Today the world turned a darker shade of black. And it gets darker by the minute, by the bloodshed but even more so by the silence. A silence so loud that it is hurting me, and I believe, humanity at large. How can the world sit quiet and watch what is happening in Gaza.
We were in a service from Ramallah to Nablus today when the news started coming over the radio: 50 dead, 90 dead, 120 dead, 140 dead.... just in less than an hour. Now ten hours later, the toll is more than 200 and the number of injured is over 700.
Oh, of course there has been some condemnation of the attacks, saying that Israel should avoid targeting civilians when "retaliating", that "both sides should restrain from violence" etc. Maybe there will be some angry letters telling Israel how angry the world is. But nothing more, I'm afraid. I am sick of all excuses being made, and I am sick of all the angry letters. And I have to admit, I am quite sick of demonstrations as well. The world is responsible for what happened today. That is the reality.
The world is responsible. For neglecting to hold Israel accountable. For even actively supporting its "war on terror". Sure, there are plenty of other nasty players out there that also need to be condemned, but as my friend Shai once said, all those other nasty players "don't have the active support of the rest of the world". Because of this, the world is responsible.
When is enough really enough? When will the leaders of the world get the will to change this situation? To solve this conflict once and for all? Way too many people think this conflict is too complicated to solve. It is not. All the leaders, that have the ability to do something, know what needs to be done. They just don't want to. And it is really hard for me to face that reality, and it makes me cry. Because I desperately want to believe in humanity, and that "despite all, I still believe that people are good at heart" as Anne Frank wrote.
Until the world understands this responsibility and acts on it, is it possible to change planets?
lördag 27 december 2008
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2 kommentarer:
Du beskriver det många av oss tänker och det många andra tyvärr inte tänker.
Fan vad man känner sig hjälplös ibland. Vad kan, ska och bör man göra? Blir kanske till att lägga nästa semester i Gaza, om man kommer in. Jag har skrivit till Bush, mina senatorer och min representant samt till Obama, och skrivit på tre protestlistor, men det känns minst lika hopplöst för det. Nu vet jag iaf vart min biståndsprocent ska gå för i år.
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