We must understand once and for all that 90% of the violence that has been occurring for decades in the Middle East—from Palestine to Lebanon, through Yemen, and, in a sense, also in Iraq—is the result of the greatest injustice of the century: the illegal, racist, colonialist, and terrorist occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel. This is the genesis of the violence. And it’s not just the countries that are part of the so-called “axis of evil” saying this. The entire world, apart from the supposedly free and democratic West enslaved by the USA, says it. Dozens of UN resolutions say it, historical truth says it, international law says it, free and independent journalists say it (unlike most of those infesting Italian television), and the dramatic testimonies of living Palestinians and the heartbreaking images of Palestinians torn apart say it (images that the mainstream media keeps hiding). Since yesterday, even the International Court of Justice, the highest judicial body of the United Nations, says it. Indeed, yesterday the Court ruled that the colonization of Palestinian lands by the Jewish state in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as the exploitation of natural resources that belong to the Palestinian people, is illegal.
Now imagine living in a city. Your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were born in that city. After years of work, you manage to build a house, and your children live in that house. One day, groups of settlers arrive—fanatical, violent, armed with assault rifles, and escorted by soldiers. They arrive and tell you to leave your home. Then a bulldozer comes and destroys your house while the soldiers keep you at gunpoint and the settlers cut down your olive trees (perhaps planted by your great-grandparents) with a chainsaw. What exactly would you do? How would you react? Would you accept all this? Israel has been doing this for decades. Today, it is just harder for them to hide the truth. TV networks are still enslaved by the system (with few exceptions), but information still manages to spread.
Today, hundreds of millions of people know the truth. I hope they act, take a stand, and have the courage not to look the other way. The end of colonization, the end of attempts at genocide, ethnic cleansing, and the most disgusting immorality masquerading as an absolute good always come through collective awareness. This awareness is beginning to form today. It is up to all of us to nurture it. We owe it to the children of Palestine and also to our own children.
