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- OPINION
What is going on in Palestine is the most cruel and horrific attack on the very foundation of human civilisation. Any society that celebrates and revels in the murder of children is calling for its own end, and deserves to end. As the world looks on at the murder of innocent men, women and children, Israeli society will not be able to survive the consequences of its actions without a complete transformation of its moral, social and political life world.
There is much talk of the helpless Palestinians, but the Palestinians are glorious and immortal even in death. Every Palestinian who dies at the hands of Israel is a martyr. Not only are they a martyr for the cause of Palestine, but also for the cause of human freedom and liberation everywhere.
They are martyrs that are hastening the death of White and western civilisation, and the birth of a new world order. Ironically, Isaac Herzog is right, this is a war to protect ‘western values’, and it is a war they will lose. This war must mark the end of the Western values of racism, greed and war. It is the Israelis who should worry about their future, what kind of consciousness and society will they be handing down to their children?
In the media, the Palestinian people seem nameless, numbers that keep climbing. Yet every death represents a human life lost without achieved potential, families disrupted and immense grief that will weigh down human consciousness for decades to come. One of these deaths was that of Refaat Alareer, poet, author and teacher. Refaat was a man who had become a voice of leadership and determination for the Palestinian people, and was often interviewed by alternative news channels.
I first saw Refaat in an interview in the first few days after October 6, on ‘Electronic Intifada’ youtube channel. His interview was interrupted by the sounds of bombing. He spoke of his determination to stay on in his home despite everything.
He spoke of the weight of comforting his children through the bombing, knowing full well that every night could be their last. He said he had no guns or weapons in his house if the Israeli came for him, he only had his pen. At one point in the interview he was overcome with emotion.
He knew and accepted that death was coming, and faced it squarely with resolve to make his life worth something. The Israeli army first bombed and destroyed his house in October, and then killed him in December in his sister's house, along with his brother, his sister and her children.
Refaat Alareer will become a symbol for our generation. His ideas and literature will live on in service to the Palestinian people and all humanity. He trained many young authors and writers in his short life and nurtured the human potential in the inhuman conditions of Gaza. His murder is an attack upon human civilization and will be remembered as such.
Below is his last poem.
If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself—
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up
above
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale.”
Nandita Chaturvedi i, a fellow at the National Center for Biological Sciences, Bangalore
