Adji Ngathe kebe
I’ve been wanting to write about Palestine since October 7, 2023. I studied journalism and part of the reason I lost interest in the field was witnessing how the American media portrayed events. I knew to be a successful journalist, I would have to swallow a certain radical aspect of myself. I saw how Black people murdered by cops, were painted as miscreants instead of victims. They were portrayed as deserving of state violence. I watched as the words white supremacy were stricken out of my essays by college professors who were supposed to teach me about journalistic integrity. I became disillusioned with journalism as it is often a tool of propaganda. I learned the media was not a mirror held against the state, but rather a tool the state uses to keep the masses in line.
Palestine has a very rich culture and history. Despite, efforts to erase Palestinians and their roots, its existence has been traced back to ancient Egypt – when it was referred to as Peleset. Peleset, or Palestine, the land has seen many a shifts in rulers from the Assyrian and Nabataean, to the Persians, Roman, and most recently Ottomans. The Ottomans ruled Palestine from 1516 to 1917. Approximately 400 years. In 1516, Yavuz Sultan Selim, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire ambushed Palestine with an Army. They defeated the current rulers at the time. Their origins were that of freed slaves, who earned their freedom, through training in Islamic sciences and laws, martial arts, and court etiquette. Over time this governing body of freed slaves turned into Mamluk Sultanates—governing dynasties in Egypt. They were the rulers of Palestine until 1516, when they lost to the Ottomans and had to forfeit the strip of land between the Jordan River and the Dead Sea.
Upon research, the time between 1516 and 1917 was considered mostly peaceful. Jews, Muslims and Christians lived peacefully in the territories known as Palestine. In fact Jaffa gate in Jerusalem has the inscription “There is no God but Allah, and Abraham is his Friend.” An acknowledgement of the Abrahamic religions and their connectivity. The inhabitants of Palestine at the time didn’t feel subjugated by Ottoman rule. They felt as if their ethnic differences were respected and wasn’t used as a means of subjugation. This feeling changed when the British took over.
In 1917 during World War I, the British Forces entered
Palestine and within a year, they defeated the Ottoman Forces in the Battle of Megiddo in 1918. Palestine was occupied by the British forces until 1920. A British Civil Administration was established by the Allied powers to create a solution for Palestine. They placed Palestine under British Mandate until it could become an independent nation. However, there was much pressure from European Zionists, who wanted Palestine as a homeland for Jewish people.
On November 02, 1917, the British responded to the Zionist demands by establishing the Balfour Declaration. According to Arij.org
Arthur Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary at the time, handed a letter to Lord Rothschild (a leader of the British Jewish community) for transmission to the Zionist Federation (a private Zionist organization), that declared the support of His Majesty's Government to the Zionists' plans of establishing a Jewish 'national home' in Palestine, 'with the condition that nothing be done which might prejudice the rights of existing communities there'.
This declaration opened the gates for an influx of Jewish European settlers moving into Palestine. Soon, there would be conflict between the inhabitants of Palestine and the Jewish settlers. The Palestinians were experiencing violence from both British soldiers and Jewish settlers from Europe.
The Palestinians rejected the British mandate as they were actively being displaced from their land. On November 29, 1947, the United Nations motioned the Partition Plan of Palestine, which would divide Palestine into two states. One for the European Jewish settlers and one for the Palestinians. However, the partition was not fair. The majority of the land, an overwhelming 57%, would belong to European Jewish settlers who had no ties to the land. The Palestinians revolted. They felt it was unfair. They knew they were losing their land. The plan was never implemented. However, a day before the British withdrew their troops from Palestine, the Jewish settlers attacked the Palestinians. They had strong militias empowered by the Zionists. They also had money and military weaponry given by the British government and the United States. They displaced over 700,000 and slaughtered over 15,000 Palestinians. It became known as Al Nakba, The Catastrophe. Israel would go on to declare itself a state on May 14, 1948 over the dead bodies of the Palestinians.
War broke immediately after the declaration between the newly formed Israel and its neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. The war ended a year later, but the injustices the Palestinians have endured has not. Palestine was divided up into the Israeli state, Gaza strip, and the West Bank. The majority of the land was seized by the Israeli government. Multiple check points were established between Gaza and the West Bank, limiting the amount of food, supplies, and fuel that went into Gaza.
October 7, 2023
On October 7, 2023 members of Hamas, a primary governing body in the Gaza strip since 2007, launched an attacked on Southern Israel. Hamas was funded by the Israeli government to defeat the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Bejamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, did not want a Palestinian State to exist. He wanted to weaken Palestinian self-determination. According to the Israeli government around 1,200 Israeli’s were killed and over 200 were captured as hostages that day in October. There have been reports by survivors of the attack who claim the mass casualties was due to the IDF (Israel Defense Forces). According to this interview of a few survivors by Cradle.com
A survivor from the Palestinian resistance offensive on Israeli settlements on 7 October says the Israeli army is “undoubtedly” responsible for killing many of their civilians. “They eliminated everyone, including the hostages, because there was very, very heavy crossfire,” 44-year-old mother of three Yasmin Porat told the Haboker Hazeh radio program on Israeli Kan radio last week.
As a result of this attack by Hamas, the state of Israel has been bombing the civilians of Gaza as a form of punishment, which is illegal. According to reporting by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, The Israeli government has bombed over 12,000 civilians in the Gaza Strip. They have dropped about 22 pounds of explosives, which is approximately two nuclear bombs. It is estimated the Israeli government has dropped more bombs on the Gaza Strip, than the United States dropped on both Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
It didn’t start on October 7, 2023.
This is a common statement repeated on many social media posts. It is neither hyperbolic nor a lie. It gave me the courage to research heavily into the current conflict. Since Al Nakba of 1948 over 418 Palestinian villages have been demolished. Millions of Palestinians have been displaced, forcibly removed from their homes. They have been massacred by the millions and thrown in jails without any type of due process. It is estimated one in five Palestinians have been arrested. When striated between Palestinian men, it’s two in every five. Israel is known for imprisoning Palestinian children as well. Amnesty International has reported horrific cases of torture of Palestinians currently imprisoned by the Israeli government.
There have been cries, marches, and mobilized action for a ceasefire. Among the battalion of Pro-Israel propaganda, there are many using their voices and platforms to report the current situation in Gaza. It is difficult to see the ample videos of dismembered bodies, blood smearing streets, homes, hospitals. There are too many videos of men digging in the rubble and searching for survivors. It has been difficult to watch as doctors, children, and regular civilians who’ve become reporters and journalist begging the international community for help. Israel is losing the propaganda war as there’s simply too much evidence. We live in the age of social media and real time videos of bombings and missiles cannot be doctored amid crisis. No matter the lies told, it is apparent who the aggressor is.
Israeli-American, Holocaust Scholar Omer Bartov, a leading scholar in genocide, has stated the assault on the Gazan’s as a result of the aftermath of October 7, is genocide. He states, the language of the Israeli government, the limiting of food, water, fuel, as well as the disproportionate level of violence are all indicators of genocidal intent. We can’t deny what is clearly in front of us and to do so is a monumental act of cowardice. We have to be brave enough to tell the truth. The Palestinians are being [genocided ] by the Israeli government. There is ample evidence to corroborate accusations of genocidal intent. I’ve been disgusted watching as the United Nations is powerless to do anything and the government with the most power, the United States, has been complicit and almost gleeful to participate in the genocide of a group of people.
We can’t deny what is clearly in front of us and to do so is a monumental act of cowardice
This of course is not surprising studying the history of the United States. After all, this country is only possible because of the genocide of Native Americans. Perhaps we were naïve in thinking America as a whole would do better, but I can’t bear being an unwilling participant in someone else’s slaughter. American citizens have become complicit to genocide as our tax dollars make the genocide of the Palestinians possible. The least we can do is speak about Palestinians and the grave injustice happening to them. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. It is only a matter of time. A time I pray, the Palestinians continue to have.
