Reshaping Palestinian Awareness

Author: سهيل كيوان

People in Gaza are starving to death; this time, death from hunger is not a metaphor, but rather a reality where a child dies in front of those around him and in the hands of a family member.

A bag of flour and a loaf of bread have turned into a matter of life and death, a can of milk has become a dream, and clean water is a luxury that only a few people can attain.

In light of an all-encompassing siege, which has transcended all common norms of ethics, law, and divine and earthly customs, it has become an openly declared war crime, perpetrated by a barbaric occupation, the leader of which is wanted by the International Criminal Court.

Humanity has never seen a crime like this. Meanwhile, the future of relations between Palestinians and Israelis, as well as between Palestinians and Arabs on the other side, is being shaped.

This starvation to death will reshape Palestinian awareness. What Israel is doing in the Gaza Strip goes beyond the traditional conflict that the parties have grown accustomed to since the establishment of the State of Israel. This is no longer a conventional military war, ending in casualties, injuries, prisoners, destruction of facilities, and occupation of land!
The crime of starvation means that Israel will no longer remain the same in the Palestinian imagination. Many Palestinians, despite everything that has happened to them and their people before this, carried the idea of the "rational enemy," and many Palestinian intellectuals often repeated the saying "a rational enemy is better than an ignorant friend." The rational enemy leaves a bridge or a line for return, treats prisoners according to international law, and avoids deliberately killing civilians. If civilians are killed, it quickly seeks to investigate the matter and shows sympathy, even if just formally, toward the innocent.

The rational enemy fights, while at the same time talks about its desire to reach a formula for coexistence. It is a body that has ambitions for the land and seeks to occupy it, but it has transformed into an occupation that systematically exterminates people before the eyes of the world.

It no longer considers the so-called international public opinion important, nor the potential future relations with this people that is undergoing genocide. It is no longer the entity that marketed itself as one that defends itself and extends a hand for peace. Now, it clearly declares that it is a very extremist entity seeking to exterminate Palestinians and destroy anyone who attempts to impede its project.

From a cunning negotiating enemy to an explicit existential enemy that speaks only the language of extermination.

From a party in conflict to a documented war criminal marked by blood, images, and destruction.
Even the moderate Palestinian, who still believes in a settlement, now whispers: "What peace can you make with someone who exterminates people through starvation!"

As for the no less devastating issue for the people of the Gaza Strip, it is the betrayal of the Arabs.
"Where are the Arabs?" This question has often been echoed by men, women, and children in the Gaza Strip.
Between governments that are satisfied with cold statements, others that have succumbed to the inability to allow assistance, and yet others rushing into normalization paths, the idea of Arabism is falling from the hearts of Gazans.

This Arab neutrality, especially the Egyptian neutrality adjacent to the starving, is cowardice at best and a disgrace carried by the Egyptian regime that has even prevented international solidarity from passing through its land. This is a disgrace that will not be erased for decades; in fact, it is complicity added to cowardice. This cowardly stance must be recorded for history so that no one distorts it and claims otherwise.

Extermination and starvation have succeeded in making Palestinians doubt what was called the "Arab depth." Palestinians believed in or lived under the illusion of an "Arab depth"; now it becomes clear that all this is nothing but an illusion and will remain so as long as these regimes maintain their seats through coups and betrayal among themselves, and as long as they only reach them with the permission and support of the American and Israeli.

In the smoke of Arab betrayal and cowardice, the importance of global movements emerges to confirm that the world is not divided between Arabs and foreigners, nor between Muslims and non-Muslims, nor between believers and non-believers!

We have seen atheists and followers of different religions boycotting ports that transport weapons to the occupying state, while we have seen, in contrast, Arab and Muslim countries opening their ports to weapons that will harm the children and women of Gaza.

We have seen in the streets of European cities what we have not seen in Cairo, Alexandria, Jeddah, Riyadh, and others. We have even seen popular movements in America itself. We have seen liberated countries and regimes prosecuting war criminals and gathering evidence to convict them, while Arab regimes are making excuses for them and boasting of their steadfast relationship with them.

In light of this moral collapse, the talk of a "two-state solution" seems naive, and returning to negotiations is futile, and has become nothing but a dropped yellow paper.

People are no longer thinking today about maps, divisions, and borders of states but about surviving the holocaust.

It will be up to the Arabs, and Egypt in particular, which is adjacent to the Gaza Strip, to answer: "How did you leave people in Gaza to die of hunger! How did you allow hunger to devastate people while international aid from various countries around the world stands waiting in vain until it rots at your crossings?".