Giants in an Age of Diminution!!

An undoubtedly painful reality, surrounded by frustration, melancholy, and a loss of hope, the Palestinian Arab people are under siege from every direction. The Palestinian cause is being systematically diminished under pressures from both enemies and friends, from non-Arabs and Arabs alike. Gaza has faced the most horrific human crimes of modern times, destruction and killing, and most alarmingly, starvation and genocide. Since the Oslo Accords, the enemy has been working to undermine national collective awareness, and for decades the Arab individual, particularly the Palestinian, has been subjected to a systematic wave of brainwashing that has affected the entire state of affairs from the ocean to the gulf, negatively impacting the particularity of the Palestinian cause in the Arab consciousness. The enemy has monopolized the presence and resources of the Palestinian people, yet it has collided with Gaza, which remains the steadfast barrier against the plans of the occupation and its allies aimed at Palestine and the wider Arab and Islamic worlds, particularly the Arab homeland, bound together by multiple ties, the most important being religion, language, customs, and traditions. This has heightened the brutality of this enemy—brutality inspired by Talmudic colonial beliefs centered on killing, destruction, and havoc—and has exploited the available resources and vulnerabilities, aided by allies who share the same objectives, both non-Arab and Arab, to kill the spirit of resistance and stifle any attempts at liberation from servitude. This has become evident in the unreasonable conditions imposed on the resistance and the war of starvation and extermination waged against the Gaza Strip, with utter disregard for any international humanitarian laws or norms that contradict its vengeful practices.

Despite this brutality, and the silence, betrayal, and complicity in the Arab and international arenas, a group of national, popular, and influential figures from the West Bank and Jerusalem—albeit somewhat late—most of whom are founders of the Palestinian national and popular conferences, laid on the ground and sheltered under the sky, announcing a voluntary hunger strike at our town center in Al-Bireh, engaging in the battle of spirit and body, in solidarity with our people in Gaza, and in rejection of the crimes of starvation and genocide they are facing, amidst a shameful local official silence, disgraceful official Arab indifference, international diplomatic hypocrisy, and well-known American complicity. These figures are giants who have emerged in a time of diminishment, most of whom are elderly and isolated, facing foes who surpass them in the most advanced weaponry and military equipment.

This strike, as described by those leading and participating in it, is a step to break the state of silence engulfing the Palestinian and Arab arenas, which has not yet risen to the magnitude and gravity of the current event, while the streets of the West are overflowing with thousands of friends and supporters expressing their outrage at the brutal practices of the occupation that blatantly violate all humanitarian laws and norms.

This strike reaffirms that Gaza, which faces the Zionist-American project alone, is not alone, and that the Palestinian people share a common fate—West Bank and Jerusalem will hunger and rise up until the aggression stops. It is a strike that embodies determination and challenge; it serves as a warning of what lies ahead, which does not bode well. If silence, indifference, and complicity continue, the situation in Gaza may spread to the occupied Palestinian territories, especially if, God forbid, the plans of the lurking occupation succeed in Gaza, particularly with regard to complete occupation and the displacement of populations.

The step of the strike is nothing but the 'weakest of faith' for the isolated, yet they believe in the inevitability of victory and the ability to change, believing in stirring the stagnant waters among the silent majority, and transforming the Palestinian situation first, and then the Arab and international ones. They believe that the snowball must roll until the aggression stops, and in rekindling the spirits to rise against oppression and tyranny, they believe that with more steadfastness and patience, there will be a greater popular reaction and a broader movement leading to the end of the suffering of Gazans, lifting the veil off those responsible for the crimes and bringing them to the desired justice, and confronting challenges. They believe in the approaching moment when all Palestinians, and then Arabs, will rise to the struggle in defense of Gaza and the homeland, and to thwart the projects of the occupation and its allies; they believe in the inevitability of the struggle expanding to become the broad catalyst for all sectors of the Palestinian people, and the involvement of the free people of the world to achieve the desired popular and political impact to stop genocide, and then move to the phase of reconstruction and holding the occupation accountable for its crimes. They believe that true victory lies first in liberating oneself from fear, dependence, and fragmentation!!

So, how many victims must fall to elevate the official and popular Palestinian and Arab levels to the scale of the event and to act seriously to save our people in the Gaza Strip and support the oppressed? Will the giants be left alone to become easy prey for the encroaching dwarfs?