Reflections on Day 300 of genocide
! Warning, this reflection contains graphic descriptions of violence. !
The news continues to be utterly overwhelming.
During the school year, I created an activity where students examined choices and consequences in Gaza. In one of the primary source document packets, I included excerpts from an interview with Hossam Shabat, a journalist in Gaza who stated:
Since the first hours, I haven’t left the northern Gaza Strip despite the danger always looming. There, an Israeli intelligence officer called me to tell me to leave northern Gaza immediately. I refused to go, but the occupation army did not leave me alone. They were following my Facebook page and told me to delete all my posts. The occupation army put me under great threat and told me that my house would be bombed. I wasn’t interested and told them that I wouldn’t leave the city. I only moved from when the bombs fell on us. The city’s hospital was bombed – it is now totally destroyed – and then my house was bombed.
I haven’t eaten anything for two days. In northern Gaza today, you can either document the occupation’s crimes or obtain food, but not both at once.
After my family came under Israeli bombardment during the journey to the south, my mother sent me a message telling me not to leave this field, even if my head was chopped off, and to document all the occupation’s crimes. (3/26/24)
On Monday, Hossam posted this picture with his journalist colleague Ismail to twitter:
Much love from me and my comrades from north Gaza, we’re still here & still reporting (6/29/24)
Yesterday, the Israeli occupation forces targeted and bombed Ismail and his cameraman Rami’s car in teh Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza city. Ismail’s body was found in his burned out vehicle, decapitated with the gore from his exploded body spilling over the press jacket. After his assassination, Israel claimed the journalists were Hamas members that took part in the October 7th attack without any evidence.
Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi are two of more than 125 journalists killed since October 7th and more than 39,480-186,000 individuals with dreams, families and lives who have been slaughtered in the current genocide.
According to their employer, Ismail and Rami were in the area to report near the Gaza house of Ismail Haniyeh, the top Hamas political leader. The previous night, Israel assassinated Haniyeh in Iran as well as assassinating Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in a Beirut residential suburb.
The assassinations in Lebanon and Iran escalate the situation immensely and it appears as though Israel is trying to drag Iran and Hezbollah into a wider regional war. In assassinating a top Hamas political leader, Israel is also directly sabotaging ceasefire talks that could lead to the end of the genocide.
Meanwhile, inside Israel, protesters (including Israeli soldiers and lawmakers) broke into a military base to exonerate nine soldiers who had been detained for tourturing Palestinian prisoners at Sde Teiman concentration camp. Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin stated that he was “shocked” that the abusive soldiers would be detained for questioning prisoners in “a way that is suitable for arresting dangerous criminals.”
At Sde Teiman, detainees are forced to sleep blindfolded and handcuffed with hands behind their backs. Similar to the anti-terrorism torture employed at Guantanamo detainees have also been subjected to electrocution and sexual abuse. Stories include IDF soldiers raping Palestinians with sticks and using dogs to sexually assault prisoners. Most of the detainees are not formally accused of belonging to any organization nor participating in military activity.
Part of the cruelty and the misery and the carnage that we are witnessing is because something is collapsing and crumbling in the very outfit that causes all this suffering. Its fierce, ruthless and violent because of the very extensive fractures [in the zionist] building. Therefore we should be hopeful… be part of these processes… We are inspired by the resistance and resilience [of Palestinians].
I always think about the Irony of history. Israel created the Gaza strip in 1948. And they thought that they found a great solution for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who they did not want be part of Israel and could not move to another Arab country. So they said they would give up 1.5% of Palestine to create a mega-refugee camp called the Gaza strip. That refugee camp proved to be the most important source of resistance and resilience in the struggle for liberation. This shows that even the most monstrous creation… out of vile interest and motives can be a source of empowerment, change and liberation. As historians we always feel that we have more patience to see the long term processes mature and understand that you might be in the middle of something, but only realize it later.
As Israel continues to lash out at the region and lash down on its occupied and captive Palestinian population, hope seems elusive Yet, I echo the disciplined hope of Ilan Pappe. Curiously, his narrative matches what Christians might also call a cruciform structure. I As Pastor Munther Isaac beautifully preached last Christmas: “Christ is under the rubble.” The moral, ethnical and Christform mandate is to participate in the historic uprising against settler colonialism and imperialism to bring down the Israeli genocidal and apartheid state. This rupture in the present reality cannot and will not come from American Imperialists like Kamala Harris or Donald Trump who present different flavors of imperialism but fundamentally agree on the oppression of the poor. It will also not come from Christian’s who are tied to “state theology,” “church theology,” or “reconciliation.”
This is the light given by the crucified peoples… that true progress cannot consist in what is offered now, but in bringing the crucified peoples down from the cross and sharing the resources and everybody’s goods with all.
(The Principle of Mercy, Jon Sobrino. 1994. 55.)
Rather, this rupture has come from those who burst forth from their prison on October 7th, and the worldwide solidarity movement who have been laying the groundwork for people like us in the imperial core towards solidarity through BDS. The work has long started in taking crucified peoples down from the cross. I am looking forward to continuing the work through Local, State and National Union divestment initiatives, supporting the ongoing fight at Stanford, pursuing BDS at my local church and going to hear Pastor Munther Isaac during his speaking tour.
What I’m Reading/Listening to This Week: