The News cycle has been very heavy over the last month or so. My timeline has been flooded with anger, despair and helplessness in the form of emotive tweets and distressing videos of lifeless or grieving Palestinians. I go to bed some nights with a heaviness that can’t be described. It’s easy for us nowadays to switch news channels and just actively avoid such headlines

When you’re younger learning about many of the grave injustices that have happened in the world to date – i.e. apartheid regime in South Africa, the Rwandan genocide – even chattel slavery in the 1600s you wonder how people were able to live their everyday lives knowing such horrific events were going on. Why didn’t anyone do anything, you think to yourself. How was it able to go on for so long and get so bad? Well, viewing the events that are taking place in the West Bank at the moment, I think we have our answer.

A few things to note:

• This conflict didn’t just start in early October, it’s essentially one spanning over 70 years – many generations of Israelis and Palestinians have been involved. And sadly many Palestinians have grown up in this Apartheid system not knowing freedom.
• Advocating for Palestinians to be free from occupation/this apartheid system is NOT the same as supporting Hamas and its activities.

Someone rightly said on social media, that such events taking place in modern day is even more frightening since we can see them take place with our eyes but yet can’t do much to intervene or stop it. This is why people have continued to take to the streets and passionately right to their local politicians. Grassroots efforts will have a limited effect here – we need those at the top to speak out and be proactive in the name of peace.

Even as people now open their eyes and try to bravely speak out against what they see as injustice against humanity – they risk being villainised, trolled and even losing their jobs! It’s a blatant silencing tactic – hanging someone’s livelihood above their heads to keep their mouths shut. It’s quite ridiculous and shocking to be honest considering free speech is meant to be the beacon of the West.

For those with faith reading this, let’s put everyone affected in prayer – God can do what humans believe to be impossible. We’re instructed to call out injustice and protect our brothers and sisters across the world, regardless of creed or colour.

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For those wanting to educate themselves (and please do):

• The publisher, Haymarket Books is offering free ebooks on the history of Palestine here.
• The news outlet, Vox has an informative series around Palestine on YouTube.

*Photo by Ömer Yıldız on Unsplash