Pearls and Irritations

Since when do we praise Occupiers for brutal oppression? Words are used to confuse, obfuscate and detract from the truth of Palestine-Israel. Words such as terrorist, enemy, militants and murderous are often used to describe Palestinians who are, in essence, victims, freedom fighters, oppressed, occupied and ignored.

Settler-colonial occupation! What strange words to be using in 2023. Whoever thought that such shocking actions and behaviour as occupying other people and militarily controlling their lives, decade after decade would still be part of our everyday language. No wonder Palestinians have made a jailbreak. And suggesting this current state is a “war”, as declared by the cruel far-right Netanyahu, is a misnomer in the extreme. It is not on equal footing, nor equally founded on justice nor justifiable on geopolitical grounds. It’s the bully and his victims – not a war.

We regularly hear that “Israel has the right to defend itself”. Why don’t we see headlines in mainstream media that read, “Palestinians have the right to defend themselves”. The answer is presumably because that truth is very uncomfortable for Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom. Who wants to be faced with their ugly stance to uphold the rights of settler-colonial powers in 2023? It’s shameful, yet useful to those who wish to retain power over others. Australia, sadly, has to be included in this ugly stance by not recognising Palestinian’s right to autonomy and self-determination with a state of their own. This ugly position is the elephant (nay, mammoth) dancing on the international stage with the West cheering the bully on.

Colonising other people’s land and brutally enforcing that colonisation for decades with intimidation, murder and humiliation is, quite simply, wrong. Charging into a crowd of festival goers and shooting dead anyone in front of you is, quite simply, wrong. No matter where you sit on the political spectrum (left-centre-right) it would be hard to argue that oppressing and killing other human beings is good, right or justifiable. We are long past that mentality. Or are we?

If we are not humane to each other then I’m not quite sure where we can go from here. We’ve seen how inhumanity plays out. Gas chambers, ethnic cleansings, massacres and torture. History is glaring with examples of inhumanity: Nazis to the Jews, the Rwandan genocide with the added inhumanity of the Catholic church standing by. The inhumanity of white South Africans to black South Africans et al. Surely the massacres of First Nations People of Australia by white colonialist should have taught us the lessons of disgrace at treating other humans with such contempt. The Palestinians are no different and no less the victims of colonisation.

The reaction of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was immediate, swift, full bodied and robust. There was the wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth at the hubris and horror of Russia’s actions upon the Ukrainians. There is a gross under reaction from the West to the situation of the Palestinians. Have the ‘Arabs’ failed the blue-eyed, fair skinned test that the Ukrainians passed with flying colours? The Sydney Opera House was illuminated with blue and white lights to denote the Israeli flag. How utterly alarming that some humans count and others don’t. Has Australia lost its moral compass? Since when do we praise Occupiers for brutal oppression?

A few pages of the Torah, Bible and Qur’an must have been ripped out along the path of history because why else would religions be invented if not for the betterment of human beings? Religion is the root cause of this chaotic mess in the Middle East. Yes, it’s now geo-political-power-money-dominance but without the basis of religion would this have eventuated? The division that religion causes seems to far outweigh any cohesion of community and humanity.

Chanting Allah Akbar on the streets in protest does not help. Saying hateful things about Jews does not help. Having Ben-Gvir and Netanyahu inciting hatred and division with their salient hatred of the Palestinians does not help. Having Israel wishing to take all of Palestine does not help either themselves or the Palestinians. When will the few at the top stop making decisions that pulls the rest of humanity into hell.

The suffering masses can only withstand so much and if there is no hope then there is nothing to lose. This was evident in the last few days where the Palestinians have waited for over seven decades for the rest of the world to notice their immense and ongoing suffering under Occupation. Their actions of kidnap and murder cannot be condoned but it surely can be understood in the context of their plight. A plight that we would not be able to withstand either.

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