Writer: The author is a US citizen living in Ramallah, Palestine. Loor, Raya, and Sama are 3 young women from Gaza. Layan is a young woman living in al-Khalil, aka Hebron.
I don’t understand why they turned Gaza into a military base, my uncle says.
They shouldn’t teach their children to throw stones, my coworker replies.
Those people can’t be trusted to govern themselves, my brother adds.
Hamas isn’t helping, my friend tells me.
Israel is under attack, the media chimes in
We support Israel’s right to defend itself, declares the president I voted for
Soon Gaza will be demolished and the territory will be ours, an Israeli informs me
He has plans, he says, to build bars there, next to the beach
He does not describe his plans for the people currently living there
Except to say that terrorism must be destroyed at the root
The land must be cleansed
I suppose that’s why the IDF neutralized
The four demographic threats
Playing soccer on the beach
And in all of this conversation
In this swirl of angry words
I hear the deafening silence
Of 2 million missing voices
Why do we listen to so many politicians, journalists, opinionated bloggers, media correspondents
But not to the Gazans themselves?
My 8-year-old cousin is in the hospital, Loor writes to me.
Their whole family injured by the Israeli airstrike next door
Loor’s family have left their home
And they are running
To nowhere
Why doesn’t the world see us?, Raya posts.
Why does no one care?
Aren’t we human?
I haven’t heard from Sama
For 3 days, 72 hours,
When the ground invasion begins
I remind myself there is no electricity in northern Gaza
I fast because I don’t know what else to do
I pray I will not see her name on the ever growing list of the dead
Finally, a message from Layan: Sama is alive
She is with half her family – with her parents
Her siblings are elsewhere
This way, if Israel’s next surgical strike lands on their roof
They will not all die at once
She has no power – no electrical power, no political power, no financial power
The quietest voice of all
Ignored by a world that doesn’t care about the lives
Let alone the opinions
Of people like her.
Loor could tell my uncle exactly why
70 years of dispossession and oppression
Have given birth to rockets
Why 2 million people under siege
Dig tunnels to survive
Layan in al-Khalil
Could explain to my coworker
That the 5 year old detained by Israeli soldiers
For allegedly throwing stones
Is growing up in a city where settlers graffiti “death to arabs” on the walls
Where the streets of the HI district are off-limits to Palestinians
Where Layan’s grandparents stay inside every Saturday
Closing their doors and windows
To keep out the rocks thrown by settlers
While the same soldiers who arrest children
Stand by and do nothing
And if my brother met Raya
The most resilient student I’ve ever taught
Who dreams of using her education
To improve the public health system in Gaza
Perhaps my brother wouldn’t be so quick
To dismiss “those people” as violent, irrational, “terrorists”
Incapable of ruling themselves.
And if only the media would listen to Sama
Maybe then they would see
That bombing a captive civilian population
Killing hundreds and injuring thousands more
Is an act of terrorism
Not of self-defense
And the more than 700 men, women, and children,
Who have become collateral damage
If only they still had breath in their bodies
If only anyone cared enough to listen
They could tell the world
That the 2 million human beings in Gaza
Love life
Love their children
Love their homeland
And that peace will never come
Without justice.
