THE CHANTS AREN'T SUPPRESSED BY EXPLOSIONS

I have witnessed more hatred than my heart can tolerate. More grief than I can process. I have been exposed to years of pain and suppression in the past few weeks. If I talk about myself. But I can’t. Right now, it’s not important. Right now, it doesn’t matter. Because what I have felt in the past few days, it's not the fraction of what the Palestinians have gone through!

The horrors of suppression, the anxiety of losing one’s rightful home, the forever trauma of a troubled history! A war inherited and with it the loss of thousands. It makes me wonder, have we forgotten that a higher power will hold us accountable? Are we forgetting that there is a life after this one? One where we’ll have to answer for every single deed, where you can’t hide the atrocities and can’t justify them with your foreign policies. 

When Al-Aqsa was attacked, I waited for the thunders to struck and for the earth to crack open and swallow, I waited for the miracle. I cried on the night of the 27th and prayed for deliverance. The next day, the day after that. Do you know what was Allah’s answer? The courage of Palestinian’s. Their unshakable faith in freedom. The graves full of silence. 

I have been told that 50 years ago it was the same. I have been told that you’ll get used to it in the end and forget. That your anger will be saturated with time. You’ll lose interest and move on to another half fought fight. I can’t shake off the eventuality. What if next week today, I do move on? Because we are guilty of doing this in the past. For the people of Palestine, this is matter of life and death. It’s the cultural integrity they are so ferociously trying to preserve. It’s the past and their ancestral history that they are fighting to keep alive. They are doing this so that next-generation won’t forget the essence of Palestine.  

If you feel like quitting tomorrow or next week or next month, I really hope that you leave the fight knowing the truth. If after that you are asked about Israel, you know it’s a fascist apartheid regime. If you are asked about Palestine, you know their struggle as if it’s yours. 

That state sectioned violence is silenced by the chants of freedom. Against a fully armed and equipped military force, the brave people of Palestine have weaponised their voice. They are waging war with words. With slogans. With awareness. 

In the past few days, a lot of things became clear. With that clarity, I’m left with some distorted version of humanity. A half baked idea of freedom. Because what they fervently teach, what they forcefully upheld, the ideals of liberation, the chapters on liberty, the stories of emancipation all of it, it’s a lie, a hoax, a mockery of deliverance. Unless it’s not supporting their agenda, the concept is invalid. And freedom, absolute freedom, requires no one’s definition or permission. 

And the people of Palestine aren’t just numbers, they are breathing proof of what a nation can do when it decides against oppression.