Marking a Year of Genocide in Gaza
by Diya Mukarji | Palestine Solidarity Campaign Stroud District
WE ARE MARKING A YEAR of this genocide. A year has passed since Israel responded to the brutal attacks of October the 7th by declaring and executing a genocide on the people of Gaza in Palestine.
I has been almost 365 days of bombs picking off one family after another, one high-rise building after another, one residential district after another, one school, one hospital, one university, relentlessly, methodically: a year of the bodies poking out under the rubble, of rows of tiny white body bags lined up on the ground; a year of not knowing where the next meal is coming from, of not having a safe place to sleep and live, to plan, to have babies, to build a life, and all the rest and it just doesn’t stop, it goes on and it goes on and it just won’t come to an end.
We are filled with despair watching this from a distance and if we find ourselves responding in this way to the images of trauma we see on our screens, then we cannot even begin to imagine how the people who are still alive in Gaza feel.
This violence extends to the West Bank, to Palestinians in Israel, and now to Lebanon and beyond.
AJLabs
If you really, really think about it, it’s terrifying.
In Stroud, we have been holding this vigil for almost 52 weeks. That’s 13 hours of silence over the course of a whole year to call for a ceasefire.
It seems mad to live in a world where this is a revolutionary ask.
Our leaders have absolutely failed and disappointed us. The United States and other countries that bankroll the occupation are parties to the crime.
Our government has changed but the support for Israeli military action continues and so does the genocide. There are growing restrictions on the pro-Palestine movement and voices.
The erasure of Palestine continues and there is a reduction in spaces where those of us calling out this unjust colonial project can inhabit safety.
The collective silence of society, of our own communities has been deafening and difficult to bear. But the weekly vigils have been an important space, a space that welcomes everyone, a space that is hopeful and active and supportive, that provides comfort and solidarity and conviction and commitment.
This is a place I came to almost a year ago when I didn’t know what else to do, a place that has been crucial in organising us locally and bringing different groups together at a time of great polarisation. A space that I value and need at a time when the far right is rising and there is fear and divisiveness in our own communities and globally.
There is not much cause for hope but we do need to be hopeful. Hundreds of thousands of people have shown up for Palestinians over the last year and this is significant.
The UK first stopped funding the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) and then have now reinstated it and this is significant, our government has blocked 30 arms export licenses, and this is small but also significant.
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
South Africa has taken Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for genocide and this is significant.
United Nations
The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution demanding an end to Palestine occupation — this is unprecedented.
UN Photo/Evan Schneider
There is a groundswell of momentum and commitment, but we must follow through and hold our leaders accountable until there is a ceasefire, a release of all hostages and a material change for Palestinians. This is our work.
We must continue to show up for Palestine, for freedom, for community for solidarity. We must secure a ceasefire and ultimately peace for everyone living between the river and the sea.
We are not free until we are all free.
Diya Mukarji is a member of Palestine Solidarity Campaign Stroud District.
Find out more about their work
https://www.facebook.com/StroudPSC/
Take Action
What you can do
- Come along to the Weekly Vigils on Fridays at 6pm — 6.15pm on the Subscription Rooms forecourt to hold space for peace. You can hear updates from member groups and be informed of events, film screenings, fundraisers, socials, protests and talks that are happening in the area.
- Sign the open letter from Stroud Ceasefire Now Coalition
- Go to one of the London marches. These happen regularly and are a visible expression of the national desire for a change of UK foreign policy.
All are welcome and the marches are an inclusive and safe space.
Amplify Stroud is supported by Dialect rural writers collective. Dialect offers mentorship, encouragement and self-study courses around Rediscovering Albion and Human=Nature as well as publishing.
You can find out more at https://www.dialect.org.uk/
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