“To the Individuals of Gaza: A phenomenal Future awaits, however not for those who maintain Hostages. In the event you do, you might be DEAD! Make a SMART determination. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY LATER!”
These weren’t the phrases of some far-right provocateur lurking in a darkish nook of the web. They weren’t shouted by an unhinged warlord in search of vengeance. No, these have been the phrases of the president of the US, Donald Trump, essentially the most highly effective man on this planet. A person who with a signature, a speech or a single phrase can form the destiny of complete nations. And but, with all this energy, all this affect, his phrases to the folks of Gaza weren’t of peace, not of diplomacy, not of aid – however of loss of life.
I learn them and I really feel sick.
As a result of I do know precisely who he’s talking to. He’s talking to my household. To my mother and father, who misplaced relations and their house. To my siblings, who now not have a spot to return to. To the ravenous youngsters in Gaza, who’ve performed nothing however be born to a folks the world has deemed unworthy of existence. To the grieving moms who’ve buried their youngsters. To the fathers who can do nothing however watch their infants die of their arms. To the individuals who have misplaced all the pieces and but are nonetheless anticipated to endure extra.
Trump speaks of a “stunning future” for the folks of Gaza. However there is no such thing as a future left the place houses are gone, the place entire households have been erased, the place youngsters have been massacred.
I learn these phrases and I ask: What sort of a world will we dwell in?
A world the place the chief of the so-called “free world” can concern a blanket loss of life sentence to a complete inhabitants – two million folks, most of whom are displaced, ravenous and barely clinging to life. A world the place a person who instructions essentially the most highly effective navy can sit in his workplace, insulated from the screams, the blood, the insufferable stench of loss of life, and declare that if the folks of Gaza don’t comply along with his demand – if they don’t someway magically discover and free hostages they don’t have any management over – then they’re merely “useless”. A world the place genocide survivors are given an ultimatum of mass loss of life by a person who claims to face for peace.
This isn’t simply absurd. It’s evil.
Trump’s phrases are felony. They’re a direct endorsement of genocide. The folks of Gaza are usually not chargeable for what is occurring. They aren’t holding hostages. They’re the hostages – trapped by an Israeli warfare machine that has stolen all the pieces from them. Hostages to a brutal siege that has starved them, bombed them, displaced them, left them with nowhere to go.
And now, they’ve develop into hostages to essentially the most highly effective man on Earth, who threatens them with extra struggling, extra loss of life, except they meet a requirement they’re incapable of fulfilling.
Most cynically, Trump is aware of his phrases won’t be met with any significant pushback. Who within the American political institution will maintain him accountable for threatening genocide? The Democratic Celebration, which enabled Israel’s genocidal warfare on Gaza? Congress, which overwhelmingly helps sending US navy assist to Israel with no circumstances? The mainstream media, which have systematically erased Palestinian struggling? There isn’t a political price for Trump to make such statements. If something, they bolster his place.
That is the world we dwell in. A world the place Palestinian lives are so disposable that the president of the US can threaten mass loss of life with out worry of any penalties.
I write this as a result of I refuse to let this be simply one other outrageous Trump assertion that individuals giggle off, that the media turns right into a spectacle, that the world forgets. I write this as a result of Gaza just isn’t a speaking level. It’s not a headline. It’s my house. My household. My historical past. My coronary heart. My all the pieces.
And I refuse to just accept that the president of the US can concern loss of life threats to my folks with impunity.
The folks of Gaza don’t management their very own destiny. They’ve by no means had that luxurious. Their destiny has at all times been dictated by the bombs that fall on them, by the siege that starves them, by the governments that abandon them. And now, their destiny is being dictated by a person in Washington, DC, who sees no concern with threatening the annihilation of a complete inhabitants.
So I ask once more: What sort of world will we dwell in?
And the way lengthy will we permit it to stay this manner?
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
