Palestine will be Free.

In order for me to write poetry that isn’t political, 

I must listen to the birds

And in order to here the birds

The warplanes must be silent. 

- Marwan Makhoul 

Palestine. It has been over a month into this brutal assault, over 25 000 tonnes of explosives - equivalent to two nuclear bombs - have so far rained down on the Levant. At the time of writing, over 11 000 killed, almost half of them children. Palestine has now lost more children than Britain during the entirety of the Blitz. By the time you finish reading this another child will have been killed. A graveyard of Fallen Angels. The smallest coffins are always the heaviest. 

How many civilians, how many refugees, how many children need to die until we finally say, enough is enough?

Our own Parliament has rejected calls for a ceasefire, the Leader of the Opposition, a Human Rights Barrister, forcing his own Party to vote against the calls to stop more innocent bloodshed from being spilled, and to allow desperate humanitarian aid to a devastated refugee-civilian population. What kind of person votes no to a damn ceasefire? 

Across the pond, the United States Congress expelled the only Palestinian-American Representative, who pleaded on the Senate Floor to end the bloodshed of her people, while also acknowledging the loss of Jewish citizens, demonstrating an understanding that the Israeli occupation and ongoing violence does not keep Jewish people safe. Her response was not met with dignity or humanity, but with calls of antisemitism and being a terrorist-sympathiser. Meanwhile the very same colleagues are profiting from the arms deals causing this massacre and political donors who benefit from a colonial state in the Middle East. 

In the midst of this moral deprivation exhibited by our world leaders, there remains some hope. Across the world, the reality of the Palestinian experience has been exposed for all to see, and we have met their struggle with a rallying cry for freedom. From rural villages in the Scottish Shetlands to our Million March on the Streets of London. With our Jewish siblings who blockaded the gates to the White House and Indigenous groups who delayed cargo ships of weaponry heading to Israel. We, the people, are taking the necessary action our ‘Leaders’ refuse to. We are shouting for change, in every city, in every country, in all corners of this world, in our hundreds, in our millions, we are all Palestinian. 

The Crisis in Gaza

The relentless bombardment of Gaza in the first two weeks alone, has seen more destructive power than the US dropped on Afghanistan in an entire year. The Israeli Defence Force Spokesperson said himself: “The emphasis [during this operation] is on damage and not accuracy.” To wipe Palestine off the face of this earth once and for all. 

This destructive strategy came about with the Dahiya Doctrine during the 2006 Lebanon-Israel War. Its underlying principle utilises disproportionate attacks to create devastating impact on targets, including against civilian structures and infrastructure. 

The United Nations have stated that; half of the housing in Gaza as a result has been destroyed or damaged, the homes of over a million people. The entirety of Gaza’s public system has been reduced to rubble, 289 schools, 135 healthcare facilities, 73 Churches, Synagogues and Mosques, 53 ambulances, 11 bakeries and most recently the Chambers of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Entire neighbourhoods and communities just gone. 

The ongoing siege is creating one of the largest refugee migrations in the world, with millions of Palestinians being forced towards the Sinai Desert. A second Nakba. The depletion of viable drinking water and sanitation is fuelling the spread of infectious diseases. The World Health Organisation has begun to report the first deaths from mass starvation and dehydration in Gaza, with over 35 000 cases of diarrhoea and 55 000 cases of respiratory infections. Gaza has over 50 000 pregnant women and 337 000 children under the age of 5. 

Israel has murdered over 100 United Nations staff, the highest number of aid workers in a conflict - ever - those who dedicated their lives for the benefit of others, and over 51 journalists for showing us the true unfiltered horrors taking place on the ground. Who without, we would not be able to see the reality of this senseless bloodshed.

The World Watches On 

Experts state that Israel has broken over 30 UN Security Council and 45 UN Human Rights Council Resolutions. Scholars of Holocaust and Genocide studies have recognised and have warned of an imminent genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza. 

This does not sound like actions to protect one’s nation and fellow countrymen, but about cementing Israel’s legitimacy in their settler-terrorism, occupation and apartheid regime. Where Western Nations, the United Kingdom’s Balfour Declaration and the United States of America’s weapons deals have created, maintained, and operationalised its brutality. That is why our own media coverage is so hostile towards the Palestinian plight. Our governments support this regime, they benefit financially and politically from it, and they care little as to how many Palestinians have to suffer and die for it to succeed. 

We all have a right to live together in the Holy Land of the Levant, but if your safety requires the occupation, imprisonment and oppression of another you do not have safety and you never will. Everything you have and represent is inherently violent, and will be maintained through systems of violence and injustice. You have a fenced enclosure in occupied territory, you guard the gates and you carry the key. You cannot build a holy land for your children on the mass graves of other children. 

Currently the IDF have occupied the Al-Shifa Hospital, one of the largest remaining refugee bastions in what is a devastated battleground, harbouring over 3 000 vulnerable Palestinians, 650 patients, 100 of them in critical condition, including premature babies and cancer patients. The Chief Director of the Hospital has just announced all those in the ICU Ward have died. The Israeli media showcased their humanitarian response for the world to see. They claim that they: 

• Have provided relief aid, labelled ‘MEDICINE’ in English. Despite Israelis speaking Hebrew, and the Palestinians Arabic. No this is not a skit. 
• Have discovered a room where Hamas held hostages at the Hospital, evidenced by a list of names of Israeli prisoners in Arabic. The Arabic on the list did not contain names, but days, it was a calendar. 
• Have confiscated Hamas weapons stashed in the Hospital’s MRI room. Storing assault rifles and bombs next to a giant magnet is sound tactical advice. 
• Have shared a video of a Palestinian nurse at the hospital claiming ‘Hamas is not letting them leave.’ The woman is confirmed not to be a nurse, or even Palestinian, but a paid Israeli influencer. 
• Have supplied incubators for the premature children in the ICU, but knowing full well the actual issue was the need for fuel needed to run the equipment. Israel only offered enough fuel to power the hospital for an hour. All of those babies have since died. 
• Have claimed that Hamas misfired a rocket at the Al-Ahli Hospital resulting in the deaths of hundreds of refugees, largely agreed by most media channels. The New York Times has now come out to say it was more likely than not, done by Israel. What a surprise. They literally also admitted it. Twice. 

All of these examples were collected IN ONE DAY. And every single one of them ran the headlines on CNN, Fox, Sky and the BBC. 

We are all witnesses to the now unmasked terror of genocide. Whether we choose to close our eyes or not, we will all answer for our action, or inaction when the time comes.

The Call 

Have you ever wondered to yourself what you would do in history’s most pivotal moments? 

When Martin Luther King was marching through Selma with the simplest of dreams, for white and black children to be able to go to school, together. When the Allied ships landed ashore on Norman beaches on D-Day, marching through mainland Europe to stop the atrocities that were the Nazi Holocaust. The 27 long years of injustice Nelson Mandela faced with a smile on Robben Island, with a mission to end apartheid for his people. 

Well, wonder no further, it is what you are doing right now. 

Your silence will be studied by your children, and your children’s children, for generations to come. They will know of this atrocity, and they will know where you stood. You cannot opt in and out of politics when it suits you, it is a crucial part of who you are, even your silence is a stance, you may have the privilege of not having to speak out, but those around you have no choice. This is their struggle, as well as it is your own. Even if you cannot see it yet. 

We need to fight for change, from the smallest daily injustices to the world’s largest and most cruel. Our society is an outcome wrought by all of our collective choices. We fight so that one day we need not fight again. Even if that means living a life devoid of peace, whether we wish it or not - that is our duty, we are honour-bound as human beings. 

And the world cannot ignore us any longer. We are too big. We yield the power and they fear us united as we stand. But we cannot just take to the streets anymore. We must raise the bar, civil disobedience, boycotts and sit-ins are needed. Disruption with a clear message. We need to shut the machine down and dismantle the systems of oppression and genocide. We need to show them just how powerful we are. That is the only way we strive towards a peaceful resolution. 

All systems of oppression reinforce one another, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, and no injustice can be fought in isolation. It requires coalitions, togetherness and solidarity. Because once we began the dialogue on Palestine, it amplified movements for Congo, for Sudan, for Tigray, the Sami people, indigenous groups across the globe and all of the rest. Freedom is irresistible and we are not free until they all are. 

Those martyred Palestinians, the fallen angels will not die in vain, I refuse it. For they had no freedom in life, but they will free us with their deaths. Those risen angels are looking over us as we continue to push on towards a better, brighter world. I pray the children who remain will be alive to see it. 

Palestinians do not need to earn their liberation, they have a right to it, where they can live freely in peace and harmony with their neighbours. We need to lift the trade embargo, and open Palestine to the world again. We need an immediate cease to the colonisation of the West Bank by settlers, to give back land illegally taken, and to return to the internationally agreed borders of 1967. 

The Israeli government must answer for their war crimes. For all hostages, Israeli and Palestinian to be released. For desperate humanitarian aid be let in and to save as many civilians as we can. For justice and for liberation. Because it is only then, where we can truly move forward, to heal through generational trauma and pain, and strive towards building a truly blessed Holy Land, where not only Jews, Christians and Muslims live together in peace, harmony and brotherhood, but people of all different creeds, cultures and beliefs. Because liberation for one, is the collective liberation, the collective freedom of us all. 

The cause of Palestine is the cause of humanity. Their liberation is what we are all searching and fighting for, when they rise, we all rise. We are not freeing Palestine. Palestine is freeing us. I look forward to standing with you all this Saturday, and every Saturday until we have that freedom. By the Grace of God, and all that is Holy, from the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free. 

I wish children didn’t die. 

I wish they would be temporarily elevated to the skies until the war ends. 

Then they would return home safe, and when their parents would ask them: ‘where are you?’

They would say: ‘we were playing in the clouds.’ 

- Ghassan Kanfani