July 20, 2014

The Gazan blood hasn’t dried yet

Gaza on fire
I have avoided writing about this topic for as long as possible. After all, as a Pakistani my first duty is to talk about Pakistan and all the atrocious nonsense taking place in my homeland. But there comes a breaking point, where no matter who you are or what you believe in, you have to speak up against the injustice. My breaking point came after seeing pictures of dead children lying on the streets of Gaza, and people like Nick Kristof (who generally I have much respect for), blatantly trying to justify Israel’s genocide of Gazans.

As of this moment, 400 Palestinians have died in Israeli aerial and land bombardment. The UN says 80% of all those killed in this genocide are civilians. But of course that matters none to President Barack Hussain Obama, who at the White House Iftar Dinner stated “Israel has every right to defend itself”. Might one ask Mr President, what about the Gazans? Do they also have a right to defend themselves? Yes? No?

There are people, and learned people at that, who claim that if Hamas stops firing homemade rockets into Israel, Israel will become a good boy and go play in its own backyard. But these learned men and women are simplifying the last 70 years of Israel’s existence. Why pray, did Hamas come into existence in the first place? Well it came into existence because Israel is an occupier of the Palestinian territories and the Palestinians want them to get the fuck out of Palestinian lands. Hamas was founded in 1987 at the end of the First Intifada, which incidentally was a Palestinian non-violent movement to get Israel off of Palestinian properties. So Mr Kristof, your suggestion that Palestinians indulge in non-violent resistance movements [sic] has been tried before by the Palestinians. Didn’t really work out in their favor, buddy.

I have no sympathy for Hamas. Their blatant disregard for Palestinian life is self evident. However to call the Israeli Palestinian conflict a fair fight is bordering on the insane. You see every single logic you can concoct to justify Israel’s genocide of Palestinians (Hamas throws rockets at Israel; Hamas has built tunnels in Gaza; Hamas is a terrorist organization and must be eliminated) falls flat in the face of hundreds of women and children that have been killed by Israel’s bombs. So instead of asking Hamas to show restraint, why don’t you ask Israel to grow the fuck up, and act like a responsible fucking state by stopping the Palestinian genocide? And then you can feel free to cuss at Hamas all you want.

Many hundreds more will die. Many of them innocent people, who were trying to escape the Israeli genocide. Once a truce is announced, we’ll forget all about it, until it starts again and then the same bullshit arguments, and the same bullshit justifications will be used when Palestinian deaths are announced.