Gaza. What Can Be Done?
Oil on canvas
1981
80x 120 cm
The relentless torment of 2.3 million people- the displacement of 85% of them, the destruction of 1/3 of their homes, the denial to them of free access to food, water, medicine and electricity while 18,000 have been killed in bombing, most of them women and children- this atrocity will go down in history as a nightmare which resonates on the level of the urban military horrors of WW2.
More children have been killed in the repulsively titled “Operation Iron Swords” so far than in all global conflicts in 2022, or 2021, or 2020, or 2019, and the proportion of civilian casualties- 61–71% in some current estimates — is higher than in any conflict in the 20th century. It is the most comprehensively recorded of any war atrocity, in real time. It has inspired some of the largest and most continuous mass protests ever seen.
And yet.
The resistance of most powerful countries to what Israel is doing has been tepid at best. Canada finally called for a ceasefire this week, after 70 days of the orgy of child-murder and mass torture. The Israeli ambassador, puppy dog eyes on full display, expressed sadness and disappointment, and, in a nod to George Orwell fans everywhere, said that a ceasefire would “cause the deaths of millions of Israelis and Palestinians.”
War is peace. 2+2=5.
It is clear that the Israeli government will do what it says, and refuse to bow to international pressure. This is, after all, the big chance it has been waiting for to finally deal with the “Palestinian problem.” Soon Israel will be closer to the long-cherished rightwing Zionist goal of being arabfrei and arabrein.
One does not have to give the Israeli government credit for one thing though- they have truly restored the glory of the ancient Kingdoms of Israel. Back then, as meticulously recorded in the Hebrew Bible, the Kings of Israel were mostly bloodthirsty idolaters who would sell a poor person for a pair of sandals and who disdained God’s demand for justice and mercy for the sake of power and wealth. I could quote individual p’sukim- verses- but really I should just point you to the entire books of Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos….. well, you get the picture.
Then, as now, those who call out the idolatrous, mercenary Israeli government — the prophets — were silenced, jailed and killed while false “court prophets” were kept in style and the priesthood kowtowed to the royal seat in profanation of God’s demands. Certainly almost every synagogue in Vancouver, Canada, where I live is giving those ancient priests a run for their money. Even the one synagogue I know that isn’t actively supporting the Israeli war effort is proceeding very cautiously for fear, it seems, that they will get thrown in the dungeon with Jeremiah.
So what can be done? The harsh truth increasingly seems to be that very little can be done to shift the Zionist behemoth.
Forming bonds of solidarity and human connection with Palestinians, however, and being witnesses to the injustice being done to them seems valuable. I know from talking to Palestinians that this is meaningful to them, that it helps relieve their horrible pain.
So that’s where I’m going with this: let’s talk to our Palestinian friends, or make some. Let’s center their voices or their art, and let’s let them know that we see what is happening and we stand with them, not because we are pro-Palestinian or pro-Israel or anti-Israel, pro-Hamas or anti-Hamas, pro-Zionist or anti-Zionist, but because we are pro-human.
More recent posts of mine on Israel/Palestine:
