Dying in Silence
The Siege and War on Gaza and the complete media blackout
How many times must Palestinians wake up to the death of their people in Gaza? How many times must children and homes and schools be bombed under the guise of “protecting democracy”? On August 5th, the people of Gaza faced their trauma once again as the Israeli Occupation force (IOF) struck a residential building, unprovoked, killing 7 including a 5 year-old child and injuring 44 civilians thus far. In the subsequent days that have followed, 10 children have been murdered, 44 adults have been martyred, and countless more have had their lives forever changed.
The recent murder of Palestinian civilians happened during Israeli’s “Breaking Dawn” operation to kill a “senior militant leader”. However, no agenda had been sit by said “leader”, nor had any action had ever taken place by said “leader” for Israel to initiate a violent massacre on a Residential building. When Palestinians turn to Mass Media, we see the violence of our people taking place in the third person, never a word written by Palestinians only speaking of us as casual bystanders in our own murders.
The Hamas formation as a terrorist organization is the primary reason why the Gaza crisis is so unheard of. Yet, there are over two million civilians suffering each day; their struggles are often normalized to “collateral”, something to be expected. But there is nothing “normal” about seeing your family die or community destroyed. The situation between Gaza and Israel has led to generations of trauma in which children there feel no escape. Their lives an ever moving game of political chess, in which they are always the pawns.
By shaping the narrative around Hamas, Palestinians are removed from any discussions about how this conflict has impacted their lives, their families, and their communities.
This week, in fact, Gaza has been cut off from fuel as Israel stopped shipments into the occupied territories - leaving hospitals, sanitation infrastructure, and even homes and schools in peril. Gaza is only allowed to have 12-hours of electricity anyways. Furthermore, 80% of those killed by Israel are civilians, and Gaza is now uninhabitable due to this destruction. Gaza’s power plant was destroyed in 2020 and there is limited access to clean water. Without Palestinian voices in media, it is also forgotten that much of the resistance for Palestinian human rights are, in fact, Palestinians fighting for their right to an equal and just future.
It is worth noting that for Palestinians, the war began in 1948, not 1967 as the media claims. This is when over 700,000 Palestinians were exiled from their homes, many of them/ their descendants now refugees in Gaza, Syria, and Lebanon. Since 1967, when Hamas was created, the West Bank and Gaza are still under Israeli military control: with over 250 illegal settlements and 700+ checkpoints.
Israel’s oppression of Palestinian citizens in the occupied West Bank and Gaza has worsened over time. The continued bombing of Gaza, land seizures, military occupation, ethnic cleansing, and the illegal establishment of settlements mirrors South African Apartheid.
For Jewish Israelis and Palestinians living in the same area, the segregation is abundantly clear. Settlers in the West Bank are governed by civil law, while Palestinians are governed by military law. Various acts committed by the military system violate the UN Apartheid Convention: preventing Palestinians from coming home, denying the right to movement, persecution to Palestinians in opposition to the occupation, and severe deprivation of human rights.
In Gaza, the open-air prison created by Israeli Policy, has set up a system of systematic destruction and desensitization to dwindling equality. By bombing and damaging Gaza’s farmland, schools, and hospital, Gaza has been given the perfect formula to fail. Of the two million civilians in Gaza, more than half are children which experience the brunt of this crisis. Only 1/4 of the children obtain early-childhood education, 76% suffer from vitamin deficits, and 2.4% of children die under 5 (compared to .06% in the US). Due to the continued bombing of Gaza, 91% of children suffer from PTSD - unlikely that resolution will ever heal them as the threat of destruction is always around the corner due to the occupation.
The issue of violence stems from the lack of recognition of human rights in all cases. It is easy to see that there is not a single moment in the life of Palestinian whose life is not disrupted by institutionalized violence. It may take some work, but Palestinians and Israelis must come to a peaceful solution in which human rights are guaranteed. I hope to see a day in which the children of Gaza can see freedom beyond the walls and bombings.