The Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 was horrific in its brutality. Let's not mince words here. This was violence waged on civilians to achieve a political end. That is the dictionary definition of terrorism.
Hostages were taken to be used as pawns in a plan to exchange Palestinian prisoners for them. In part, they've been successful in achieving that goal.
However, the cost to the average Palestinian in the OPT has been devastating!
I have spent the past fourteen years going online to learn more about this conflict and to communicate with the actual people in it.
Their dream is simply to be free, to be equal in their rights, and to raise their families in a secure environment -the same as anyone else wants for themselves and their kids!
But, Israel has spent seventy-five years attempting to kill that dream, in the name of their own security.
Israel has walled themselves off from the Palestinians, for the most part. The areas they want, for new Jewish settlements, they have simply annexed into their own borders, displacing people even in East Jerusalem. This was to be the capitol of a future Palestinian state-the same state Prime Minister Netenyahu now says he will never allow! All this is in violation of the Geneva Convention and international humanitarian law.
Today, settlers in the West Bank(with IDF protection) are waging increasingly violent attacks on Palestinians and hundreds of innocent people are dead as a result.
In Israel, Hamas killed some 1,200 people in their terror attack.
In Gaza, the Israeli military has killed over 30,000 people, two-thirds of whom have been women and children. Approximately 70,000 have been injured and now have a collapsed medical system trying to provide care. The Israeli's complete blockade of even food, water and medicine has caused a humanitarian crisis that was quite avoidable. In other words, Israel is waging violence against civilians to achieve a political end. As I said, the dictionary definition of terrorism is exactly that!
The whole situation has been heartbreaking and I cannot help but feel angst toward my leaders, as I see them supporting a genocide of people I dreamed would be free some day.
It has reminded me of another unrealized dream I once had.
Shortly after I was married, I became pregnant with our first child. I was apprehensive about a baby coming so soon but I dreamed of what he or she would be like.
Unfortunately, I was involved in car accident in my ninth week and I miscarried.
Months later, sitting in a psychologist's office, I asked how I could feel such grief for someone I had never really met.
This woman said to me "You are grieving for the death of a dream."
I had dreamed of a baby girl.
My counselor went on to explain that all of the pictures in my mind of what this baby would look like, sound like, all the school plays I would see her in, the future bride she would be-all of that died when she died.
Today, I see Gaza, all of Palestine, as a dream I am watching die. I have lost a friend there, a beautiful woman who taught school and painted as a way of resisting her occupation. She had children she told me she feared for. Another friend has been displaced with his wife and four young children. I have lost contact with him and worry for their safety. Still, another friend lost his sister, who was killed along with her husband, leaving four children orphaned, who are now left with no medicine, little food and even less hope. The extended families in Gaza, trying to care for whoever they have left, are desperately trying to keep these kids alive while they pray for a ceasefire.
But, one has to wonder, "Alive for what? What future is there?" I have no answer to that.
The Palestinian dream of a free and secure land of their own may not be realized anytime soon. Changing attitudes are evident around the world but here in America, Zionist propaganda reigns supreme! President Biden just cut off all aid to UNRWA, based on unsubstantiated allegations by Israel that members of the aid organization helped in the October 7th Hamas attack. UNRWA is the U.N. agency charged with humanitarian aid, healthcare, and education for Palestinian refugees, not only in the OPT, but in Jordon and Lebanon, as well. Those people did not attack Israel, yet will be punished unjustly by this financial abandonment of UNRWA.
The dream of a free land for the Palestinians seems to be less of a possibility every day. It is on life support at this point and the question for the U.S. is whether or not to pull the plug entirely.
Stay tuned! As the famous Yogi Berra once said, "It ain't over till it's over."
