[Leila Hegazy, Staten Island, NY, U.S.A., October 2023]

People often ask me “Do you condemn Hamas?” “Why do you only post about Palestinian lives lost and not Israelis?”

For many folks, I am the only Arab or Muslim that they have any real relationship with. That means my words carry a lot of weight.

The West already sees Israelis as people deserving of safety. One can turn on/read Western news to get extensive 24/7 coverage of Israeli and/or white lives lost (think about how Ukraine was covered). Those lives lost are deeply mourned and empathized with.

I am speaking up for people who you have been conditioned to see as less important. In a post-9/11 world, Arabs are seen as “collateral damage”. I’ll never forget the Israel-Lebanon war when I was a kid, because it was the first time I truly registered that Arab lives mattered less to the West. I saw 24/7 coverage of Israeli lives lost while the much larger number of dead Lebanese people was a quick-moving footnote at the bottom of the screen.

I do not need to qualify my support for a free Palestine with “I condemn Hamas”. People who speak up for Israeli or white lives lost are never asked to condemn the behavior of Israel or white countries before they are allowed to publicly empathize with their victims. I refuse this racist double standard. I have been condemning violence since I was 11 years old, to help white people feel more comfortable.

I also refuse the historical misrepresentation that occurs when we chalk this violence up to a war between Hamas and Israel. Hamas was born in 1987, as a direct result of the occupation of Palestine. Palestinians have been oppressed by Israel for 75 years. I will not allow the foundation of these conversations to miss this crucial context, or misrepresent the history to benefit a colonizing force. It is not useful, fair, or conducive to safety for Palestinians or Israelis. If you want violence to stop you need to understand the root causes of it, and stop playing Western media’s game.

Free Palestine. Stop genocide. End Israeli apartheid. End the occupation. That is the only way to end this horrific violence. Every decent human should agree with this.