In the West, it is the season of remembrance.
It is an almost sacred moment, when we are forced to pause and reflect on loss and sacrifice and to thank, among others, the remaining survivors and honored dead – many of whom fought against the fascist agents of Holocaust.
They were mostly ordinary men and women, from largely ordinary places, who did what was right and necessary when the urgent moment demanded the defeat of a rancid regime and ideology that not only had to be defeated but eradicated.
So, one day a year, we applaud ordinary men and women from ordinary places who are still alive as they carefully walk together to pay quiet tribute to their comrades-in-arms buried in faraway places, where they died saving others and making history. .
The irony, of course, is that the hypocrites who led the solemn ceremonies this weekend in Europe, North America and beyond, and who will make recycled speeches about the imperative to remember, now want make us forget.
What’s more, presidents and prime ministers expect us to forget. They will, I suppose, count on that.
They are convinced that soon we will be too preoccupied with the demands and vagaries of life to remember what they did and did not do in this urgent moment, as we face the glaring human consequences of deliberate, state-sanctioned inhumanity.
Above all, these presidents and prime ministers want us to forget their complicity in the genocide we witness being committed minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, week by week, against Palestinians imprisoned in this broken, apocalyptic hellscape. called Gaza and little by little, inevitably, in the occupied West Bank, by another so-called “champion of democracy”.
Presidents and prime ministers want us to forget the carte blanche they have, for decades, guaranteed to their dear friend Benjamin Netanyahu and other fanatical Israeli prime ministers, to kill as many Palestinians as they wish, whenever they wish, for humanitarian reasons. as long as they want.
Presidents and prime ministers want us to forget their recent pilgrimages to Tel Aviv to kiss and shake hands with a strutting murderer who has a long and heinous history of ordering Palestinians killed on the spot with bullets, bombs and drones.
Presidents and prime ministers want us to forget their lectures calling us “sympathizers of terrorism” while praising the determination and righteousness of a miserable sociopath who ordered the slow killing of Palestinians by depriving them of water, food and fuel.
Presidents and prime ministers want us to forget the appalling scenes of the exodus of hundreds of thousands of exhausted Palestinians, forced to flee certain death on foot, in makeshift carriages and mules for miles with little but they could transport or rescue.
Presidents and prime ministers want us to forget the time when their dear “democrat” friend bombed schools, hospitals, ambulances and convoys of exhausted Palestinian refugees trying to escape the murderous madness.
Presidents and prime ministers want us to forget the images of limp, dead children pulled from the flattened remains of their homes, where they slept and laughed and played and lived and where they were cared for by loving mothers and fathers who ‘they loved in equal measure. .
Presidents and prime ministers want us to forget the charred, bloodied, dirt-covered faces and bodies of haunted children on hospital gurneys calling out to their missing mamas and babas for comfort from the darkness and horror .
Presidents and prime ministers want us to forget the sobbing babas carrying the bodies of their children wrapped in white shrouds and the mothers crying over their hasty graves.
Presidents and prime ministers want us to forget that they said the Palestinians lied about the number of brothers and sisters, including infants and children, killed or maimed by their dear “democrat” friend, whom a legion of Israelis consider him a habitual liar. , career con artist and arrogant authoritarian.
Presidents and prime ministers want us to forget that when we shouted “stop” – over and over again – they told the habitual liar, career crook and arrogant authoritarian to continue killing Palestinians whenever he wants. , wherever he wants, for as long as possible. he wants.
But be careful: we will remember it.
We will remember what these complicit presidents and prime ministers – and their ranking allies in the establishment press – did and what they failed to do because decency and our constant solidarity with the Palestinians and their just cause demand it.
These myopic presidents and prime ministers are only just beginning to realize the true and enduring extent of support for the Palestinians among the millions of their furious voters who, in the face of unmistakable unrelenting genocide, are being driven to do something today. ‘today and, most certainly. , tomorrow.
Presidents and prime ministers have miscalculated – and it’s serious. They misjudged our resolve, our commitment and our determination not to be intimidated or silenced – today and, most certainly, tomorrow.
They can’t ban us all. They can’t stop us all. Many of us are rebellious. They are some cowards.
Old tactics no longer work. We will not be intimidated or deterred by the smear mongers in Israel or their stupid surrogates inside or outside Congress or Parliament who view the Palestinians as disposable fodder.
And take note: we will act too.
We will punish these presidents, early leaders, and their groveling heirs by denying them what they value most: position and power.
We will mobilize. We will organize. We will channel our indignation. We exercise our free will.
We will also be patient.
In time, we will get rid of these sick presidents and prime ministers and their collaborators by voting in defense of humanity and Palestine – even if exercising our right to vote is called “blood libel” or ” anti-Semitic” by the usual pedestrians. apologists.
We will choose wisely. We will vote for candidates who side with the Palestinians, not just rhetorically, but practically. First by demanding a ceasefire. Second, by helping Palestinians rebuild their ancestral home occupied and destroyed by the most immoral army in the world.
We, mostly ordinary people from largely ordinary places, will never forget.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.
