97 Days
There are still hostages. 136 of them. Let that sink in.
Disclaimer: this was written and shared on social media on January 12, 2024.
To be honest, growing up I’d never felt that connected to being Jewish or our family’s Jewish heritage in terms of me as an individual, having grown up in Western spaces. Always just saw myself as an Australian/American, and that was all. That had been increasingly changing over the last few years and catapulted on Oct 7th. With pain, loss, devastation, solitary, self-preservation… the list goes on.
I’ve cried a lot in the last 3 months, and am taking great care in writing this. Knowing you can’t hit everything at once. My sister lives in Israel. Hearing her experiences, and those of my friends there, and massively the way the world has reacted, have shown me many things. Here are a few:
ONE is that my experience of war is only from history books or at a distance through news. I think many people my age forget that because we feel saturated and “informed”. I recently went to the Imperial Museum in London (WWI, WWII, Holocaust), and slapped me in the face with how devastating, consequential, lengthy, and confusing war is. And that was without social media or instant news. I wonder how our society today would have responded to the causes, decisions, actions, consequences, and aftermath of WWII…
ANOTHER is you have to be so careful in what and how you take in news, especially when it comes to the source. The race to the scoop is dangerously powerful and seems to make any sort of journalistic malpractice irrelevant. In fact, it’s almost ignored, and seemingly lacking any sort of consequence. I’ve seen a significantly diluted meaning of retraction from esteemed outlets who (should) know better. Which is infuriating and saddening, but mostly dangerous.
In history class, I remember we were taught to look at the quality of a source. This didn’t mean ignore it, but it was meant to help you understand where it’s coming from. When our “influencers” are knowingly or (sure, the benefit of the doubt) unknowingly sharing unvetted, biased, partial information - just remember that fights in the comments are unlikely to lead to any sort of healthy conversation. And potentially leads to their monetary gain…
War is awful. War is horrid. War is complex. Geopolitics are not simple, despite what social media may imply. Voices that have recently become “experts” are a guarantee in our online world, and a danger. I wish there was a stronger exercise of caution and learning before acting/speaking to understand a world away from your own. And I see the irony here, but rather than pretending I can educate, I’m just saying please have caution in listening to the viewership mongers. Likes doesn’t mean it’s fact, or the full picture. Acknowledging this is complex is not a cop-out.
I am confounded that a continuous outraged demand for a ceasefire would ever not include a demand to RELEASE THE HOSTAGES. (which fyi H@MAS violated the first, and rejected the second, AND the third) Mortifying. And more than that, concerning. This shows the true colours of many.
War is horrid. I’m a pacifist at heart, and attempting to wrap my head around the bloodshed is not something I take lightly, nor something I pretend to fully understand. But release the hostages. Is that not as simple as it gets? Free the Palestinians from H@MAS. Imagine it was your loved ones, who had been shot, dragged by their hair into a mob, and disappeared… 97 days ago.
And while we’re asking hypotheticals, have you noticed that pro-Israel protests don’t show up at Mosques or other Islamic spaces to disrupt, vandalism, or intimidate? Because that would be Islamophobia, wouldn’t it? It would be a hate crime?
Yet we have seen many Jewish spaces being defaced, intimidated, attacked… the list goes on. Not just spaces, but Jews around the world, individuals. And the justification is that Jews are the problem. So much so that not one, but THREE “elite” university presidents would agree that calling for the eradication of Jews requires context(?!?) before it’s an issue. Harvard, Penn, MIT… revered names.
Doesn’t add up, does it?
YET, only one group is calling for the eradication of an ethnic group. But Jews are the problem. Coincidentally it’s the same group that started this war by slaughtering innocent people at a festival for peace, raping women to death, beheading, and celebrating what they’d done, and so ending the ceasefire at the time. But Brutus is an honourable man. A freedom fighter… and proudly says they’ll do it again and again and again.
And so I say again. 97 days. And hostages are still being held. 136 people kidnapped.
If you know anyone this conflict impacts, check in on them (maybe without invoking your opinions unless it’s invited). It’s been a weird holiday season with lots of emotions, and for many feels wrong to have things to look forward to.
As the wind, rain, sunsets and sunrises wash away 2023 and bring in the new year, praying we all have hope, peace, less hate, more empathy, and a path forward.
#bringthemhomenow