For a fair world, stand with Palestine

Addressing a joint meeting of the United States Congress on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against international criticism that Israel has been committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, where approximately 40,000 people  – men, women, children and babies –  have been killed to date. He also doubled down on his government’s policy of genocide and extermination, refusing to signal that the bloodshed will stop soon. He received a standing ovation from some of America’s leading politicians.

Had Satan and his minions descended on Earth and performed a ritual, even they would have been less audacious.

Scientific evidence suggests that the Almighty created the world four billion years ago. Since then, it has been destroyed and rebuilt many times over. Over the last 200,000 years, humankind has established institutions, organisations and agreements to maintain peace and promote order by learning from past mistakes.

Indeed, this is what distinguishes us from all other creatures: We are uniquely capable of accumulating knowledge and passing it down to future generations – unlike the beaver, for example, which has been building the exact same dam for millions of years.

Therefore, it is unsettling that Antonio Gramsci’s words from 1932, preceding World War II, remain remarkably pertinent today: “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters.” A century later, humanity has come full circle. Despite the establishment of institutions like the United Nations and acceptance of documents like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights aimed at promoting peace and justice, we bear witness to the first livestreamed genocide in history.

The kind of suffering currently unfolding in Palestine is unprecedented. The Palestinian people, who have been resisting injustice for 75 years, are now daring to survive in front of a global audience. The Palestinian people’s resistance is emblematic of a broader human struggle for justice, as captured in one of my favourite poems, “Soon the Sun will rise”, by Erdem Bayazit:

“You are the heroes of humanity resisting amid steel gears.”

It is an undeniable fact that the struggle for justice and the fight for a better world are perennial themes that resonate deeply in our collective consciousness. As one particularly poignant line from another favourite poem, Ismet Ozel’s “Life My Darling”, relates:

“What I know is that

living

means fighting under a clear sky

for the love of children.”

This imperative is not just a theoretical ideal but a practical necessity that humanity must embrace to avert the recurrence of historical atrocities and to ensure a just and peaceful world.

Some 20 years ago, when I was a research assistant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a group of students came together to raise awareness about the Palestinian struggle. We would put up posters, screen informative films, and distribute brochures. Apathy, which stops the international community from taking meaningful action today, manifested itself then in the form of the following questions: What is this going to change? Will this help stop the bleeding after decades?

This scepticism was understandable but ultimately misplaced. The impact of seemingly insignificant actions is not always immediate or visible, but they contribute to a broader movement of awareness and change. Indeed, thank Allah, protests have swept through the United States and Europe, including the world’s most prestigious schools like Harvard, MIT, Columbia and others.

Our actions, whether through organised events or individual efforts, contribute to the broader struggle for justice. We are not merely passive observers but active participants in shaping the moral fabric of our society. The changes we seek must begin within ourselves. As I told my friends two decades ago, the resistance and struggle are not just for the heroes on the front lines, but for the rest of us, to transform our own indifference into action.

The ultimate goal is to foster a world where our children can grow up in safety and dignity. This requires a collective effort to uphold justice, challenge oppression, and promote peace. The poem continues:

“For if we do not fight,

the loaf we split at mealtimes,

the warm bits of my childhood,

would, like most wounds,

spread across the soil,

our flesh would rot

and make the entire sky stink.”

Unless we act now, this will be the result. So, what will it take for humanity to abandon laying the groundwork for such an apocalypse? Let us keep reciting the poem:

“The world

is turning with incorruptible stubbornness,

as stars are being spread beneath us

and my face rushes to the water

And the Revelation”

The Palestinians are fulfilling their duty by resisting. It is the rest of us that need to change. All of us – not just the handful of people already standing up for justice in Palestine. The world cannot be saved unless and until the rest changes. Let us today take the tiniest step towards doing the smallest amount of good so that, in two decades’ time, we can tell our children that we stood up for what was right for a fair world. 

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.