Normalizing War Crimes
"Peace Agreements" can't exist on stolen land
Surrounded by towering walls of barbed wire, the people of Gaza live every day enclosed in what is essentially the world’s largest open-air prison. Since the illegal Israeli blockade on Gaza in June 2007, which happened for no other reason than Israel’s “security”, the humanitarian crisis has DETERIORATED. According to the United Nations, 38 % of Gazans live in poverty, almost three times higher than poverty rate in the United States; 54% of people ARE without access to food, 90 % without clean drinking water, and 66 % without access to live-saving medical care.
In the last few years, there has been an accelerated effort of normalization to obscure and legitimize Israeli crimes against Palestinians. Nations that were never at war forge “peace agreements,” while the Palestinian people are suffocated by a settler-colonialism and military occupation. Night raids have become increasingly popular. During COVID-19, this problem is made worse as families forcibly removed are forced to move into refugee camps or are unable to reach their families in other cities due to checkpoints and heightened lockdowns. The Israeli Army has been conducting night raids on Palestinian towns since 1967, either in hopes to disorient families while they attempt to demolish their homes or to dismantle their movements towards liberation and equality. Soldiers break down doors in the middle of the night for no other reason but to try and suppress the Palestinian spirit - little do they know our spirit is not going anywhere.
The day starts early for many Palestinians, communities of farmers who wake to care for fields of olive trees and dates. For them, the trees are symbols of resistance. Their roots deeply embedded: into the fabric of history and culture. Though, for hundreds of Palestinians they sometimes awake to their trees being burned by military forces - their livelihoods now ashes – in 2020, Israel burned 1,000 PALESTINIAN olive trees in the first three weeks of the harvest season. Agriculture is the largest sector in the Palestinian economy, informally employing 90 percent of Palestinians in the labor force, and for those in Gaza, provides lifesaving means for food.
For other Palestinians, and any person not Israeli, in ISRAELI-CONTROLLED cities like Jerusalem, they start the day differently, their lives filled with checkpoints, walls, patrols, and military posts which restrict their human right to movement. These checkpoints meant to dehumanize and disconnect the Palestinians to their land, while also “protecting” the illegal settlers colonizing their land. Since the 1967 war, over 600 armed checkpoints have been built, separating Palestinian cities from one another and from settlements. Palestinians have different license plates and IDs and can be denied entry through checkpoints for no reason; often times, this leads to Palestinians being unable to work, unable to reach sick loved ones, and unable to access their right to movement. DURING COVID, these checkpoints make it difficult to transport necessary medical equipment and aid from humanitarian organizations, as soldiers can dispose of aid and medicine whenever they choose. These checkpoints are essentially herding the cattle, Israel funneling Palestinians into lines of acceptance or rejection, monitoring their behavior as if they are animals.
With dwindling resources, a global pandemic, broken infrastructure, and depleted hospitals, Israel created the perfect trap to kill Palestinians.
Palestinian children face a similar process on their way to school. Each morning, Palestinian children awake in fear under the constant threat of armed soldiers parading their villages, wielding weapons of war (semi-automatic guns, tanks, etc.) pointed at twelve and thirteen-year-olds. In December of 2020, Ali Aalya, 15, was murdered by the IDF WHILE attending the peace protest outside the illegal outpost near the Kokhav Hashahar settlement, which was taking over the remaining land in his village. If Palestinians cannot protest their own Occupation, there will never be a way forward for peace. If we are gunned down for holding signs and throwing stones, there will never be peace.
For Palestinian Americans, like myself, our existence is a political statement. A constant protest and symbol of resistance that we exist, that our lives DO matter. Everywhere we look we have to be constantly reminded of the tremendous support of our oppressors. We must carry the burden of knowing no matter what we do, America will always side with Israel. Even the Biden Administration, has vowed to keep the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem – showing how many Democrats are “Liberal except Palestine”, which is not liberal or progressive at all.