Jacob W
The ongoing war in the Middle East is spilling over onto every continent on the globe be it via protests, or actual violence.
There has been a sharp increase in antisemitism, and islamophobia alike.
Two weeks ago, a six-year old Muslim American-Palestinian boy was killed in Chicago. The victim was stabbed 26 times by his landlord, a 71-year-old man in Illinois.
Also, the Dagestani airport debacle.
The online space is especially toxic, but the owners of the internet are loving it because chaos generates income. Social media, although useful at times, is adding to the furore by facilitating biassed content in an attempt to influence public perception.
This is especially true when we look at Israel’s hand in the online space. A number of Tik Tokkers, and influences have come forward stating that pro-Israeli groups offered to pay them $5000 (including benefits) in exchange for good coverage. Many pro-palestinian supporters on the other hand have lost social accounts or jobs for simply making their positions known, but compare that to circulating videos of Israelis mocking dead Palestinians in Gaza, and we can see an obvious discrepancy.
Double standards in the West (Ukraine vs. Palestine) has also created a distrust of the mainstream narrative, with more and more people relying on social media.
Giving Israel carte blanche to bomb Gaza back to the stone age is also setting a dangerous precedent, and will not be forgotten by the Arab world anytime soon.
The attacks by Israeli forces in Palestine today may reverberate across Europe, and the US come tomorrow.
An example of this is the Manchester bombing; a consequence of the UK’s involvement in the war in Libya (2011). The Gaza conflict is heavy to say the least, and it is difficult not to get carried away, but I stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
I reject Zionism because Zionism is a Trojan horse for fascism and apartheid.
So much death and destruction in just over three weeks, and yet, no efforts whatsoever by the “civilised Western world” for a ceasefire. One is left wondering why no ceasefire after 3 500 children in Gaza have been killed, but surely there are also 3 500 dead Hamas militants because Western media tells us that Palestinian children and women are human shields for Hamas.
Some Israeli MP’s have doubled-down by calling dead Palestinian children “future Hamas terrorists”, so everyone can breathe a sigh of relief...
Such a simplification comforts the Western psyche because Israel can now contextualise the killing of babies, and this must be the reason why Ursula Von Der Leyen (EU leader) sleeps so well at night...
If Hamas is the core issue in the Israeli war, then why are so many Palestinian children being killed on a daily basis in the West Bank? The answer is because all Palestinains are a target, and Hamas is used to justify the occupation, and Israeli aggression.
As the saying goes, the first casualty of war is always the truth, so let us begin with Hamas. Who are they exactly, and what drives them? Hamas translates to “Islamic Resistance”, and its founder was Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, a disabled and half-blind muslim cleric who was also the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
Prior to 1967, the Brotherhood was repressed by the Egyptian forces, but after Israel’s invasion, the Brotherhood was encouraged by the Israeli government. Yassin was allowed to register an organisation, and went on to build schools, and mosques with funding provided by Israel.
In return, Israel used Yassin’s group as a proxy-force to strategically divide Yasser Arafat’s PLO (Fatah), and create dissent amongst the Palestinians. Israel was in bed with the very same people they now regard as terrorists.
They created, and funded Hamas, but their actions have come back to bite them at the expense of innocent Israelis too.
The antagonist that was Saddam Hussein has been replaced with Iran’s Ebrahim Raisi, but minus the Weapons of Mass Destruction for now...I am sure that many readers will be surprised to learn about the origins of Hamas, and how they were created by Israel in 1987.
Hamas was created to counteract the PLO and Yasser Arafat because Israel does not believe the Palestinains have a right to their own land, or self-determination. Fuelled by rage, and cultivated by 36 years of brutality, Hamas’ presence is proof of Israel’s failure as a “democracy”.
Jacob W is a poet and writer residing in the Western Cape
Cape Times