We’re well beyond six months of genocide in Gaza now, and as the writer Andreas Malm so eloquently put it, “half a year of a dozen massacres per day, summary executions, sniping, driving over the corpses with bulldozers and all the rest and it just doesn’t stop”.
Over the weekend, Iran launched a series of drones intended to retaliate against the recent Israeli destruction of the Iranian embassy in Syria. The Iranian military is the first to respond militarily to a transnational genocide, coordinated and organized by the most advanced capitalist countries of the West in partnership with their pet, the apartheid state of Israel. Western media would have you believe that these drone attacks were “unprovoked” or “disproportionate”, when in reality they were simply the logical response to Israel blatantly violating the UN charter and attacking a diplomatic premises.
At this point Hamas has been pushing for a ceasefire deal that frees the remaining hostages, ends the violence, allows Palestinians to return to their homes, and facilitates the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza. In response to these conditions they’re being met with a genocidal apartheid state that continues to target and kill civilian family members of Hamas leaders to try and sabotage any negotiations. Separately but relatedly, Israeli settlers, with the protection of Israeli occupation forces, carried out a violent attack on Palestinian homes in the town of Al-Mughayyer in the occupied West Bank. Illegal settlers shot Palestinians and set their houses and cars on fire, killing a Palestinian man and wounding dozens more.
Despite Israel’s endless provocations, western media is only just beginning to recognize the atrocities they’ve enabled. Earlier this weekend the New York Times editorial board was writing headlines saying, “Military Aid to Israel Cannot Be Unconditional”. Of course, this does nothing to absolve the publication from its vocal and unquestionable complicity in this genocide, but I guess that’s a sign of progress. Even cable news guys like Jon Stewart are pointing out the obvious double standards being applied by the Biden administration between Ukraine and Palestine.
One underreported story is that last week featured the passing of Walid Daqqa, one of the most important Palestinian writers and intellectuals of his generation. Daqqa was the author of one of the most methodical and piercing studies on torture, aptly titled 'On Searing Consciousness: Or Re-Defining Torture'. He was diagnosed with terminal bone marrow cancer back in December 2022 and his family and human rights activists unsuccessfully appealed to the heartless Israeli authorities to release him early. He is survived by a wife and young daughter, a child only conceived by smuggling his reproductive material out of prison to his wife. Daqqa was imprisoned by Israel since he was 24, and his critical work since then has helped document and expose for us the details of Palestinian prisoner life and methods of confinement by the apartheid state.
In his short story titled, “A Place Without A Door”, Daqqa poses this foundational question that haunts anyone interested in working with young people or bringing a child into this world; “How do we turn the oppressive feeling created by this reality into a force for positive action, which could contribute to the constructive growth of their young and developing personalities?”
The people dying in Gaza aren’t simply nameless victims. They’re writers and artists, workers and students, people who had a life before October 7, 2023 that didn’t entirely revolve around trying to dodge bullets and airstrikes. It’s important to remember that.
“To numb onesself to shock and sorrow, to become immune to the pain of others, any and all others, and to let feelings grow dull in the face of atrocity - this is a daily struggle and obsession for me…a test of my resilience and a measure of my own steadfastness and solidity. For to empathize with humanity, to feel and share in its suffering, is the essence of civilization. The essence of man lies not only in his will or his labor, but in his capacity to feel, to empathize with his fellow beings.
It is this very essence that is targeted in the life of a prisoner, over hours, days, and years. You are not targeted solely as a political being, nor as a religious adherent or a consumer deprived of material pleasures. You may hold any political belief, practice any religion in your heart, have plenty of consumer desires. Yet, the primary target remains the social and human being within you. The target is any connection you may have with others and with nature, even your relationship with the prison guard as a fellow human.
They do everything to make us hate…the target is love.”
-Walid Daqqa
Side Items
Palestinian Settlement: An American company finally admitted fault and is providing funding for residents in Palestine. Sorry, that’s East Palestine, Ohio, where Norfolk Southern has settled a class action lawsuit relating to the memorable fiery train derailment last year. The train company will pay ~$600 million for poisoning the air and local water sources of the small Ohio community. A small price to pay
Scumbag Dookies: The justifiably and widely-reviled Duke University announced last week that it is ending a full-ride scholarship program for Black students in the aftermath of a recent supreme court affirmative action ruling. Mind you Duke admits ~11% of general applicants but that number jumps to ~23% when it comes to legacy applicants— people whose parents and grandparents were accepted during the Jim Crow era. Helpful to remember that Duke didn’t even accept Black students until 1963
Runnin Out of Juice: OJ Simpson, the famed football star//actor//ocassional murderer died last week at the age of 76. Simpson spent his final years battling cancer as well as the urge to commit another grisly homicide to capture the attention of the national media once more
Wow. Thanks for sharing Walid’s story and works. I’m sad to read about his death. May he rest in power.