Joydeep Narayan Deb
“Later that night I held an atlas in my lap and ran my fingers across the whole world and whispered, Where does it hurt? It answered, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.”
This hauntingly exquisite verse from Warsan Shire's poetry "What They Did Yesterday Afternoon" utilizes conflict as a vehicle of political expression. War has always been an intrinsic aspect of political movements. Colonial rulers and oppressors were astounded at how war might exalt their rule simply by killing hundreds or even millions of people.
Has Hamas now infiltrated the powerful impermeable Mossad, or has Palestine initiated missile attacks against Israel? What does the media say? What does Al Jazeera have to say about it? What do the BBC, CNN, and the Guardian have to say about it? Are you following the World's Supreme Leaders?
What did they say pertaining to the multifaceted Lebanese War, which extended from 1975 to 1990, murdering about 120,000 citizens, of whom the majority were Palestinians? Wars have just one outcome, regardless of where they occur. Devastation. Many of us were born after the Lebanese Civil War ended. As usual, several narratives have been circulated by capitalists, autocrats, opportunists, and the media. But none of them come close to the horrible crimes committed at the period. None.
The Israeli film director Ari Folman wanted to portray the aftermath of the war through his animated film “Waltz with Bashir”. The widely talked film had a simple idea of animating what one can not film. Since, nobody could come closer to what actually happened in the war, the idea of animating the horror felt right. Ari Folman succeeded as a filmmaker but the society failed collectively. It will always be a paradox till war exists in our lives. The blood quenching civilians from other parts of the world supporting any party in this war is as guilty as the mass murderers. Even the elite politicians from the “strongest country” are not free from this propaganda at all. The famous politician David Vance from The Republican Party, USA was called out several times on popular microblogging site “X”, formerly known as Twitter for spreading misinformation against Palestine. David Vance is a face here instead of an individual entity. There are hundreds of David Vance across the globe who are busy spreading propaganda over social platforms.
The current conflict has striking similarities to the 1948 "Nakba," or Palestinian catastrophe. After 200 years of oppression and exploitation by the British Kingdom, India was declared independent on August 15, 1947. Nearly a year later, Palestinians witnessed an awful exodus in the name of Israel's founding, based on a sham promise made by the British administration. The infamous letter exchange between Lord Rothschild and British Foreign Secretary Sir Arthur Balfour culminated in the signing of the Balfour Declaration in 1917. That was the day the Zionist Federation and the British Government signed the Palestine Death Treaty. A few years later, in 1948, the "Nakba" occurred.
During the Nakba, Zionist military forces displaced almost a million Palestinians and took control of roughly 78 percent of Palestine. The remaining 22 percent was divided among the West Bank and Gaza Strip. After that, the evacuation, also known as the Nakba, continued indefinitely. The present dispute is claimed to be Palestinian retaliation for the Nakba.
But did the citizens choose to retaliate by unleashing thousands of rockets at Israel? Never. Iran was reported to have funded Hamas in order for it to fight Israel. According to the US State Department, Hamas receives almost $100 million USD in donations each year to wage the struggle. Several more reports pointed the same finger at the US as well. During the Ukraine-Russia war, the US profited handsomely from the free market sale of weaponry and ammunition. This time, the figure nearly doubled.
Everybody around the globe has seen video of doctors discovering of the passing of their loved ones in an attack while at work. We saw the young child shivering as a result of the catastrophe. We've seen refugee camps disintegrate in seconds as a result of Israel's constant bombing. Al-Azhar, Gaza's final university, has been reduced to dust. No hospitals, educational institutions, or refugee camps are now safe. Every protest, every resistance is turning out to be nothing more than a loud cry. If that is the diplomats' and bureaucrats' concept of a contemporary civilized society, then the world deserves to be condemned.
Almost a month has elapsed since the war between Israel and Palestine began, and ten thousand lives have been lost in Gaza. Hospitals are on the verge of closing, and institutes have already been reduced to a heap of ashes and stones. People have already declared their preferences.
What we need to understand is that Palestine is more than just a piece of territory. Israel isn't either. The ongoing dispute is a metaphor for the destruction of paradise, dispossession, and exile.
