I remember the start of 2022, and I learned that something awful had happened. Russia had invaded Ukraine. It felt like the start of a nightmare had begun for Ukrainians. They were just living their lives peacefully, and then Putin decided to take over their country? How could something so horrifically unacceptable happen in full view of the whole world? I later learned more about the horrific and tragic circumstances the Ukrainian people had been plunged into, and went to a talk by some Ukrainians living in Ireland about the terror they were being put through.
But, what gave me hope is, the world was with Ukraine. Educational institutions, businesses, even entire governments were standing with Ukraine. It was horrible to see that Putin could get away with something so vile as launching a full on invasion of their country, but, at least the Ukrainian people had the love, support, and friendship of the world around them. It was terrifying to see what Putin was doing, but it also made me think, maybe there’s still some hope of a better world yet.
Then, flash forward to the end of 2023. And Israel launches a large scale attack on Gaza. Nehenyahu was at the very least (and I’ll get back to that “at very least”) doing something equivalent to Gaza what Putin was doing to Ukraine. Now, perhaps it’s that I have long term hearing damage after years of being a guitarist and a drummer, but I couldn’t seem to hear the condemnation of Nehenyahu or the I.D.F. Perhaps I need to get my hearing checked.
Now, here we are, with next month being a year of the savage slaughter of the Palestinian people. The organization that gave the talk from Ukrainians that I went to still hasn’t hosted a talk from Palestinians about their plight. And, I talked before in this post:
About how the Eurovision, after, quite rightly, excluding Russia for their invasion of Ukraine, hid behind the excuse of “We don’t do politics” when it came to Israel’s participation in the Eurovision. The Olympics pulled the exact same shit, barring Russia, allowing them to only compete as neutral competitors, but saying, “Oh we can’t get involved in politics” when it comes to Israel.
In my city, Cork, the Lord Mayor even held a ceremony at Bishop Lucy Park, known as the Peace Park to locals, to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
Now again, I’ve been a musician for a good few years, and I do listen to a lot of metal, so, perhaps similar calls were made for solidarity with Palestine and I just didn’t hear it. Perhaps I should run to the local audiologist, posthaste, and see if there are any treatments available for the massive hearing loss I am experiencing!
On the Grand Parade in Cork City, there is a massive banner saying “Cork Stands With Ukraine”, I think, I actually forget the exact wording. But, I have not seen any similar banner for Palestine. Oh my goodness, not only has years of loud music damaged my hearing, but years of, I dunno, looking at pictures of guitars has damaged my sight! I am sure that there is a massive banner declaring support for Palestine, a beautiful banner that can be seen for miles around, and if only I hadn’t been struck down with some ghastly visual impairment I would be able to see it shine in all it’s glory!
When I see banners, or speeches, or shows of solidarity with Ukraine, there’s a part of me that finds it sickening. And I don’t want to be sickened by it. I want to still see it as the beautiful, wonderful thing that gave me hope for humanity back in 2022.
And, sincere shows of solidarity with Ukraine, yes, I still find that absolutely beautiful. But the unfortunate reality is that, many shows of solidarity with Ukraine are motivated by a sickening hypocrisy.
I should just give a quick caveat, before I go any further, that absolutely NONE of what I am saying is directed at anyone who is active in supporting both Ukraine and Palestine. No, this is directed at those who cry crocodile tears for Ukraine, but have the audacity to say, “Sorry, I stay out of politics!” when it comes to Palestine.
When Putin invaded Ukraine, absolutely, there was no moral justification for that whatsoever. So, yes absolutely, it should be condemned. I condemn it myself.
Okay then, what have you to say about this. This was only the first month of Israel’s horrific attack on Gaza, and at that point they were already cutting off water, a WAR CRIME.
Full disclosure, I wasn’t yet active in activism and protest for Palestine at this time. But it came down to more of a feeling of “I’m just one person what can I do about it”. I’m glad I finally realized that I can play at least a tiny part in opposing the madness that is the genocide in Palestine.
Have you heard of Hind Rajab? I bet even people who have their fingers in their ears singing, “LA LA LA I’M NOT LISTENING” when it comes to this genocide have heard of her. The activism of Palestinians and allies of Palestinians has hopefully been sufficient that those who are burying their head in the sand will never be able to forget her name.
Well, the invasion of Ukraine is awful and needs to be stopped! But the deliberate murder of a 5 year old Palestinian girl was, sorry, just let me check my list of excuses, I’ll be with you in a second, oh yes, we need to sort out Irish problems and not worry about international problems, oh shit that doesn’t work if I’ve declared support for Ukraine! Okay, let me think of a different excuse, something something it’s complicated something. Yes that’ll have to do.
There’s even a page on the killing of Hind Rajab on Wikipedia:
The fact that they unambiguously stated that she was killed by the I.D.F came as a surprise to me. Let me explain. This is how Wikipedia describes the invasion of Ukraine:
They describe it as, unambiguously, as an invasion of Ukraine, and rightly so. This is how they describe the genocide in Gaza:
Oh, but Israel has only been “accused” of committing genocide. As if the the genocide claims are just some naughty children down the back causing trouble! So Ukraine gets, “unambiguous invasion, no doubt about it”, and again, rightly so, but Gaza gets, “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I mean, maybe, perhaps, I suppose, em, maybe, if, I suppose, maybe”. And you know, before this, I might have been willing to say that claims of bias from Wikipedia are exaggerated. But not now.
Can we just condemn the murder and subjugation of a people, and the invasion of a country, because, they are awful things to happen? Can it just be, “The invasion of Ukraine was awful?” and not “The invasion of Ukraine is awful BECAUSE they are on my team?”
I condemn the invasion of Ukraine. I condemn the horrific attacks on October 7th, where Hamas murdered innocent people and took hostages. But, last I checked, Palestinians are just as human, have the same hopes and dreams, and have the same basic requirement for food, water, shelter and safety, as any Ukrainian, and any Israeli.
The fucking hypocrisy needs to stop. We need to rally behind any people who are being invaded, deprived of food and water, and being murdered. If that’s happening to you, I don’t care what part of the globe you live on, or how politically inconvenient it is to help you, you deserve to have the horrible crimes being perpetrated against you brought to an immediate halt.
The world is always changing. Just because it’s in the interests of the United States and the Western countries to defend Ukraine today, doesn’t necessarily mean it will be tomorrow, and Ukraine could be cast aside, just like Palestine is being now. I want there to be real, sincere concern for the horrible plight that the Ukrainian people are in now, not bullshit. And I want the laundry list of excuses for not helping Palestine to stop. It doesn’t matter how “inconvenient” it is that the Palestinians are our fellow human beings, who breathe the same air as us and live on the same planet as us. It’ll NEVER stop being true.
Twenty years from now, I believe, hopefully, that the genocide of Palestine will finally be acknowledged as the horror that it is. How will the playbook of excuses such as “I’m apolitical” or “It’s complicated” sound then?
Ponderings Of An Autist 