There is, in this culture — ‘this’ meaning neoliberalism, the U.S., the internet, ‘the West’, capitalism, ‘modernity’, a world in which ‘I’ and ‘you’ and ‘they’ and ‘we’ hold a weight so actualized and axiomatic that the use of these words is in of itself a rhetorical device — an understanding amongst most people that responsibility to one another beyond the nuclear family is limited, at best. There is an understanding, a dogma, that a person can possess a life — ‘this is my life’ — and, therefore, that ‘life’ as a whole is secondary to ‘a life’, which is an individual experience, something singular and discrete.
This is what I am thinking about now, ‘I’ in ‘my’ strong, warm house, filled with ‘my’ family and ‘our’ food and ‘our’ peace. Things that became ‘mine’ at the moment of birth, and long before that; things which are accompanied by other things — safety, education, health, privacy, opportunity, dignity, choice; things that are ‘mine’ because they belong to my parents, and which belong to my parents because those things belonged to their parents (and so on), and also, of course, because of hard work. For these reasons, these things are mine, and I deserve them. This is what we are told. You have earned what you have, and those who do not have, have not earned.
I will say something next that may upset you. That should upset you. Something to which your response may be to stop reading and attempt to distract yourself, because you are unwilling to handle discomfort, because you have been trained to prioritize ‘I’ above all else.
The United Nations reports that 100 Palestinian children have been murdered each day for the past 15 days. That is the equivalent of one child, dead, every fifteen minutes. That does not include those unaccounted for, buried in rubble, or those left orphaned, or wounded. This is not new. And the cause of this is not war. The cause of this is not conflict or collateral damage or unforeseen civilian casualties. The cause of this is unchecked egotism, and a mass-looking-away.
It is no accident that you know the name “Hamas” (which you had not heard until earlier this month, but still - ) yet you do not know the word “Nakba”. It is no accident that, conveniently, you are unaware that the United Nations Security Council has consistently condemned Israel’s violent colonization of Palestine for decades, including in 2016’s Resolution 2334, which passed 14-0 with the United States being the only permanent member to abstain. The full document can be accessed here, but below are a few key points [bolding added]:
“The Security Council…
Reaffirms that the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace;
Reiterates its demand that Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and that it fully respect all of its legal obligations in this regard;
Stresses that the cessation of all Israeli settlement activities is essential for salvaging the two State solution, and calls for affirmative steps to be taken immediately to reverse the negative trends on the ground that are imperilling the two State solution.”
It is no accident that for decades not only the Palestinian people but also a range of scholars and human rights activists and journalists and the fucking UN have cried into the world: this is colonization, this is brutality, this is murder, this is apartheid; this will be ethnic cleansing, this will be genocide — and. What has been done? What have we done to prevent this? Where was this concern six weeks ago?
It is for these reasons that I have no sympathy for those who say things like, “I can’t watch the news, it upsets me”. I have empathy, yes, because it hurts me, too. But the pain is not mine; it is the pain of those harmed, who cannot turn away, who cannot avoid what is. And so there is no sympathy for those who speak of ‘the situation in the Middle East or the Hamas-Israel conflict or both sides’ or or or. Or any of these shallow, ignorant phrases uttered by people who have fallen into our culture’s sweet, bloody promise of I and them and non-violence. There shall be no sympathy for those who look away from horror in the name of peace, whose feeble voices say, ‘Look! Blood on both sides!’
Look. Blood on both sides. There has been, yes. Each death is sorrowful, yes.
And: yes, blood tends to stain the hands of those who spill it. Especially those who spill it constantly, deliberately, optionally, en masse, for their own gain, and then wail when it splatters back upon them.
“You take my water, burn my olive trees, destroy my house, take my job, steal my land, imprison my father, kill my mother, bombard my country, starve us all, humiliate us all, but I am to blame: I shot a rocket back.”
The Assault on Gaza, Noam Chomsky, 2012.
I will not, here, supply a history lesson1, the well-documented tried-and-true PR methods of imperialist forces, or an analysis of U.S. and weapons manufacturers’ interest in what the current president called “the best $3 billion investment we make” in “the single greatest strength America has in the Middle East” — so lucrative, in fact, that “were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region”2. You are capable of learning this yourself, if you have not already.
We are grown-ups, now, you and I. We have learned that it is very easy to avoid, to not know, to look away. I do it all the time. So do you. We witness pain, and we feel it within ourselves, and we think, yes, okay, I have done it. I have felt, and so I have cared.
Emotion is not care. It is a precursor, maybe. It is a tool of connection. But the mother who feels love for her child has not loved the child until the child receives that love. She lets it feed from her body3, she holds it closely, she comforts its cries. Only then does her love exist as anything more than a feeling.
So here is the begging:
Witness - Look toward, and recover, and look toward again, and again. Even when it is uncomfortable, or painful, or hard. Let them — the violators and violated alike — feel the weight of the world’s eyes upon them.
Listen - To everything, to the words, the speaker, the source, the criticism of the source; listen critically, listen to the history, listen without speaking, listen until your words are not your words, but words of the voice of truth.
Sustain - Give alms, send donations, share information, take action4, refuse to surrender to hopelessness and nihilism. Endure time and pain and frustration and criticism, and continue to speak for justice.
Remember - In a month, in two, in ten years, in the end. Do not allow placations or denials or the passing from memory. Let them have no doubt that none of this will ever be forgotten.
and, finally, You and I. We are up to Our necks in the water of union. let Us cut the breath of Self.
Let us Descend Into Love.
I sat long enough in fire.
Now I am up to my neck
in the water of union.
You say, Up to the neck
is not enough.
Make your head your foot
and descend into love.
There is no up-to-the-neck union.
I say, But for the sake of your garden
I sat up to my neck in blood.
You say, Yes, you escaped
the alluring world, but not yourself.
You are the magician
caught in his own trickery.
Cut the breath of self and be silent.
Language cannot come from your throat
as you choke and go under.
Rumi
[trans. Coleman Barks]
please be normal. it’s a metaphor.
Action Items:
Call and email state reps. and call script here
Donate:
Palestinian Children's Relief Fund
Boycott:
Companies with the largest stakes
Image Source: Jerusalem Story Archives