There are many truths
October 9, 2023
I am not Palestinian, nor Jewish. I have no family in Israel or Gaza, though I have many friends & colleagues who do. These last few days, in Israel & in Gaza, are beyond those two worlds alone. It is about humanity. And humanity’s heart breaks. Mine certainly does.
My heart breaks for those who have lost loved ones in the horrifying attacks unleashed by Hamas, for the 260+ people massacred at the Nova music festival, the hundreds of other Israelis who have been killed, and all those taken hostage.
My heart breaks for the cruel, violent toll of the Gaza blockade, of Israeli apartheid, of imprisoned Palestinian children, illegal settlements and 1000’s of Palestinians who have been killed in years of IDF military barrages, so many now that it is easy to lose count.
My human rights heart is outraged by the brutality of this Hamas attack, and the years of murder, war crimes and crimes against humanity that have ripped apart so many Israeli lives and for which there must be accountability.
My human rights heart is outraged by the news that Israeli authorities are poised to unleash a blatantly unlawful destructive ‘complete siege’ of Gaza, an imprisoned home to 2 million, > ½ of whom are children, who have nowhere to flee.
There are many truths in Gaza, Israel & the West Bank. One truth does not deny another. They are truths that stand alongside each other. They are truths that must be heard & understood equally. These truths are not to be followed by ‘but’, yet they always are.
It is true that the toll of Palestinian suffering over 50+ years has been immeasurably cruel & violent, the means of repression harsh & deliberate, and the insidious apartheid that now governs is an affront to international law.
It is true that Israel, surrounded by enemies & faced with constant threats to the country’s existence & its people’s very survival, deserves true safety & lasting peace & security.
It is true that Palestinians live the cruel sting of dispossession & Islamophobia, and Jews the brunt of centuries of dispossession & vicious anti-Semitism. Truths that should unite, not divide.
It is true that a life is a life, a child is a child, a death is a death, and a people is a people. None matter more than others.
Yet it is true also that every day Palestinians in Gaza & the West Bank are told their lives matter less. Nothing says that more starkly than the bombs, walls, laws & prisons they have faced for decades. That has too often been reinforced by my own country’s polices.
What absolutely must be true is that this cannot continue. That has always been true, but perhaps never truer. The response to horrifying & illegal Hamas attacks cannot lie in horrifying & illegal bombardment of Gaza, leading to more attacks & more bombardment. That is not where truth has its home.
I am not Palestinian, nor Jewish. But tonight I am Palestinian and Jewish. I am every Palestinian who demands freedom and every Jew who demands safety. And I reject anything that denies those truths.
