Have You Heard of Gaza?
Professor Michel Abs
The Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC)
It has been nearly a year and a half since the war on Gaza, the displacement and extermination of its people, and yet the world continues to stand by, either unrealizing or indifferent to the horror experienced by more than two million human beings.
A troubling silence followed the loud protests of people from all corners of the globe, protests that were suppressed, and their leaders threatened and imprisoned. Yes, democracy and human rights failed the Gaza-test.
A disturbing silence in the face of the daily catastrophe endured by the people of Gaza. Those who study genocides know that after swift, direct killing comes the slow, long-term death, the kind that allows its planners and executors to wash their hands clean. Put a people under siege, and they die from hunger, thirst, cold, or disease, and no one is held accountable, no one is even accused.
Each day, we receive through social media channels images of the tragedies unfolding in every moment of these people’s lives. The least that can be said of what we see is that it is revolting and degrading to human dignity. For people to reach such a level of planned, systematic misery, this is the pinnacle of savagery.
What compels one to rise up in outrage is the shamelessness of the proposed projects, intended to be built on the blood of children, the elderly, the disabled, and the displaced people of Gaza, people who could perish at any moment. It is tourism and luxury built on human blood.
We ask: Where are the human rights organizations and all those involved in dignity, humanitarian services, and human affairs? Have your eyes become desensitized to scenes of misery and torture? Have your ears become used to the groans of the hungry and the screams of the suffering? Have you lost the feelings upon which all institutions of aid and development were founded? Have you become beasts in lamb clothing?
The world celebrates, rejoices, and indulges in extravagance and waste, while the children of Gaza cannot find their daily bread.
You, children of Gaza, made the shame of humanity! You have exposed the hypocrisy and deceit rampant in the world! You have put the promise-makers to the test and revealed their falsehoods! In the frailty of your bodies, you are stronger than the giants of this world. Your bodies may fall, but your truth has imposed itself on existence.
You have endured, you are not beggars pleading for rights!
History will record your heroism, O children and people of Gaza, in letters of light that blind those with malicious eyes.
In the image and likeness of the Lord, you are slaughtered and crucified near His Golgotha. In His image, you were crucified, pierced by spears, and given a bitter drink. You are children of the land of the Incarnate One who changed the face of the world, and now you walk in His path.
I bow before your heroism. I grieve for a human race that has betrayed you. And I tell you: the Lord’s eye sees, and your night will not last forever.
The strong will to live that you possess, and the high spirits shining from your faces despite hunger, are your psychological reservoir for endurance in a world that has abandoned its values and descended to the level of beasts.