It has been over 75 days , and 75 years, since this nightmare began and in the words of one Palestinian influencer, “every day is the worst day, in Gaza.” Not only have unimaginable numbers of men, women and children been murdered by Israeli bombs, artillery shells and snipers, but new horrors emerge every day for the people who have managed to stay alive. I want to say they are the ‘lucky ones’ but I am not sure they share my sentiment. With death, destruction, displacement, disease and now starvation, surviving in Gaza means that life has been reduced to the bare minimum – finding shelter, a loaf of bread, a sip of water or an empty plot of soil to bury your loved ones. With such unfathomable, sickening horrors, there is no turning back, primarily for Gaza but really, for all Palestinians everywhere. Regardless of whether this sadistic Israeli assault takes another day or another year to finally come to an end, we and the world, will never be the same. This is what is called the point of no return. Palestinians will never forget the mass murder of their people in the Gaza Strip, how Israeli forces literally executed civilians in schools and on streets as they fled through “safe evacuation routes”, or how they ran over and crushed displaced persons with bulldozers. They will never forget the screams of children trapped beneath the rubble, screams that eventually went silent. They will never forget the premature babies left to die and decompose in incubators in Al Nasr Hospital after medical staff and distraught parents were forced out at gunpoint by belligerent Israeli forces. They will never forget having to bid their babies goodbye, knowing they would never see them again. No, Palestine will never be the same and neither will the Palestinians. What has happened to this people, my people, over the past two and a half months has changed us to the very core and what may have been acceptable before is no longer acceptable now because no people on this earth can turn the other cheek to those who committed genocide against them. The world will be forced to reckon with the new Palestinians as well. There will be checks and balances for those who aided Israel in its ethnic cleansing. Niceties are over, false pretenses of “sitting at the table to talk” will no longer apply as long as there is not a solid foundation for real justice and accountability. Palestinians will accept nothing less than for Israeli criminals to stand trial for their war crimes. They will not accept to go back to the previous status quo because if any truth has been laid bare in this genocide, it is that this status quo is completely untenable and must be cast aside for good. The day of reckoning is near. Even through the blood and tears, Palestinians can smell the sweet fragrance of freedom. History has taught us that oppression, colonialism, apartheid and tyranny can never prevail and though the price is painfully high, justice will inevitably crack through this darkness and cast the light of emancipation on our exhausted souls. Free Palestine, now and forever.
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