Close to 70 people gathered at a local park on October 7, demonstrated with signs for the rush-hour traffic to witness, then held a vigil to commemorate one year of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank. We read 110 names of Gazan babies less than one-year old, with the words, “If you went to one funeral a day for each child Israel has killed with US made weapons in Palestine since October 7, it would take 60 years to attend all the funerals. Each child’s name represents 200 children killed by Israel since October 7.” We chanted, children flew little kites, and we laid flowers on the ground spelling out the word, “gaza,” ending with a heart. These are the words I spoke. Michael
Day 365, one year, 365 long, long days … Let that sink in.
76 years – 76 years – and longer … Let that sink in.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as of the end of September, 42,000 Gazans killed (according to the independent British medical journal, The Lancet, it’s more than four times that many, 186,000 at last count), 22,000 children killed, 20,000 children orphaned, 20,000 children missing. 100,000 Gazans injured, and 1.9 million out of the 2.1 million Gazans displaced.
The statistics are staggering. The numbers cause us pause.
Every number has a name. Every number was a unique human being. Every number had a family. Every number was a person.
We’re here today to keep vigil.
We’re here to bear witness.
We’re here to remember.
We’re here to lament and repent.
We’re here to recommit ourselves to a Palestine that’s free.
A war not only on Gaza.
A war not only on the Palestinian people.
A war on the traditions, culture, on the very idea of Palestine itself, an attempt to wipe Palestine from human memory.
The very definition of genocide.
And it’s taking place not behind closed doors, but out in the open, on our screens every day, right before our very eyes.
I grieve for the unnecessary waste of life.
I am frustrated at the seeming inability for voices of peace and freedom – our voices – to be heard, frustrated that words like “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing,” that “genocide,” that these horrors have become normalized. And Palestinians have become invisible, dehumanized, and fodder in Israel’s 76-year+-long colonizing, ethnic cleansing, genocidal project.
I am angry at the leaders of my country for feeding the murderous Israel death machine
As I said recently in Washington DC:
Our humanity is being tested.
Our morality is being tested.
Our faith is being tested.
Our government is failing the test. The Biden-Harris administration is criminally complicit as an active participant in Israel’s massacre of Palestinians. The Vice-President says she is “working around the clock to get a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza,” all the while their administration is providing carte-blanche the 2000-pound bombs aiding and abetting the Zionist genocide in Palestine. This isn’t complicated. STOP GIVING THEM THE GODDAMN BOMBS!
Our media is failing the test.
Our churches and religious institutions are failing the test. A few churches have made statements, passed BDS resolutions, but much more, much more than words, we need to see so much more from our churches. Or else they become just so many museums with relics from a bygone era.
Where will we stand on the Day of Reckoning? What will be said of us?
As I said, today I am grieving, I am frustrated, I am angry.
I’m acutely aware of our own US settler-colonial history, a tragic and horrible model for Israel’s 76-year history of ethnic cleansing. So I want to use today to channel those complex and very deep emotions to reflect on the ways that my words, my actions, my lifestyle, my taxes, my beliefs contribute to a world where prejudice, intolerance, hate, and violence are so prevalent.
I want to use today to recommit myself to challenging our US government, our representatives, and all political candidates no matter which party, that complicity and participation in genocide is a deal-breaker, that our voices will be heard here in DC and at the ballot box. No more political calculus, genocide is a moral evil, I don’t care what party you’re from, who you are, what the alternative is. As someone said recently, if genocide isn’t your red line, then you don’t have a red line. We will simply not tolerate this as US citizens, as global citizens, and as human beings.
And I want to use today to recommit myself to the struggle for people in this country who are on the margins and without a voice, and on this horrible, horrible anniversary, to recommit myself to the struggle for Palestine, with our friends there, to raise our voices and affirm the humanity and dignity of the Palestinian people.
Like the cedars of Lebanon, the strength of the people of Lebanon.
Like the olive trees of Palestine, the resilience of the people of Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
As our friends at Jewish Voice for Peace say, “Mourn the dead. Fight for the living. Arms embargo now.”
Say it with me, “Mourn the dead. Fight for the living. Arms embargo now.” x 3
“From the river to the sea. … Palestine will be free.” x 3
I’m heartened that you’re all here and that we’re in the struggle together. Thank you for coming out today.