Thoughts and prayers

In relation to our article For those with eyes to see

Margaret Callinan, Hawthorn VIC 3122, Oct 11, 2024

As 7th October 2024 draws to a close I reflect on all the outpourings of grief and sympathy for Israel, Israelis and all Jewish people on this anniversary day. I hear the calls for everyone to lay down their arms, for peace. And I think …. oh, the hypocrisy, as useful as US Americans sending thoughts and prayers.

I hear “Let there be Israel” and a new country is set upon Palestinian land with no reference to, consideration of, consultation with or protection for Palestinians.

Just “Begone! This is our land now.”

Today, there is no context. Not what happened on 6th October 2023 or all the days back to the Nakba and back, back to Theodor Herzl.

When has any one of our politicians, and those wringing their hands and wailing, ever spent a similar public moment to say a word, shed a tear or offer support to the dead, the displaced, the hungry and thirsty whose homes, farms, hospitals, schools have been razed by their colonial settler- occupiers?

Our words for the occupied are “terrorist, murderer, rapist, you deserve what you get, you’re not wanted here.”

We have turned “blaming-the-victim” into an art-form. And we do the US’s bidding.