Palestine will be free

Last year, when the world observed Palestine Solidarity Day on November 29, there were hopes that global pressure would succeed in convincing a rogue settler state to stop killing and instead negotiate. There was even a brief ceasefire period where some Israeli hostages were released in exchange for Palestinian hostages detained without any charges. But this ray of light was quickly darkened by the dense bombs that Israel kept throwing at the besieged strip of Gaza. The genocidal campaign that started on October 7, 2023 has so far erased over 1,400 families from the national registry. Palestinian officials say the death count is somewhere around 45,000, although many war experts say that the scale of destruction could be three times worse than what is being reported, given there is a communication blackout in the territory with rescue forces unable to reach the dead or the injured. Famine and starvation in north Gaza, where Israel has bombed civilian-packed building after building, have made living impossible for people who could not evacuate to some other location. Palestinians in Gaza today line up for hours to get a piece of bread. Some fail, some never come back to their families waiting for them.

It is time for world leaders to put an end to this. Palestinians should be spared the humiliation of running behind aid trucks only to be shot at; the humiliation of desperately asking the world to acknowledge their pain and help them put an end to Israel's barbarity only to be met with trolling; and the humiliation of waiting in long queues to get a can of water or a piece of bread. Gazans are tired, but their resistance remains unquenchable. It is time for decision-makers and those who could rein in Israel to learn something from the perseverance of Palestinians. There should be a free state where the rights of Palestinians should not be secondary. The decade-long occupation has destroyed generations of Palestinians. There is no justification for what is happening in Gaza.

Here is the basic fact: occupiers do not have the right to defend themselves; they should only be asked to move out. Israel’s passion for bloodbaths has led to the killings of thousands of Palestinians. It is time the state be stopped and its leaders be held accountable for war crimes they have been shamelessly committing. Leaders in the Global North who have been involved in enabling Israel – to the extent that a former US president thinks that the deaths of civilians are a necessity – should be questioned for their complicity in Holocaust 2.0. A couple of days ago, the world watched in awe as the Lebanese cheered and went back to their homes in war-torn regions in Lebanon – a war that started to stop fighters in Lebanon from speaking up for Gaza. We now wish to see the same images coming out of Gaza. There must be an end to this senseless violence, and world leaders must vow to respect Palestinians’ dignity and right to exist.