Free Palestine
It is okay if you are “not political”, all that really means is that you’re scared of wading into the very uncomfortable topics that shape actual reality. You haven’t evolved enough just yet, you possess the capacity to do so, and it may happen for you. If you’re “not political”, you may feel comfortable with the quality of life you experience, perhaps politics doesn’t affect you (it does), but in time, if and when politics does affect you, and you cry for help, remember how disinterested you were whilst the rest of us have been busy advocating for Palestinians.
“Free Palestine” has become the most controversial slogan across the world, despite it being around for decades, right now it is the political hot potato like no other. Saying “Free Palestine” aloud in the world of politics, business, entertainment et al can be met with overwhelming suppression from hostile organisations, the authorities, and state-sanctioned violence.
There is no end to the angles and resources of narrative on this topic, and by now we have heard so many repeated and regurgitated, that it becomes clear that those with the upper hand have zero interest in fixing it. Instead, the slaughter of a people continues, a hatred exacerbated and inculcated into every sphere of life so that one people perish under a violent racist persecution because of the collective apathy towards human life that is not white.
You either see the images on the news and feel no compassion, or you are enraged that such horrors are manufactured by the world powers that take your tax money to pay for an openly vindicated holocaust.
Over the years I have put on fundraisers for Palestine via the charities War on Want and Medical Aid for Palestinians, and supported others like IMET 2000 and FQMS.
I’ve marched for hours on the streets of London in the winter cold and in the summer heat alongside thousands of others from all walks of life, united by our humanity, not divided by our differences. This included survivors of the Holocaust and their children who bear witness to the one being perpetrated now, and those who acknowledge the privileges afforded to them by virtue of their birth, and use it to advocate for those who have no rights. These marches bring many different kinds of people together, compassion is universal.
Most recently I was introduced to Ayoub in Gaza, a teenager who is enduring the destruction of his home, somehow surviving amidst the military onslaught that is wiping out his people before out very eyes. Just as we know of the Holocaust in which so many were killed, a tragedy illustrated to us by an endless supply of films and books so that we never let such a horror happen again. Yet today we watch the endless supply of live content coming from the smartphones and social media accounts of a people who too are enduring a new holocaust.
I told Ayoub that I would attend the protest in London to commemorate 77 years of the Nakba, so he asked me to print his image and take it to the protest so that others may know of his plight. Of course, I had to oblige and felt it my honour to speak up for someone whose life is partly dictated by the nation in which I am free, but he is denied his freedom.
You can support Palestinians through many different charities, I have personally worked with Medical Aid for Palestinians many times, and you can also follow Ayoub on Instagram and support his campaign.
You may not agree with me in my support, but if this were happening to you, I would not stay silent, I would advocate for your liberation. We all emerge from and belong to a myriad of identities; an ethnicity, a language, a religion, a nation, a class, a political affiliation etc, but they need not be the grounds for excusing state-sponsored violence against human beings because of political indulgence of arbitrary mythological fantasies.
Today you may have the gun, tomorrow we will have it, and the cycles of violence shall never abate until we evolve beyond these pointless wars. If you are offended by words to liberate a people from oppression and not offended by the vivid evisceration of human beings who are slaughtered by an enormous military and media machine, then perhaps these words are pointless and you’ll never understand until it happens to you.
The tide is turning…
Free Palestine.