I am trying to imagine some positive outcome that this terrifying escalation might bring. Perhaps there will be an exchange of prisoners. Though Palestinians have the right to resist occupation, I have always preferred unarmed, civilian-led, direct mass action. Maybe the Palestinian, Israeli and international activists who have been using these tactics to oppose Israel’s occupation and a system that major human rights organizations — including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Israeli rights group B’Tselem — consider apartheid will be able to harness this horror to someday advance their vision of a future of liberation and a decent life for all.
But at the moment, with Israeli troops massing on the border with Gaza, suggesting an imminent ground invasion, I can’t think beyond the coming days.
How many more families will be obliterated? How many children will be made orphans and homeless? What will happen when the shelves in our markets are empty and reserves of fuel for our hospitals’ generators run out? What will become of our collective humanity if Israeli civilians continue to be targeted and bombs keep shattering our infrastructure, leaving Gazan children lying dead in our streets?
Unless the international community intervenes, Israel can continue to cut off access to water, food, fuel, electricity, medications and every other necessity of life. Without outside pressure, particularly from the United States, Israel can continue to flatten our cities and refugee camps.
As Israel maintains its rampage, I keep asking myself, “What’s in store for Ali, Karam and Adam?” We are unable to shield them from the pervasive violence and trauma. An explosion on Monday rattled the windows, prompting Adam to implore, “If the Israelis must bomb us, can’t they at least use smaller, quieter bombs?” Ali is a talented young musician, with an artist’s temperament and a musician’s soul. Does Israel want to convert him from an artist to a fighter? If my children have no hope for their future, I cannot guarantee what path they take.
The international community must immediately do everything in its power to ensure that my children — that all children in the region — are able to live in freedom, with dignity and safety. That is the only solution to the current horror show.
Fadi Abu Shammalah is Just Vision’s outreach associate in Gaza and the executive director of Gaza’s General Union of Cultural Centers.
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