If you've been following my social media posts, you will know that I've been an ardent critic of Israel's genocide in Gaza. Even so, there's something I need to get off my chest, and it's something I've been carrying with me for a while now. Please bear with me a minute.
I wish to state for the public record, that back in 2023 when Oct 7 happened and Israel began it's open bloody genocide in Gaza, I was still very much under the influence of most Western media and the narrative that Hamas were "terrorists", an "illegitimate" wannabe government pushing for an independent state in the middle of Israel, and essentially just a band of troublemakers and malcontents - as Israel had spent the last 80 years telling everyone. At the start, I was somewhat horrified by the publicized attacks by Hamas on "innocent Israelis".
But something was very "off" about the whole thing.
For starters, for the first time seemingly, those of us on the outside were able to see into the darkness. For the first time I was able to see the hatred both sides had for each other. Then the reality set in - Israel was a literal "apartheid state", with Palestinians being the oppressed, with Israeli's being the elite, entitled and favored people under Zionist rule. While I could understand reasons for Palestinian resentment towards Israelis, I struggled to grasp the source of the hatred and utter contempt the Israelis held for the Palestinians. Oodles of videos did the rounds showing wealthy Israeli families mocking the suffering and poverty of Palestinians.
For some years, Palestinians were shown in brief one-sided news clips, throwing stones at IDF tanks - and getting shot for it. Like a stone bouncing off armor plate somehow constituted any kind of threat. But that was only a foretaste of what was to follow. What began to unfold on the world stage, with seemingly unprecedented independent media interest and coverage showed the stark, bare, awful truth.
How do you shoot children and non-combatants, bomb entire city blocks filled with any number of civilians - and call it "self-defense"? As a former soldier who was educated in the concept of war crimes, I was filled with horror and outrage! What kind of soldier would do that? Nazis perhaps. Putin's thugs invading Ukraine, definitely. But we were told to believe that Israel's IDF were a highly efficient, disciplined, professional army - I didn't see that in what they were doing in Gaza. What I saw was war-crime after war-crime being documented live on TV, bombing after bombing, deliberate targeting of hospitals, journalists and their homes, infrastructure - the isolation by cutting off the internet and water, group punishment, famine - with excuse after excuse - and then after a while, everything was just hand-waved away as it escalated into a full-blown ethnic cleansing exercise - while the West turned a blind eye and called it a "war". Mainstream Western media - the CNN's, the BBC's - all carried on business as usual, news of Gaza shown from a pro-Israeli perspective while employing "both-sideism" to make out as if the victims of 80 years of oppression, dispossession and being herded off their properties into "reservations" like Gaza and the West Bank were unreasonable for not wanting to leave Palestine voluntarily to the Israeli colonizers.
Meanwhile, racism and xenophobia blossomed in the UK in response to anti-genocide protests. As of this past month, it is now ILLEGAL in the UK to protest against GENOCIDE. To employ an Americanism, if I may, let that sink in for a minute, just how fucking UNHINGED that is.
Unsurprisingly, the cries of the innocent fall onto the earth like fertilizer, and instead of eliciting compassion, hatred grew instead. Now, in August 2025, after three years of brutal genocide covered as a "war", with the US and UK supplying the IDF with weapons and backup, Israel is gearing up to hasten the last stage of its own "final solution" to wipe out the remaining Palestinians, overtake all of Palestine, and make it into "Greater Israel". On the sidelines, the bloated orange American dictator Donald J. Trump, claps like a seal as he envisions new franchising opportunities for another line of future failed businesses, casinos and hotels marked with a capital "T" - the true "mark of the Beast", if ever there was one. On the sidelines, UK PM Keir Starmer, smiles sheepishly trying not to be seen and looking like he really doesn't want to be there at all, but lacks the spine to tell Mango Musselini to fuck off and cut the last apron strings with the collapsing American Empire before it drags the UK down with it.
The world watches in stunned outrage and literal awe while global politicians rise in turn to shuffle their feet and make hollow statements containing words like "condemn", as though just to be seen to have said something against Israel's obvious crimes against humanity. But words don't matter a damn when used against bullets and bombs. Especially when nobody has the courage or moral fiber to act on them.
A war has two sides. This was never a war - it's always been a genocide. Israel has always been about colonizing Palestine, dominating the Middle East, building a "Greater Israel" - and wiping out anyone who opposes them. And as long as the Zionists remain in charge, that will never, ever change.
When first condeming Israel's then perceived heavy-handed reaction in Gaza back in 2023, I was confronted by angry pro-Israeli activists on social media who demanded of me: "yes, but do you condemn Hamas?"
It seemed so vital to them, that no matter what evil, monstrous thing Israel had done in Gaza to Palestinians, that I had pointed out - it was more important to them that I verbally condemn Hamas.
I did. At that time, I did. And I feel shame for that.
But I did so because I still believed the lies I'd been told, and I did not understand for myself WHY Hamas launched the pre-emtive attacks on October 7, 2023 - but I was shaken by these events. I needed to find out the truth for myself.
And then, as time went by, I learned. I discovered how much I had been lied to - how WE had all been lied to - and not just by Israel, but by it's supporting network of insincere actors - the USA, the UK, just to name the two largest, who have acted as guardian angels for Israel over the last 80 years, running cover for them, hiding their crimes, amplifying their lies, and supplying them with resources and weapons to dominate the Middle East as their proxy in the region. And our Western media that spun the stories for them, toeing the line, keeping to the narrative - Israel = good/Palestinians = terrorists.
Over the next few months, I spoke out against Israel's genocide, I quickly stopped condemning Hamas - because frankly, I couldn't blame them. What sort of person could condemn a people who had been dispossesed, relocated time and again, dehumanized and increasingly forced off their land and into open-air concentration camps, where they and their children were shot at for sport by sadistic IDF "soldiers"? What sort of person could condemn them for fighting back? Especially if, were I in their shoes, I would do the same? I'm pretty sure you would too.
I could not. I do not.
What sort of people can cheer at videos showing children being blown up for no crime greater than collecting water? Children lying in hospital, covered in blood, missing limbs, crying for dead parents and siblings? Weeping mothers carrying the shattered, still corpses of their babies wrapped in burial clothes? What sort of human beings can see all these monstrous things and still not see how truly monstrous they truly are?
Monsters? People who have lost or abdicated away their very humanity. Indoctrinated people. That's who.
People who lack the ability to think critically and for themselves without groupthink. People who still believe the bullshit they were spoonfed for all their lives about Israel being perfect, the fairytales about Israel always being the victim, about being "God's chosen people" - all while doing the Devil's work in Palestine, and throughout the world.
Well, indoctrinated people - people who have been fooled by deliberate disinformation - can wake up to the truth. The situation there is far from as simple as "Jews versus Arabs, which side do you prefer?" as so many seem to believe.
Watching coverage of Israeli warmonger-in-chief do his usual schtick of deny, deny, deny, lie, lie, lie - and deflect by accusing critics of "anti-Semitism" (even when the critics are Jewish themselves) is nauseating - even more so when I notice people sit back, smile and say "See, I told you, there's no genocide - Israel's only defending itself! They're within their right to do so!" Sure they are - by starving millions, bombing hospitals, shooting journalists, doctors and paramedics, and blowing up starving children.
I got banned from Twitter in 2023 - for personally telling Benjamin Netanyahu via his Twitter account that he is a war criminal who deserves the same fate as the Nazis at Nuremburg - and I'm proud I got to say that, because it's true. It may never happen, given the crooked way the world seems to work, but at least I was able to do that much. And well, I live in hope - that someday soon, an intervention will come from a nation or nations unintimidated by threats of repercussions from the USA, to halt the ongoing massacre and institute legal proceedings against all those responsible, before it's too late altogether.
As it is, Israel has itself turned the inscription above the Holocaust Museum - "Never Again" - into some sort of bizarre, sick, twisted parody. A sick joke that civilized, decent people still containing a gram or two of humanity, choke on today.
We live in an increasingly dehumanized world. That's a fact as cold as the ice in the veins of people like Nethanyahu, like Trump, like Putin - and any number of stonehearted killers in suits who make policy and law and decide when and where to wage wars and how, and who the "enemy" is. A world where politicians lie brazenly, and say stupid things all the time - and sometimes, just sometimes, their masks slip enough that they actually tell the truth - and when they do, we should believe them.
WHEN is genocide EVER justified? That is the question that outraged people should be confronting those who seemingly see nothing wrong with what Israel is doing in Gaza. How does anyone justify the unjustifiable?
Considering that I once condemned Hamas for defending their people against the horrors Israel was unleashing against them then, I feel it's necessary and overdue to publicly recant and correct that statement. Even though I have long ago learned the truth and have been a vocal activist for Palestine against Israeli aggression and oppression ever since. I am not afraid to admit that I was wrong about something - after all, that's what life is about isn't it? Learning more and growing beyond my own limitations. So here it is:
My earlier condemnation of Hamas was in error, based on misinformation provided to me at that time, and prompted by unexpected pressure to conform - both elements I reject as valid influences in my personal life and which contradict my personal ethos. To correct my earlier statement:
I condemn Israel - and Zionism, the Israeli leadership, the IDF, the Israeli people who engineered the genocide in Gaza, all those who encouraged it and all those who contributed to it - for crimes against humanity.
If you don't like that, or don't approve, well that's your problem. My statement stands, regardless. I have spoken my conscience and stand by what I believe to be right.
As we speak, Israel is ploughing the soil of Palestine with violence, suffering and death, and sowing it with the blood and bodies of the Palestinians themselves. I can only wonder what sort of crop will grow from that, but mayhap it will be a crop that rises to hungrily devour all those who sowed it.
That's all I wanted to say about that. Thanks for listening.
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Further Reading:
Amnesty concludes Israel is committing genocide in Gaza
Israel/Palestine: An Abyss of Human Suffering in Gaza
Updates: Israel attacks hospital, kills six Palestinian journalists in Gaza
Gaza: “Never again” giving way to endless decimation of displaced Palestinians, warn UN experts
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