Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair
It is the small details that tell the story of Palestine and the genocide. This is what a friend relayed to me last week, as they explained the situation being lived in occupied Palestine, as the people endure the most obvious and well-documented genocide in human history.
From afar we read the details and numbers of killed and injured, see the images, hear the wails of pain and sit aghast at the suffering being forced upon the Palestinian people, in particular in Gaza. Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes? No one could cope walking an inch in the shoes of a Palestinian in Gaza, and yet cope is what Palestinians are forced to continue to do every second of every day.
In the occupied West Bank of Palestine, we have also witnessed the situation deteriorate rapidly for Palestinians, both before October 7th 2023 under the latest fascist apartheid government, and ever more so since.
(The story below is left without identifying detail as to protect identities)
My friend relayed the awful story of a young person, a child, under 18, that they had known since very young, who had been taken hostage this year as part of the occupation forces’ many violent raids on the occupied West Bank of Palestine. They were interred in one of the many detention centres within the apartheid state, held as a child hostage and without charge or trial along with dozens of other children and thousands of Palestinians. They were released after several months as a different young person. They were described as changed, quiet, hardened, severe and wanting retribution since their release. They would not say what had happened to them as a hostage, but people around them could guess, from the multiple reports of torture and killings under occupation ‘custody’.
They then made their decision and joined the armed resistance and were quickly assassinated by the overwhelming force of the occupation.
The journey of a child and young person in Palestine, so often repeated, forced upon them as a Hobson’s Choice by the apartheid they are forced to live under. This is not normal and yet we have been so exposed by the horror that most people would not even bat an eyelid at this, nor even blame the legitimate armed resistance of the Palestinian people. To me, this is why many still fail to fault the actual root and continued cause for the absolute need of the armed resistance under occupation.
The people of conscience in the world must continue to strengthen their resolve and move even closer in our steadfastness to the people of Palestine in their absolute hour of need. We are all they have. The situation will continue to deteriorate for the Palestinians, until the imperial and colonial mindset is shed, and the standard for human rights we apply to ourselves is also applied to the Palestinian people.
We all know the genocide could not have started without the Western establishments green light of ‘self-defence’ and their continued commitment to the ideals and supply of the apartheid state. We must break these links through our collective resistance on the streets in the west, on social media, through Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions and by following the lead of the Palestinian people.
We cannot stop.
