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For 11 excruciating days now, I have been in tears and terrified for the safety of my blind mother, my paralyzed father and my two siblings in the Gaza Strip.
For 11 days, I have witnessed horrific Israeli violence defying humanity while being fully supported by the United States – liberal and conservative – with the stated intent of destroying the lives of more than two million people, including my family and loved ones. This intention and the scale of the destruction and loss of life constitute a classic example of genocide, defined as follows:
Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such:
- Kill group members;
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
- Deliberately imposing conditions of existence on the group likely to result in its total or partial physical destruction;
- Impose measures intended to prevent births within the group;
- Forcibly transferring children from the group to another group.
Adding to the horror of it all, I have seen dehumanizing reports about the people of the Gaza Strip spread like wildfire, only to be debunked and proven false. This includes misinformation spread on social media by several LGBTQIA+ people in my social circles here in the district. I thought we were friends until I saw their Instagram posts applauding Israeli violence and the threat it poses to my family.
How could they be so quick to judge? How could they be so quick to throw their progressive values out the window and accept the slaughter of women, men and babies – civilians from all walks of life? What is going through their minds when they consciously choose to so casually propagate the cruel and indiscriminate killing of people?
These questions and a million others run through my mind.
Unlike those morally bankrupt people who are using the tragedy unfolding in the region for fleeting validation and personal gain on social media, those of us most affected by what is happening are not playing political football and do not “attack” the lives of our loved ones. We know and recognize that no one in their right mind would appreciate this violence. In fact, apart from the tragic loss of life, the other tragedy is that this whole situation was avoidable, easily and peacefully avoidable. Anyone who has paid attention to the reality of Israel’s brutal military occupation of Palestine – particularly its years-long siege of the Gaza Strip – knows this.
Yet here we are at a bloody moment due to choices made over decades, including the choice of successive administrations here in the United States to support and turn a blind eye to Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights and the regime. of apartheid that he imposes. on Palestine.
Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, this context is absent from the dehumanizing Palestinian content that many LGBTQIA+ people recklessly share on social media.
Worse still, the knee-jerk reaction of some LGTBQIA+ people is to grossly generalize and reduce the tragedy we are witnessing to simply stupid points like: Israel has the pride of Tel Aviv. Hamas hates gays. So I stand with Israel. Statements like this make no sense.
Homophobia in the Gaza Strip, and in Palestine in general, is a problem, just as it is a problem in many parts of the United States and in many countries around the world. This is not a Hamas problem. Meanwhile, the cause of how and why we got to this horrific violence is clearly an Israeli problem: the brutal military occupation and apartheid regime. Just because Israel holds a Pride Parade every year doesn’t mean Israel is a safe haven for LGBTQIA+ people – certainly not for LGBTQIA+ Palestinians, and certainly not when the Israeli government’s own laws regarding LGBTQIA+ issues are , at best, mixed. After all, pride parades are not a measure of a country’s human rights record, which in Israel’s case is abysmal when considering its actions towards Palestine.
LGBTQIA+ messages supporting Israel and based on a belief in freedom, equality and dignity miss the mark and are meaningless when the same freedoms, equality and dignity are not systematically applied and extended to human beings everywhere, including including Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The only way for such messages to make sense is to completely remove the humanity of Palestinians – a hateful and repugnant crime.
Freedom, equality and dignity are indivisible human rights: they cannot be respected and protected willy-nilly, unless the intention is to discriminate and dehumanize. You are either for them or against them – there is no middle ground or selection.
So, if you are reading this and have shared content supporting Israel and stripping Palestinians of their humanity over the past 11 days, which may very well harm my family, I ask you to stop and remember, ultimately account, as LGBTQIA+. people, we know what it’s like to feel insecure in our own skin, to be stripped of our humanity for no other reason than existing as we are. This is what Palestinians like me and my family are experiencing now and have been enduring for years and years.
So it is up to us all to ensure that humanity – the same humanity we fight for in defending our rights and safety as LGBTQIA+ people – prevails so that we can see better days ahead.
To do anything less would be a betrayal of our humanity and a blatant display of hypocrisy and warmongering.
If you cannot find it in your heart to simply stop and think before blindly signing up for genocide with an “I stand with Israel” message, your hatred, ignorance and lack of will are part of the problem that led us to this horrible violence in the first place. .
Dorgham Abusalim is a writer and communications professional based in DC.
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