We in Gaza are literally dying every day, every minute, every second. Our lives have been turned upside down since October 7, and now only revolve around our most basic needs. Where can we find water? Is there any aid coming in? Where do we go to collect it? Do we get flour today from Salah al-Din Street or Al-Rashid Street? Have the tanks withdrawn from this area or are they still there? Can I go to my house to inspect it? Is it safe to gather my children’s clothes from their rooms?
The fear that dominates me now is the fear of becoming normalized to this reality. That fear extends to the continued and shameful silence of foreign governments to our suffering. But it’s not only them: the absence of the Palestinian government — or perhaps two different governments — and the Palestinian parties is deafening.
I do not know anymore, or perhaps I cannot know, who is to blame for our suffering. Certainly, the main cause is the Israeli government. But we are beginning to wonder: Has the world agreed with Israel to eliminate us? Is Hamas cooperating with Israel? Where is the Palestinian Authority? Why have Israel and Hamas not yet reached any kind of solution? Are American, Qatari, and Egyptian mediations not enough?
Does the Hamas government or the Palestinian Authority have answers to our daily questions? Do they know how we can meet our basic needs? Our dignity and our lives are being violated daily, and no one is providing us with help — do they know, but just don’t care?
This is Settler Colonialism and Apartheid. I agree that the war shouldn’t have been started. The Zionists Leadership pre '48 should’ve accepted a Unified Binational State that was secular and had equal rights for both Israelis and Palestinians.
The The Concept of Transfer 1882-1948 in Zionist thought and the displacement of Palestinians since the 1920s culminated into a full-fledged ethnic cleansing campaign in 1948. Plan Dalet with Details of Plan C (May 1946) and Plan D (March 1948) Partition and later the Two-State Solution have been wielded by Israel to covet and annex as much Palestinian land as possible with the least amount of Palestinians.
Before 1948, Palestinian Leadership repeatedly advocated for a Unitary Binational State for decades: Palestinian Arab Congress advocating for Unified State 1928, Arab Higher Committee advocating for Unified State 1937, Arab League advocating for Unified State 1948
After the founding of Israel, the Two-State Solutions were utilized to further annex the Palestinian Occupied Territories and enact military control over Palestinians while denying them human and civil rights. Despite this, both Fatah and later Hamas have accepted a Two-State Solution on the 1967 borders, with the two most important factors being the Right of Return of Palestinian refugees and an end to the permanent occupation. This is apartheid.
Oslo Accords MEE, NYT, Haaretz, AJ
History of peace process
Hamas began twenty years into the occupation during the first Intifada, with the goal of ending the occupation. Collective punishment has been a deliberate Israeli tactic for decades with the Dahiya doctrine. Violence such as suicide bombings and rockets escalated in response to Israeli enforcement of the occupation and apartheid.
What Is Hamas? - Council on Foreign Relations
What Does Hamas Actually Want? - NY Mag
Hamas Election - Snopes
Hamas 1988 Charter and Revised 2017 Charter
The 1988 Charter, which is certainly unreasonable in its fundamentalism with Sharia Law and is antisemitic, does not call for the extermination of all Jewish People. The 2017 Revised charter accepts a Two-State Solution of the 1967 Borders. Check Article 7 and 13 of the 1988 Charter to see yourself, compare it to Article 20 and 24-26 in the revised charter
The slogan From the River to the Sea is about Palestinian liberation that started in the 60s by the PLO for a democratic secular state, not Genocide. The Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad in 1966 maybe, but he’s not Palestinian.
When it comes to human shields, the only independent verification back in 2014 (Amnesty link) is of Weapons (not rockets) hidden at a vacant school, situated btwn 2 UNRWA schools housing displaced people, by a Palestinian armed group.
The Guardian journalists had encountered a couple individuals in 2014 too.
HRW on Laws-of-War Violations 2009
Amnesty on Hamas War Crimes 2023
Yet none of those come remotely close to making hospitals and schools bombing targets. Even if all the IDF claims were true, that does not exempt those hospitals and schools as protected under international law.
Additionally, let’s look at how the IDF uses Human Shields including Children (2013 Report)