Many Palestinians and their supporters are done with explanations. They have no words left. When a live-streamed genocide can be debated for over eight months as to whether it really qualifies as such, there are no words left.
From Deir Yassin to Jenin, from Kafr Qasem to Sabra and Shatila, from Tel Zaatar to Rafah and Nusseirat, we know what a massacre looks like. It is an insult to play word games with us over whether Palestinians are really being murdered en masse at the altar of Israeli-US hegemony and dominance.
From Ansar to Sde Teiman, for decades Palestinians have been taken hostage by Israel and held without charge or trial, and brutally tortured and abused. We know what that looks like as well, most Palestinians have at least one family member that has been through the prison mill of either Israel or the surrounding complicit countries.
And enough of this hyper-focus on anti-Semitism. Yes it exists, and the danger is coming mostly from white supremacist fascist forces. But the constant demand that Palestinians prove that they are not racist against Jewish people, when their struggle is clearly against the Zionist settler colonialist project, has become a way to distract attention from the cruelty and brutality of ongoing Israeli war crimes.
We also need to address the underlying and deeply entrenched racism that has helped facilitate this genocide. The longevity of the “mass rape” story, despite being debunked repeatedly, has drawn back the curtain on the depth of anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab racism in Western societies.
The Zionist lobby seems to have decided from day one that this particular piece of “atrocity propaganda” would engage the most support and sympathy. This story keeps getting recycled and amplified in the West, partly because it taps into the centuries old Western distrust and stereotypes of “Arab men” – Arab men as bloodthirsty, violent, misogynistic and untrustworthy.
Professor Rudolph Ware has pointed out that this is an age-old tactic that was (and is still) used against the black community in the U.S., detailing how false rape allegations in the US often led to mass lynchings. He also talked about how the issue of “safety” is weaponized against people of colour, as we are now seeing on many university campuses.
So, please, do not watch Palestinian babies burn to death and then lecture those same people about how to resist and when to resist. Don’t wring your hands now about the Rafah and Nusseirat massacres if you are in any way complicit in allowing that trajectory to occur. Almost six months ago, Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac said during his Christmas message: “Your charity, your words of shock AFTER the genocide, won’t make a difference. Words of regret will not suffice for you. We will not accept your apology after the genocide…”.
Now is not the time (if one ever existed) for Western supporters to appoint themselves as the moral arbiters on what constitutes acceptable liberation tactics or to lecture Palestinians about “violence”. This can only serve to enable the current ongoing repression in Western countries against pro-Palestine advocates and their message.
In Canada, one example is the recent arrest and potential “hate charges” against Charlotte Kates from Samidoun, coupled with draconian restrictions on her freedom of expression. Many community groups including Canada Palestine Association, and other organizations like the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA), have rallied to challenge this outrage. The BCCLA stated clearly that they are “concerned that the (Criminal) Code is being weaponized to silence particular political speech, namely statements in support of the Palestinian liberation movement including the right to resist Israel’s occupation”.
Such criminalization often rests heavily on alleged or fabricated connections to group(s) on Canada’s “terrorist list”. Due to pressure from the Zionist lobby over 20 years ago, this list currently includes all of the Palestinian resistance groups and Hezbollah, and that same lobby is now working overtime to have Samidoun included as well.
At eight and a half months of endless brutality and genocide, we have no energy left to engage in long conversations, in which we are forced to repeatedly justify why Palestinians must and should resist with all means necessary (including armed struggle). We are even expected to justify why they have a right to exist at all, historically and in the future.
We will no longer march on the path of endless words with little or no return, words that “won’t make a difference”. The hypocrisy and double standards of the international “rules-based” order has been laid bare for all to see, and we count on the Palestinian resistance struggle to lead us forward.
By Marion Kawas
Cover photo Michael YC Tseng
Published in Al Mayadeen English: We will never stop advocating for Palestine! | Al Mayadeen English
