Contextualising Remembrance.
I was born into a military family. My Dad served. My Mum served. My Grandfathers, both. My Great Uncle. Their fathers. Most of them were involved in conflicts, well documented. Battles etched in history. All of them would honour Remembrance Day, attending services wearing their medals, wearing berets, side caps, and the regalia of service. Remembrance for them, was exactly that. People they knew, and served with. They knew their names. They knew who they were, perhaps in a more intimate way than their own families. Brothers in arms.
Full disclosure: I didn't serve in the armed forces. My health excluded me.
Today, for many of us. It's a generation, or even the previous generation removed from experience. There will be those who lost loved ones in Suez, Aden, Northern Ireland, The Falklands, The Balkans, both Gulf Wars, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan or anywhere where British Armed Forces boots hit soil, as the British Empire violently contracted after WWII.
But the sheer visceral loss of two World Wars, especially after 1914-1918, focused the minds of my parents and grandparents, into a single phrase: "NEVER AGAIN." A phrase printed on the first paper poppies, given by the Royal British Legion, as the traditions of remembrance coalesced. Remembrance was in the pursuit of peace; an end to war. A hopeful pursuit, long since politicised and utilised as a form of propaganda, for geopolitical adventurism, for colonialism, for religion, for the glorification of war, for the status quo.
There is a strong argument, as the years march on, 105 years after the guns fell silent on 11/11/1918, at precisely 11:11am, that we have lost focus on the reasons why we remember. There are those who call Remembrance day "sacred." Sacred to whom? We remember in our own ways, not just this day. We respect our veterans, don't we? Unfortunately many veterans find it hard to adjust. Survivor's guilt, PTSD, and countless other factors often marginalise our veterans, who turn to drink and drugs and end up homeless. The right wing saw that we should look after our veterans before we care for immigrants, is one egregious argument that simultaneously dehumanises both groups.
Who'd argue that veterans don't deserve our care? Of course they do, but who, with the power and ability to do so, has re-homed and rehabilitated these veterans? And when contentious issues like immigration have been used as a wedge to divide the nation by the right wing, while we see our weapons being sold to regimes that destabilise regions that create refugees, heading to the comparatively peaceful and prosperous West...who would blame them in their desire to escape conflict?
When you can't escape, though...what then? I speak of Gaza, and the latest conflagration between Israel and Hamas. It's in the interest of both, that this is portrayed as an ongoing Holy War between Islam and Judaism. However, Palestinian civilians are trapped in Gaza. As you read this many hundreds of thousands flee south, away from the encroaching IDF. Slingshots vs tanks are the stories of the past. Guided missiles and white phosphorus are the weapons of choice, today. Hamas is well armed and prepared for a siege, emerging from a network of tunnels beneath Gaza City. The civilians caught in the blast radius of Israeli bombs are wholly unprepared. It is for them, that many marched from Hyde Park to the US Embassy, today. In fact, there have been pro-Palestinian marches every Saturday, in London since the Oct 7 attacks by Hamas, which sparked this latest conflagration. Supporters of Israel too, have held vigils for the kidnapped. It's an overarching desire for a peaceful solution, that largely motivates both. The pro-Palestinian movement, appalled by the government's and opposition's support of Israel's disproportionate response, march for a ceasefire. And it's not just here, but the US and Europe, across the board, many have been horrified by the hatred demonstrated by both Israel and Hamas. But these latest incidents have not come from one single event. The histories of Palestine and Israel, which I can't go into here, suffice to say, are steeped in blood. Some would argue with the birth of modern Israel, carved out of what was Mandatory Palestine, which the British Empire oversaw, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, saw the Nakba atrocities as the beginning. Zionism, as in the right for Israel to exist as a nation, has not sat well in what is the Holy Land for 3 competing faiths. Zionist extremists call for death to Arabs. Islamist extremists call for death to Jews. Christians in the region (1% of Gaza's population) suffer under both of these extreme ideologies.
World Wars leave long shadows. It's entirely appropriate, that on this day of peace and remembrance, so many marched for peace and remember what this world has lost, and could lose again.
How could any soldier, who has fought and served, argue?
