What if we were all Palestinians?
Different victimised peoples of the world are entitled to different degrees of solidarity... Or so it seems.
I think everyone is well aware by now of all the violence and atrocities going on in Gaza.
Plenty of demonstrations of sympathy and solidarity with the Palestinian people who have had their homes destroyed, who have seen their loved ones perish at the ends of a relentless military attack, and whose subsistence, difficult as it already was, became even more difficult, virtually impossible. And rightly so.
I think it is safe to say that, regardless of whatever side one might take in the conflict, the innocent people who have done nothing wrong and who certainly didn’t deserve the brutality of the punishment going on in the region, are indeed some of the greatest victims of the war. It’s even common place to make such a statement.
Once again, and similar - to a certain degree - to what we have witnessed during the first weeks of the invasion of Ukraine, were the multitude of displays of solidarity towards the defenceless population who have been caught in the line of fire.
Moreover, many heated discussions have been started and many inflamed speeches have been heard about the legitimacy, or lack thereof, of the Israeli military action and even on the legitimacy of the state of Israel itself.
I am not here to discuss such topics. Particularly because I myself do not have enough knowledge of the matter to make any judgement on the legitimacy of whichever state. What I propose to analyse is the allocation of mass public outrage/empathy/solidarity.
So let’s unpack this…
One of the main points of the pro-Palestinian side (and pro-Ukrainian, for that matter) is the illegitimacy of the methods which they deem as barbaric, since they involve the killing of civilians and bombing of non-military urban infrastructure. Fair enough. However, this begs the question:
Where were those bleeding heart empaths when NATO carpet-bombed Serbia in the 1990’s?!
Or even still Where is the public outrage when white South African Boers get murdered in cold blood and the government of the country not only allows it, even publicly condones it?! I mean, isn’t that barbaric as well? Even borderline genocidal?
Another of the main points of the pro-Palestinian side is that the Israeli settlers were appropriating land which rightfully belongs to the Palestinians. Understandable. But then again, when can we see such indignation for the forced settlement of non-europeans in European towns at the expense of the European taxpayer, and at the same time depriving Europeans from having an affordable place to live?!
And back on the brutality note, massive outrage was seen once news of raping and pillaging started emerging from the Eastern Ukraine and when images of dismembered bodies and wounded children started surfacing from the streets of Gaza. All of that outrage is, I must reiterate, understandable and 100% valid. But, it still begs the question: Was the violence in Ukraine and Gaza so brutal that it depleted the western people and media’s empathy reserves, to the point that, the children who got stabbed in broad day light in the streets of Dublin, or in a playground in France (this incident was even caught on camera) deserve no such sympathy?!
Let me reiterate, I fully acknowledge and do not invalidate the suffering of the innocent Palestinians who keep on being massacred. The same goes respect and acknowledgement also goes to the people in Ukraine, by the way, who have seen their country ravaged by war for the better part of 2 years.
But all this outrage and outcry and empathy risks becoming increasingly less relevant for people who, like me, see the relentless attack and coordinated efforts to destroy the people of Europe.
Last but not least, here’s a rhetorical question:
What if we were all Palestinians?
Would the children stabbed in the streets of Dublin and playgrounds in France finally get some much deserved solidarity?
Would the hundreds of sexually exploited young girls in Britain, France, Germany and Sweden finally get some, much deserved, justice?
Would the inadmissibly incompetent and highly detrimental decision making of multiple governments around the old continent be, finally, held up under some much needed scrutiny?
Thank you once again, if you managed to make it this far. Let us hope for a more peaceful future and for more justice and respect. Not just for certain people, but for all people!