Will Thomas of Auburn is a member of NH Veterans for Peace.
Several people have asked me where the Palestinian leader is in the likeness of Zelenskyy of Ukraine, Mandela of South Africa, or MLK of America. My reply is that any potential or possible powerful Palestinian leader has either been exiled (Fahmi Kanan), imprisoned (Salah Hamouri) or assassinated (Ghassan Kanafani).
Obviously, the world’s attention has shifted to Russia and Ukraine, but some recent news stories have focused on the violent attacks by Palestinians upon Israeli residents, including the killing, ironically, of two Ukrainians working In Israel. No one I know condones these murders nor do I. However, the mainstream media seldom provide any informational context for such horrible crimes.
At about this time last year, Palestinians were preparing to celebrate Ramadan. Many Palestinians had gathered at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem to prepare to go to Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest Muslim site and to the compound outside to pray. However, Israel occupation forces attacked, beat and arrested some Palestinians outside the Gate. Inside the mosque, praying Palestinians were assaulted as occupation troops entered the holy site and some violently confronted Muslims who were in the compound area and injured many with clubs, besides using tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades against them.
At the same time, Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, especially in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, were either being threatened with expulsion from their homes or actually being forcibly evicted from their homes to make way for illegal Jewish “settlers” even as some houses were being demolished to prepare for the construction of a themed-park, modeled upon the life of King David. Israel’s plan is to eventually “Judaize” all of East Jerusalem. This is called “ethnic cleansing,” says the largest Israeli human rights organization, B’Tselem.
While the attacks on Palestinian Muslims in Al Aqsa, in Sheikh Jarrah and at the Damascus Gate were occurring, the ruling Palestinian body in the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority did little to stop or criticize the Israeli actions. It was the ruling body in Gaza, Hamas, that sent Israel an ultimatum to end the attacks or else it would take action.
Israel ignored the warning and thus, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad did fire many unguided rockets, not missiles, into Israel. The Israeli military responded with an 11-day military assault on Gaza in May of 2021 that caused 260 deaths, including that of 66 children. This was the fourth major Israeli offensive in 14 years. Does the press ever mention the psychological trauma Gaza’s children suffer from Israeli tank shells, missiles dropped from drones and U.S. Apache helicopters shooting live ammunition and U.S.-made planes dropping bombs?
According to UNICEF, prior to 2021, 1 in 3 Gazan children have mental health issues. An earlier Israeli military attack in 2014 caused over 2,000 deaths, including 520 Palestinian children. Tragically, one Israeli child was killed.
Sadly, we may be witnessing a third intifada as a growing number of young Palestinians are “exploding” with anger and despair while living under a brutal Israeli occupation for 55 years. While thinking about this situation, I thought of Langston Hughes’ poem, What Happens to a Dream Deferred? It says, in part, “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun, Or, does it explode?”
In closing, let us recall abolitionist Wendell Phillips’ quote and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s use of it later that, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
And, as Jewish Voice for Peace, If Americans Knew, and If Not Now, state, there cannot be true peace until justice and human, civil and political rights are guaranteed for all Israelis and for all Palestinian Christians and Muslims living in the Holy Land.