Reader,
This isn't okay or new.
Heartbreaking violence is not new to us. I'm guessing atleast 50% of us here have experienced our people getting massacred, killed by state repression, forced into a famine, or gravely hurt in war.
Other people are also experiencing heart-breaking violence as we speak. But the genocide in Gaza is right in front of our faces in a way that others aren't -- we've seen the most gruesome images of violence that Israel has inflicted upon Palestinians once again.
I helped fundraise a few months ago and Salman's family finally escaped Rafah, thank God. But so many didn't. What has changed for me is... truly accepting that we are pretty powerless to stop the worst of this violence.
I know it might be uncomfortable, but please hear me, because I strongly sense that we need to stay anchored to each other now more than ever.
Our powerlessness is real.
People outside of Palestine who want this nightmare to stop have fallen into two camps:
1) Get sad and silent.
2) Get angry and loud.
Both are natural human reactions to witnessing a catastrophe.
But both groups have one thing in common: strong feelings of guilt and shame. And how we send out our emotions matters.
Someone (not a Palestinian) wrote this in an alumni forum I'm in:
"If you like the post about Palestinians dying but not the one calling you to action to try to save them then please have some shame and just ignore both posts. Virtue signaling is all you know.
We told you this would happen again and again despite ridiculous censorship. You have blood on your hands.
We could have organised to do something collectively to help someone. What is the use of your cushy jobs obtained in part through a UWC education and your connections?"
This post has really pissed me off because it totally misses the mark. (I'm probably taking on some of the anger of the poster.)
Almost everyone around me has been donating to people fleeing, fundraising for essential aid, sending SIM cards to Gazans without internet, helping an NGO that is helping animals of Gaza, etc etc.
We don't have blood on our hands because, so far, we have been denied the power to decide the outcome and stop this nightmare.
Did you know that peace groups in Israel have been protesting their government for months? Even they haven't been able to.
It is harmful to take our shame and turn it into a weapon that impales us because, truth be told, we don't seem to have the power to stop mass killings by governments.
Mass killings have been happening in other countries too.
I have coached marginalized people to stand in our power and I encourage it in the LGBTQ+ community spaces that I facilitate.
AND I'm going to admit that we can also be quite powerless in situations like this. If my country has given billions of dollars in weapons to another country, one that has a history of breaking international law... Their power over these territories to massacre people seems undeniably greater than my power to stop them.
Before you write off humanity as evil, remember that leaders with power over our lives do bad things without our consent a lot.
It is important to notice where, in so-called democracies, our consent is ignored and we don't truly have the power to decide.
Perhaps you only live in a democracy until your President or Prime Minister wants something that you don't.
I'm not suggesting that we stop doing what we can...
I am suggesting that if you feel powerless to stop other people's suffering, that doesn't mean you're looking away.
It means that you are human.
❤️
Aayaan
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