A young woman was killed at the music festival which was attacked by Hamas on 7 October 2023 and a friend of hers who was kidnapped and later released, gave a speech explaining how they were let down by the United Nations because the UN did not save her or the other hostages. It seems that it was the United Nations fault the people who were kidnapped and held as hostages, that not a finger was lifted to have them released.
I was sent that video with a comment that those young women could have been my grand daughters. and a question, ‘How is this humanitarian?’
The never ending stream of pro Israeli, anti Islam, anti Palestinian posts keep coming, and with them accusations of my supporting terrorism because I do not unequivocally support Israel in that conflict. The UN claims to be a humanitarian organisation, so I guess the lack of humanitarian action taken by them shifts the blame from those who have demolished the Gaza Strip, killed over 43,000 men, women and children and have stood in the way of providing essential supplies, food, water, fuel, medical supplied to the UN for not having found a way of releasing the hostages.
How can we explain that no, that could not have been my grand daughters, any more likely than the vehicle which crashed on the Bruce Highway in Queensland, killing people in another vehicle could have been me when I am on the other side of the continent.
If we start to pull false equivalents like that, any one of us could have been killed when something bad happens anywhere in the world with people doing stuff we may like to do.
Down at a favourite tourist spot, The Gap, near Albany a while back, a young Indian man stepped out from the safety rail, stood on the edge of the cliff and as he help his phone up to take a selfie fell into the raging ocean 15 metres below. He died. It could have been me, even though I was there on another day and did not step out of the safety rail. A false equivalence.
How can I explain that a Lebanese friend grieves his father. His father lived in Beirut. His father was not a member of Hezbollah, nor is he muslim. He was an elderly gentleman living out his life in the land and city which had been his home for over 80 years. That is not a ‘could have been me’ equivalence. My city is not being bombed, where I live is not a war zone. I can grieve with my friend, but cannot feel the depth of his pain. No, a ‘could be’ doesn’t work, it is a totally false equivalence.
Is that death the fault of the UN and their inability to stop the rain of bombs and rockets and missiles devastating Lebanon, including Beirut? Is the UN denying its humanitarian mandate because they are under attack from the IDF?
And then the question was asked, ‘how I can see Israel/Palestine as being colonised?’
How can I explain to the Bedouin shepherd who has been driven off his traditional land his family have lived and grazed on for countless generations on the West Bank, to make way for an Israeli settlement is not an act of colonisation but Israel taking back the land promised to their ‘forefather’ Abraham about 3,000 years ago, as recorded in the Biblical book of Genesis?
How do I explain what humanitarian is to a person who denies humanity to people he does not like a lot, whoselives are not worthy of life compared to those who are pushing them aside? That the life of one ethnicity is of more value than that of another ethnicity?
How do I explain to someone that a person holding beliefs and faith which is different than the faith he holds does not make that person any less human? Does not make him a terrorist?
How can I know what it is like to live in a war zone where people are killed for being one kind but not the other kind of people, whether it be Israeli or Palestinian, or the difference in any other war zone?
In the last week two people I have met with came from Belfast and lived through the darkest days of ‘The Troubles’. Firstly, Mark was sitting with me enjoying a coffee when there was a loud noise, a ‘bang’ nearby. It was nothing bad, a building site next door, something fell, but his reaction was one of shock and he explained to that he had witnessed bomb attacks, cars being blown up, friends being killed.
Earlier today at a group meeting, an Irish lady, Pat explained that living in a Protestant part of Belfast in the 1970’s, the nearby corner shop was run by a Catholic Couple. They were forced out at gun point and the store and the flat above the store which was their home was burned to the ground. Pat also lost friends, killed for being who they were.
How can we gaze into the phone or computer, listening to and watching videos of self-righteous people decrying the UN, Palestinians, Muslims or any other perceived enemy, when we are so far removed from the actual situation these people find themselves in, how can we even imagine the thought that our homes can be blown to smithereens when we live in the safety of this corner of Australia, Perth, the most remote capital city in the world. And dare I say one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world. And it is peaceful.
How dare we be presented with a ‘could be’. It is a false equivalence used to raise the level of hate and fear based on difference, yet we are all human.
Aren’t we?
How dare we be presented with a false equivalence when real people are dying because of who they are, who they live near, because of their faith, their nationality, their ethnicity when we live in a safety which shields us from such agony.
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