How the world continues to fail Palestine.
By Eden Haddad | Staff Writer
It is difficult to encompass the entire history of wrongdoings committed to Palestine by the entire world. It is even more difficult for many people to actually see it.
There is always a forgotten victim. The hypocrisy shown in how the world treats matters of injustices is plain as day. Ukraine receives an outpouring of support after the war with Russia commenced, with one of its most vocal supporters being the illegitimate state of Israel. Of course, this does not come as that big of a surprise given the Ukrainian president’s Zionism. The irony in the situation is lost on many people. Meanwhile, Russian citizens are suffering from sanctions imposed that were meant to harm the country’s leaders, but in fact injures and inflicts major economic damage on a people that did not ask for this war. But once again, only one side is heard. Ukrainian refugees are welcomed with open arms and Palestine refugees are treated as unwanted pests. In the case of Palestinians, the damage incurred is so heavily focused on the complete rewriting of history, the entirely shifted perspective, that it is impossible for many people to even look at the situation at hand with an ounce of compassion. After all, who cares if lives are lost, if they are Arab ones?
What is even more grating, is the voices that lend themselves to this “cause of righteousness”. One such example is Nathaniel Buzolic, an actor known for his roles in The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, is an adamant supporter of Israel, spending hours upon hours on social media preaching about the legitimacy of the state and the subsequent terrorism of the Palestinian people, especially after the recent unprovoked Al Aqsa attack. The continuous trend of Western citizens living far away from any and all atrocities being committed and yet claiming the high ground in terms of both knowledge and morality, claiming to be the omniscient viewer that knows the truth of what actually occurs, is not only demeaning, but also insulting to the lives that were lost in the struggle and that are still fighting on the front lines for a war they did not cause or ask for.
With the trend of “wokeness” that is being witnessed and demanded in all people of the world, it is easy to imagine that we are living in a world that, frankly, is brilliant. It is a world where people can demand their rights and have them be given, where freedom is achieved with birth and there is a solution to all issues. Even if we don’t realize it, we see it every day. “This is 2022, of course I support this and that movement.” The truth of the matter is, this is eclipsing actual real-life issues – most if not all of them being non-Western issues, with Western voices of affluence speaking to further shadow history and present incursions. And our silence only makes that shadow opaquer.
We must continue to be vigilant, continue to speak out, because we still have our own voices and that is what we owe not just to the world, or our brothers and sisters, but to ourselves too. To our own humanity.