Since October 7, the death toll of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank has reached 10,000. Half of the Palestinian population are children. We’ve seen all the videos: children without limbs, missing their heads, burned to ashes. The “…children of darkness…” (@IsraeliPM, on X) have been quickly making their way out of this world, thanks to Israeli “self-defense.”
My heart breaks for the victims of the Hamas attack; innocent men, women, and children died in a state created to ensure their protection. I feel the Israeli anger towards Netanyahu’s government, his undermining of security threats, keeping the public divided on the Palestinian conflict, and goals to weaken the Israeli Supreme Court. His false promises and stories have left hundreds of his people to die at the hands of Hamas.
Now that I have established that I condemn Hamas and condemned the attacks on Israel, let me speak freely on the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians without being attacked. It is so difficult to put all this information into words. The cries of parents for their children have left me numb to the core. Seeing hospitals, churches, and schools blown into ashes makes me all the more angry. Watching people only speak on behalf of one side continues to baffle me. Hearing my professors dismiss the experiences of the Palestinians, all while knowing little to nothing about Middle Eastern history, makes me furious.
Arabs have constantly been stereotyped for their anger. Whether on social media, TV, or in films, they are made out to be this race filled with rage. To the people who continue to believe this; if you lived our lives, you too would be angry at the world for their ignorance.
The Palestinian fight isn’t only Palestinian. It has deeply affected all its neighboring countries. It has now come to the United States, with an American child in Chicago being stabbed twenty-six times as his landlord yelled, “You Muslims must die.” If you can’t see the parallels of the Israel-Hammas war to the Iraq war, all I can tell you is to read a damn textbook. Did we learn nothing? How many times do we have to repeat the same mistakes until we learn our lesson?
If you’re going to fight for human rights and peace, at least have the decency to defend people on both sides. Don’t pick one side and run with it because it affects you personally — how self-centered are you? You can’t preach peace and ignore the cries of children (whether they are “children of light” or “children of darkness,” Bibi).
