By Bouthaina Shaaban – Apr 15, 2024
Almost everyone in the world feels that the last seven months have changed our lives, and in a way, dramatically changed the world we were born and brought up in, to the extent that people everywhere, especially the inhabitants of the Arab world, feel alienated in their own homes and countries. This is because what has been taking place in Gaza has undermined all the ideas, concepts and basics of human relations and behavior, international relations and justice, human rights and freedom, free thought and media, and other notions we were fed.
At every juncture of a war, civil conflict, or natural disaster (famine, earthquakes..) anywhere, we used to wait and see what the international community would do to help or even save fellow human beings who happened to be at the short end of these events. But as time went on with the genocide that has targeted millions of civilians in Gaza in particular, and the Palestinian people in general, the international reaction shifted from the call for urgent action to a mood of shock, astonishment, and helplessness that is approaching a state of despair, especially when the Western governments steadily supply the war criminals with much more advanced weapons and deadly ammunition in order to kill more helpless children and mothers.
The entire world had known, prior to October 7, of the horrid situation the Palestinians have endured for the last 75 years, and have especially known the siege of Gaza, which has been described as the largest open-air prison in the world, imposed by the last apartheid regime in modern history.
But no one would have been able to imagine the way in which a large military machine, supported and fed by the largest military power in the world, would corner 2.2 million civilians to demolish their homes right over their heads, and kill medical teams along with the ill and wounded seeking medical treatment, rendering almost all hospitals totally out of service.
No one would have imagined targeting the press corps, who are only trying to inform the world of developments, as the press does in all wars. In Gaza, the genocide killed more journalists, both men and women, along with their entire families, than in all the wars in the past century.
No one would have imagined the targeting of helpless women and children, and deliberately killing pregnant women, killing both mothers and the babies in their wombs. No one would have imagined the targeting of workers from UNRWA, World Central Kitchen, or anyone trying to get aid delivered to starving children.
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All these unprecedented atrocities seem to have left the world in a state of shock, but also in a state of paralysis, unable, unwilling, or not daring to do anything. The Security Council and the entire UN system proved to be a hostage to those who finance its operations, and the whole mechanism resulting from the two world wars proved to be in service of the party who got the power of VETO and does not hesitate to use it to secure the continuity of the genocide and ethnic cleansing against helpless and besieged civilians, most of whom are women and children.
In this terrifying process, we all discovered that what we had been taught about free press in the West is only a myth, and that there is one control room that broadcasts all concepts, terminology, and news throughout the globe. We also understood that all the literature we read about democracy is not worth the ink in which it was written, and that freedom of speech and human rights are subjects of academic dialogues and of articles and books which enchant authors and readers with no effect and no relation to what is happening in the real world. It also proved that relations among countries are built on interests, not principles, and that no one is ready to sacrifice their smallest interest for the greatest principle.
The recognition of all this and many more important and more painful details has introduced our world in the 21st century into a state of malaise, where no value can be seen to any action or any writing or reading, or even to any effort, as no effort is able to change the horrendous course of events.
This has turned out to be the worst state of terror that the world has witnessed; it has terrorized all inhabitants of this earth and pushed them into a state of despair and helplessness. That is why the first priority now, besides saving the people of Palestine from this genocide, is to save the faith of people on earth in their humanity and their capacity to make the wheel turn in a direction that respects the integrity and sanctity of human life.
All Godâs creations were created to serve humans, to serve their well-being, preserve their human dignity and their happiness on earth, as the Almighty considered mankind to be His representatives on earth. That is why the humiliation and killing of Godâs representatives on earth has brought the whole world into a dark and endless tunnel, and that is why God warned that the killing of one’s fellow man is akin to killing humankind.
The smell of the horrendous killing and death in Palestine has reached everyone everywhere, on all continents, urging them to do their utmost to restore the respect and integrity of human life, human peace, human happiness and prosperity. These trying times in Palestine are extremely painful to the Palestinians and to all Arabs, but are also a test of the humanity of everyone living on this earth.
This is a historical juncture in the life of humanity, and we can be certain that life after this juncture will never be the same. It is up to humanity to gather its forces of good and chart a future path toward good, or it will enter a dark tunnel whose end cannot be seen by anyone.
