What ink is the most indelible? What color will not wash off easily? What is even stronger than waterproof ink? Because in Gaza they are looking for magic markers that will not be smeared by blood or made illegible by debris and dust. Does Gaza have enough magic markers for all of its children to write their names clearly on their bodies in the event they are blown to pieces by an Israeli bomb? Or will the trucks delivering the trickle of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza be bringing in fresh new batches for them? This is not a scene out of the Hunger Games or any other dystopian novel about the end of the civilized world as we know it. If it were, images of children writing their names on their bodies before they are bombed in their beds, would at least fit the script. We were horrified and fixated in equal measure as we read or watched the Hunger Games, where innocent civilians fought to escape death in the ‘arena’ of the games, with the only chance of survival being if you were the last one standing. However, we were lulled by the fact that this was fiction, the product of someone’s imagination who lived in the real world, where children are cherished and valued, their innocence protected. The scenes today are from Gaza, the small, crowded and impoverished Palestinian Strip of horror. This is where children or their parents, are writing their names in bold black letters on their arms, their backs, their hands, so that if and when they are killed and reduced to torn and mangled flesh by an Israeli bomb, someone will know who they are. It is beyond anyone’s worst nightmare, this war on Gaza. The word genocide is not thrown around lightly, not by Palestinians or the world at large, but this is what it is being called and rightfully so. To date, at least 6,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip, thousands of whom are babies and children, day in and day out, since October 7. Its residents have had no reprieve from the bombs, no rest, no ample food, water or fuel. They are either mowed down in Israel’s killing field, or they are being starved to death and like any war, the smallest victims are the ones that weigh the most heavily on our hearts. I am the mother of two children. They are young adults now, but will forever be the lights of my life. Today, as I watch children literally being blown to pieces, as I see them searching amongst white shrouds of death, looking desperately for their loved ones, I cannot but imagine my own son and daughter in their place. They may be young adults, but they are my babies, and I would trade in my life for theirs in a heartbeat. So, it is almost unbearable to think, even for a moment, that if fate had dealt us a different hand and we were residents of the Gaza Strip, these children writing their names on their hands could have been my own. When you read this, don’t only conjure up an image of the children of Gaza, perhaps too foreign or too ‘brown’ for you. We are all acutely aware of the process of dehumanization that Palestinians have been subjected to by the colonialist west and of course, by Israel. So instead, conjure up an image of your own children, as horrible as that may sound, having to scribble their names on their hands as they watch their world exploding around them. Maybe only then, will the enormity and the horror of what has befallen Gaza, dawn on you. Our children have become Israel’s easiest targets and it is slaughtering them with chilling ease. The malevolent forces at work, busy annihilating my people, will not stop out of mercy or compassion, even for the thousands of slain children. It will take a power, even stronger than this killing machine to force their hand. Let us remember, “President Snow” from the Hunger Games was only defeated when the Mockingjay’s righteous army of people brought him down.
Read More...
By: Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
Date: 01/04/2024
By: Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
Date: 16/11/2023
By: Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
Date: 08/11/2023
By the Same Author
Date: 30/04/2024
Date: 14/02/2024
Date: 01/02/2024
Date: 10/01/2024
|