Palestinian Genocide
21st Century Invasion
They bombed us from the air just as we were breaking the fast for Ramadan – they knew we would all be in our homes. We had nothing. Everything had been taken from us. My sister died from heat exhaustion in the refugee camp. My mother would sit by her grave every day, lost in grief.
Toughness found fertile soil in the hearts of Palestinians.
The grains of resistance embedded themselves in their skin.
Endurance evolved as a hallmark of refugee society.
But the price they paid was the subduing of tender vulnerability.
They learned to celebrate martyrdom.
Only martyrdom offered freedom.
Only in death were they invulnerable to Israel.
Susan Abulhawa, 2010
More often than not, the invasion of Palestine by Israel is referred to as a war. The term war connotes that both parties have a fairly equal amount of resources, ammunition and financial stability in their conflict against each other, which is not the case in Palestine.
Referred to as the Nakba, in 1948, the Israeli military destroyed over 530 Palestinian villages. More than 13,000 Palestinian civilians were killed and 75,000 were left stateless. Since then, Palestinians have continued to be driven out of their land by means of illegal settlements and discrimination.
Aside from the robbery and demolition of homes, Israel also subjects Palestinians to a variety of human rights violations. This happens mostly in the West Bank and Gaza, some of the only remaining Palestinian territories in which civilians are beaten, segregated, bombed, illegally imprisoned, forcibly displaced and even killed.
Many would frame the Israeli Apartheid as an ethnic and racist issue. While it does also fit these classifications, the attacks are also a form of Islamophobia. Jerusalem is home to some of the most sacred sites of all three Abrahamic religions. However, it is the Mosque of Al-Aqsa which is most commonly the target of Israel’s attacks in which live ammunition, rubber bullets, batons and tear gas are used to attack worshippers.
2022 itself has seen countless accounts of Palestinian suffering. In the month of Ramadan, the mosque of Al-Aqsa was attacked during the Friday prayer, and more than 320 Muslims were severely injured. Many succumbed to their injuries, passing away after suffering in medical centres. Today, over three-quarters of the Palestinian population is displaced. Through the unwavering support of the United States and the ever-convincing cover story of self-defence against ‘terrorists’, Israel has complete impunity for the atrocious acts committed regularly against men, women and children alike.