Global
Reflections on Thailand: Detailed version, continued from original.
54 years ago, MLK Jr said “I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government.”
Possibly you have justified America's proxy war in Ukraine, or the genocide rained down upon Palestinians with full cooperation of the American Empire. Perhaps you noticed that Biden sent a “defense” budget to Congress of 886 Billion dollars. Please be aware that the next countries to incur the wraith of the Empire are Iran and China. There will always be the next war until American citizens are united in attempting to stop the killing and madness.
We have been writing annual Christmas messages of peace, for human rights,
and relating sometimes what happened in the passing year for decades. Since
I returned to Bethlehem in 2008 these messages have been special. Since
founding the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS)
in 2014, we also added greetings from PIBS. This year writing seems
tougher than ever considering the ongoing and unprecedented
genocide/holocaust occurring in Palestine. In the ten weeks before
Christmas, more than 20,000 civilians (>8000 of them children) were killed.
2.3 million people were denied food, water and medicines while all means of
life around them were systematically targeted. Palestinians (Muslims and
Christians) are literally starving to death and dying from lack of medical
care. 65% of Gaza residential buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged.
Israel also targeted schools, hospitals, clinics, churches, mosques,
bakeries, sewage and water facilities, electrical, communication and other
infrastructure.
We local Christians cannot “celebrate” or do decorations while injustice
What is taking place in Gaza is meant for the history books: an epic tale of a small nation under a long, brutal siege for many years, facing one of the greatest military powers in the world. And yet, it refuses to be defeated.
Not even the legendary tenacity of Leo Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ characters can be compared to the heroism of Gazans, living over a tiny stretch of land while subsisting on the precipice of calamity, even long before the Israeli genocide.
But if Gaza has already been declared uninhabitable by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) as early as 2020, how is it able to cope with everything that took place since then, particularly the grueling and unprecedented Israeli war, starting on October 7?
There are a number of blatant ways for terrorist organizations – by which I mean national governments – to justify committing mass murder.
Once you start killing, it’s hard to stop. But you have to justify what you’re doing – a process humanity has been engaged in since the dawn of civilization. We call it “war,” which turns mass murder into a necessary abstraction and gives us a far simpler way of dealing with conflict than . . . oh my God, understanding counter points of view and creating solutions rather than enemies.
