In February PETA sprang into action to rescue a pigeon held in India which had been accused of spying for China. They secured its release.
In March five pairs of socks were found in a factory in Malaysia with the word ‘Allah’ printed on them. A team of 40 policemen carried out checks at the factory and rifled through 18,795 other socks to check for further offences. Malaysian media was replete with coverage and solemn concern over foot apparel.
You can guess where I’m going with this. Has the world gone completely mad? We are witnessing in real time the continuing genocide and onslaught on innocent women, children, babies and certainly many innocent men in Gaza. In the West Bank over 7,500 people (many of them children) have been arrested since October 7th – probably charged with existing and stealing Israeli air.
In Nazi Germany millions of Germans could have legitimately stated that they did not know what was going on deep in the forest in the concentration camps. With no mobile phones and no daily journalists prying and asking questions, it could have been kept reasonably hidden from the general public. But now we have split second images, drones and news reports bombarding our senses with horrors, inhumanity and brutality that we did not think we would witness in 2024.
What can we say to our grandchildren if ever they ask, “What did you do when you knew the Palestinians were being ethnically cleansed, murdered, bombed, starved and destroyed?” Can we tell them that we were, at least, relieved a pigeon was released from captivity and flew off into the sunset. Perhaps we could claim that all offensive socks were taken out of circulation because Malaysian media alerted us to this shocking event. We could hold our hands on our hearts and say, “thankfully 18,795 socks weren’t offending anyone with a word”. If socks and a pigeon can make such alarming news, we have gone so terribly wrong in our evolution.
The United States Administration will surely have to hold its head in shame as those who are responsible try to wriggle out of just why they didn’t put a stop to the war immediately upon receiving full knowledge of the impending genocide and attempted destruction of a people. Wouldn’t the Jews in concentration camps have expected the world to intervene if they were fully aware of the horrors and exterminations? Wouldn’t many more Germans have attempted to save Jews from the genocide if they knew? Of course they would. Most humans are good.
But we are stuck with leaders at the top who appear to care little for what happens to the people way down in the pecking order; political realism and hegemony must prevail! Biden’s ‘three score years and ten’ are spent so he won’t have to live with his dark conscience for too much longer. But what of the teenagers who have been left orphaned in Gaza? What of the teenagers in Israel who have to live with security issues because their government won’t reasonably share land which they took from others. Hatred usually brews from gross injustice, and this is what we are going to have to see over the decades; the brewing bile rising in the young ones who have so poorly been let down by their elders and those who have had their families and futures obliterated.
We could be next. Who knows what may befall Australia if our government leaders decide that perhaps we are following the town bully rather than our path to prosperity and national health. History will tell us that no country rules forever and no country is one hundred percent sure of its assumed safety. What would we expect the world to do if we were in dire trouble and on the receiving end of America’s or anyone else’s ire? If we were bombed, starved and left for dead we would fully expect humanity to come to our rescue, see the injustice and do something about it.
Do you think the Palestinians care about five socks in Malaysia that supposedly offend? Or would they care if a pigeon has been released in India thanks to PETA saving the day.
Unless mainstream media honestly report the horror of what is happening right now under our noses, many will turn to funny cat videos and cosy stories about pigeons on the wing. It’s hard, but we should try not to be fatigued by how utterly depressing and horrific it is in Gaza. Otherwise who will help the Gazans? Would Jews and other prisoners in the camps back in WWII have accepted peoples lament that, ‘Sorry, your story just got so depressing that I had to tune into music on the radio’.
Reb Halabi
Reb Halabi focuses on the intersection of religion and geopolitics.