My family is trapped in Gaza. They’re not the ‘other team’
A Palestinian child injured in Israeli air raids, Oct. 18, 2023, in Khan Yunis. Photo by Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images
Yousef Bashir October 19, 2023
I live hour to hour, trying to make sure I keep hearing from my mother and brother in Gaza. I am trying to keep my sanity in order to help them keep theirs.
As I write this piece, my people in Gaza are besieged. There is no food, no bomb shelter to keep them safe, and Gazans have started to drink seawater out of desperate thirst.
During such an unprecedented effort to dehumanize Palestinians, I am reminded of my father’s unwavering commitment to his land, to his family and to the Palestinian quest for statehood. I remember that I am not with the “other team,” nor am I a “child of darkness.”
I am a child of Abraham, I am a child of peace and I am a child of Palestine. And it is clear that our lives matter less than others.
Where was the international outcry when Israeli soldiers shot and killed beloved Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh? When they shot and killed Eyad al-Hallaq, a young man who was unarmed and developmentally disabled? When violent extremist settlers set Huwara ablaze? During the last year, when more West Bank Palestinian children have been killed than in any other year, with more than one child killed per week? Where were the tears from Secretary of State Antony Blinken then?
Every Palestinian living in the West Bank and Gaza was born into Israeli oppression; born to pass through Israeli checkpoints, to ask for Israel’s permission to travel, to build, to plant, to exist.
Even though I have been free in the U.S. for the last 17 years and my family is still in Gaza, it is they who help me keep my faith in humanity. It is they who remind me of who I am, of my heritage and of my roots. They are the most resilient, strong, and passionate people I will ever come to know.
I wish from the bottom of my heart to mourn the loss of innocent lives everywhere. But I have been busy mourning since the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000. My heart is occupied grieving the loss of every Sara, Ismail, Mohammed, Amina, Ali and all the other Palestinians lost to Israeli violence. Israel’s army and Israeli settlers have destroyed countless Palestinian lives over the years, with no recourse for justice and no foreign secretaries of state shedding tears over their deaths.
Even though I was shot by an Israeli soldier, our home in Gaza destroyed, our farms demolished and our animals killed, my parents always taught me to rise above their oppression and firmly believe in peace and co-existence. They incessantly argued that in doing so, we would preserve our humanity and sanity.
I have watched my people give everything they have to gain their independent state and human rights, and I have watched them get turned away on each occasion. I watched Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas resort to diplomatic action against Israel’s oppression of my people by seeking recognition from international bodies and organizations. I have watched my people resort to violence; I have watched my people use words. Even when Israel somehow mustered up a governing coalition that included an Arab-Israeli Islamist party in 2021, the far-right factions in Israel were relentless in their efforts to bring that government down, only 18 months after its inception.
But sadly, I have watched the state of Israel, with clear U.S. backing, shoot, injure, torture and kill Palestinians without consequences. The current bombardment of Gaza is no different.
After countless failed attempts to eradicate and weaken Hamas, it is time for political solutions. What does Israel plan to do about the Palestinians, including the right of return for millions of refugees, the right to worship in east Jerusalem and the establishment of a Palestinian state that lives in peace, security and dignity. If Israel and the U.S. are not prepared to answer these legitimate questions, there is no room to cast judgment on how Palestinians should achieve independence. I get the distinct impression that Biden and other world leaders would prefer the Palestinians totally surrender and bow to Israel’s oppression without resistance.
The quest for an independent state of Palestine will never cease. The ideas of true freedom and equality will never die, for they live in every Palestinian heart. Fortunately, despite years of occupation, the living Palestinian hearts outnumber the dead.
For the sake of our children and Israel’s children, it is time to treat the Palestinian people with the dignity and respect they deserve. It is time for the world to accept that without answering the Palestinian question there will never be true peace in the region. Anything short of that will never bring about security for anyone, regardless of their political or ideological affiliation.
Over the last few days, countless Americans, including many who are Jewish, reached out to me to express their support and prayers to my family and everyone in Gaza. They deserve so much more from the U.S. government.
I am convinced that sooner or later, the good American people will not allow this inhumane treatment of the Palestinian people to continue to be carried out using their tax dollars and military arsenal, backed by thwarted principles of equality, liberty and justice for all.
In the meantime, I will keep calling my mother and brother in Gaza. I will keep praying that they survive this brutal bombing campaign, because I know that their lives are just as valuable as anyone else’s.
To contact the author, email [email protected].
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