what does ‘peace’ exactly look like? As onlookers, we are not in the position to define what it should be, nor can we outline how it can be achieved immediately. However, one thing is for sure: the peace that Israel and the West have emphasized happened at the expense of silencing the Palestinians. Peace for them is when they rub the face of Muslims without expecting any resistance. For the West, this is ‘genuine Palestinian representation’ because Hamas does not define what the state of Palestine believes in which is abhorrently wrong and a complete ignorance of their situation. We have to remember that peace is never one-sided, rather, it is a state where groups of people understand and respect the rights of one another. It is when they can coexist in communities without putting their own race or ethnicity at a pedestal. Unfortunately, from the looks of it, peace has never really materialized in the region since the Jews took away Palestinian land. We are far from it but we can take our very first step by siding with the people who need us the most.
To conclude, defending Palestine does not mean you are pro-violence by any means or that you support the killing of innocent civilians. Rather, siding with the people of Gaza and the West bank simply means that you recognize that there are levels of oppression in the region and that the ‘violence’ the Jews feel is nothing compared to the decades of atrocities and crimes their government, with the backing of Zionists, has committed against the Muslims. It is high time for Palestinians to fight back because if they do not resist right now, then when? How much longer should they endure the abuse, discrimination, and injustice they should not be receiving in the first place? How many more Palestinian children, whose names we may or may not see in newspapers, must perish first before we recognize that it is Palestine against the evil that is Israel and its allies?
Stand for the oppressed. Stand for the millions imprisoned and starving in the Gaza strip. Stand for the hundreds of thousands more struggling in the West Bank. Stand for the children, women, and the elderly whose lives were taken away by Israel’s bombs. Stand for Palestine.