That Day: October 7th

 

Day 1: 7- October

That Day: October 7th

Morning: I woke up and heard the news. I couldn’t believe what I saw. I flipped through different TV channels. “How did they infiltrate so easily? Where is the Israeli army?” I was shocked to hear that the Israeli Cabinet wasn’t holding a session and wouldn’t convene one until hours later.

Noon: The number of deaths was increasing. The news and images from local social media and platforms were flooding in.  They were unbelievable images. The scenario was unfathomable in the wildest dreams. So shocking. The image of breaking through the fence that kept Gazans from living like humans was bulldozed and removed.  For me, that was equivalent to the falling of the Berlin Wall. Who can force Palestinians from now on to stay behind walls and fences? And why? Some people said, “Even if Gaza was wiped off the face of the earth, this was worth it.” My heart ached when I heard this phrase. All Palestinians knew the amount of bombing Gazans would endure- as they have always endured. The sacrifice that this small, blade-shaped piece of land has offered—and will continue to provide—is so painful. The Gaza holocaust deserves a myth of its own.    

Afternoon: I turn to Western TV Channels to see if they caught up on this critical development. Not yet. The number of deaths kept rising. Images kept flooding. Finally, the Israeli government convened.

Evening: Western media began reporting. Of course, this is Israel! How could they not pay attention? The first word I heard was Iran, and I immediately understood that this monumental event would serve as a pretext to attack Iran in the future. The issue now is Iran, not Gaza, the Palestinians, or the policies of the Jewish government. It is not that some people exist at the expense of their fellow humans who live a walking distance away from them just because of their religion.   

Night: I live on a street in Ramallah that has a good view of the coastal city of Tel Aviv. Cars lined up to watch the rockets of Gaza ‘not fall’ on Tel Aviv. The Iron Dome system interrupts the rockets and produces a mini firework simulation. The sound, however, is much more profound and dense. 

A question for both Israelis and Palestinians: Isn’t killing a license to be killed?

Moral Musings: Why Do Humans Behave the Way They Do toward Their Fellow Humans? It is when life equals death. Consider a scenario that illustrates what this means to you personally. When will life become like dying for you? Multiply that by ten, and that is your answer.  For over twenty years, the world has turned a blind eye to Gaza, even their fellow humans, the Israelis living a few kilometers away. Life in Gaza is humanly unsustainable. No one cares. No one wants to hear about Gaza. It is a dark spot sitting on the collective human consciousness. Today, it has surfaced for all of us to face. But no, the world, and the military power of the world, has chosen to push it down in our dark shadows. Gaza symbolizes our collective guilt, cruelty, and shameful sense of superior existence and entitlement reserved for certain people over others. For me, Gaza represents the confiscated freedoms so that the powerful man can avoid facing the darkness inside. Gaza has just unleashed this inner darkness, our collective darkness, back at its fellow humans who, some of them, happened to be dancing in the open air next to the open-air prison explicitly created to keep them safe while dancing. The logic behind keeping two million people caged to secure the dancing of others is of paramount absurdity and cruelty, as much as these images from Israeli settlements are.