It’s coming up to October. Which means, we have spent the last two years witnessing one of the worst genocides of the 21st century. Live-streamed. There are horrors burned into my mind that I don’t think I’ll ever forget. The last ever phone call of Hind Rajab. Learning of human beings being deliberately burned to death. The sight of children, horrifically emaciated because of an intentional mass starvation policy. The memory of a man who’s wife gave birth to two twins, but the twins, and the mother, were murdered as he went out to collect the twins’ birth certificate. Learning of small children who wished they were dead. Learning of horrors that I don’t know if I could endure for ten seconds. And I’m not exaggerating there. The absolute nightmare that the people of Gaza have gone through and are going through, is not something I believe I could tolerate for even ten seconds, and they have had to survive, as best they can, for two years, if you’re counting since October 7th, but really, the nightmare for them began in 1948.
And, there are people, in my life, who, after these two years, I will never be able to look at the same way again. How could they just shrug their shoulders at at all of this? Why is being mildly inconvenienced more important to them than the safety and well being of the people of Gaza? How could they show such support for the people of Ukraine in their time of need, but when it came to one of the worst genocides of the 21st century, it’s “I’m apolitical.”
There are certain events, I think, where things change so profoundly, that nothing is ever the same. September 11th is a good example. While I haven’t gotten on a plane in over 15 years, to this day films with an airport scene from before September 11th still look, “weird” to me, like, it was once that easy to get on a plane? But of much greater importance, those horrific attacks are still used as an excuse to stir up hatred against the Muslim community. I’ve wrote about horrible shit-stain Charlie Kirk here:
In the last few weeks of his life, he spent a bit of time stirring up hatred against Muslims, using September 11th as an excuse. For 24 years, nearly a quarter of a century, these horrible attacks have been used to spread fear and hatred against Muslims.
Another thing, in more recent history that changed everything, was Covid. I’m still not recovered from Covid. And I don’t mean in any physical sense, because I only got Covid once, that I know of, and I was asymptomatic. No, what I mean is, over those two years, my already existing travel anxiety got much, much worse, indeed, I still haven’t travelled further than I travelled during Covid. Two cycling trips to the Nagle mountains a year, and one or two holidays in Courtmacsherry, that’s as far as I’ve travelled since Covid, prior to Covid, I’d been to Waterford, Tipperary, Dublin, and Sligo. I don’t know will I ever be able to go to those places again. And a lot of people aren’t the same, I’ve seen how being trapped in a room, with only some nonsense on the internet to keep them company, has changed people, left them a former shell of themselves. Will they ever fully recover?
And, even for people like me, someone so privileged I can’t even imagine a fraction of what the people of Gaza have gone through, the genocide of the last two years is definitely something that has changed everything. In addition to the horrors committed by Israel itself, the absolute evil that privileged people in the Western world are capable of has been laid bare for all to see. Image, after image, after image, of people experiencing unimaginable horror, and a lot of people, both ordinary people, and those in power, just make an excuse and get on with their day. While, as talked about in this post:
there are genocides that get virtually no attention, and that’s of course unacceptable. With Gaza, nobody could say they didn’t know.
“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”
― William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce was talking about slavery, and this is one of my favourite quotes. Is there any moving on from the fact that so many in our lives, knew what was going on, and didn’t care?
Hope
I never lost hope, ever throughout these two years. But, this hadn’t anything to do with statistical probabilities of success. It was to do with the fact that, there was only one certainty, and that was, if everyone did nothing, the genocide would most certainly continue. But if people tried, that brought us into a space where maybe the horror would continue, or maybe it would be brought to an end. It may or may not end was a damn sight better in my view than it definitely won’t end. But now, I’m feeling something better than hope, something new.
Optimism?
I’m starting to feel optimism about the situation in Gaza. Not, the glass is half empty, but we still have to do the right thing, but, an actual feeling that the glass is half full? Is there a reason to believe that the genocide will end, Palestine will be free and Nehenyahu and his scumbag followers will be locked up and the key thrown into the deepest, darkest hole on planet Earth? Hopefully the second two, I really hope so, but maybe, just the first one? Can we end the genocide?
This might seem surprising, given that my last post on Gaza:
Was not exactly puppies and rainbows.
But, some recent developments have led me to believe, and I wish there was no maybe, but alas there is still is, that perhaps, the tide might actually be turning, and not fake turning like all those other times.
So many countries wouldn’t budge on the Eurovision, and now several of them have threatened to pull out.
Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Spain, have all stated they will not participate in the Eurovision if Israel is allowed to compete. Now, in the greater scheme of things it’s quite small, it’s, as I said in my first ever blogpost about Gaza, a goddamn singing contest! But the fact that no country would ever entertain the possibility of pulling out of the Eurovision, and now four of them are saying they will do just that, has raised my optimism levels a bit.
I should point out that I, alas, strongly suspect that one or more of these countries will accept a meaningless concession (looking at you Ireland!), such as Israel being allowed to perform as long as they don’t display the Israeli flag. But I’m watching and waiting to see what will happen, and maybe these four countries, and hopefully even more countries, will help to bring down Eurovision 2026!
A lot of celebrities are speaking up about Gaza.
It seems like every day of the week a new celebrity is speaking up. Why, just last week, Generic Celebrity Number 436 said something about Gaza, and, who was the other one? Oh yes, Generic Celebrity Number 8370 said something last Thursday! And, you won’t believe this, but, the one person we thought would keep tight lipped on the whole thing, Generic Celebrity Number 8374531682952 even spoke up! My goodness, that was an unexpected development!
Do I have nice things to say about the character of a bunch of celebrities that waited until it was safe and then spoke up on the horrific mass murder of the people of Gaza? Not really. But, like it or not, these celebrities are influential people. And my hope is that they are able to have a positive influence, despite the fact that to them, Gaza is just the hip thing trending on the TikTok or whatever.
The Power Of The People Was Fully Displayed In Italy
A few weeks ago I said one of the few things that was going to get the governments of the world to actually do something was industrial action. And, the people of Italy went and did it!:
This raised my optimism a lot more than the celebrities saying stuff and the Eurovision boycott. An actual strike happened in Italy to save the people of Gaza! While I am trying to temper my optimism, there is still a long, long road towards justice for Palestine, learning of this strike meant, for the first time in two years, and I’m getting emotional writing this, for the first time in two years, maybe, and just maybe, there is reason to believe there is more good in this world than evil.
The navies of three countries are accompanying the Somud Flotilla
The Somud Flotilla is a massive group of boats sailing to Gaza, to deliver much needed aid to the people there. And Israeli drones have attacked them, over and over again.
Now, to be perfectly clear about this, I did not believe, for even one second, that any country would intervene in any military context to help these boats, who have absolutely no protection from the Israeli navy. So it came as a massive, wonderful surprise to learn that, Italy has sent a frigate to protect the flotilla!:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce3yz939qnpo
And Italy’s government is usually a lot more pro-Israel, so this seems to have been because of, in large part, the strikes that took place for Gaza. It looks like things might finally be changing!
This Italian ship was soon joined by another one from Spain. To give a bit of context about Spain, a few weeks previously Spain’s Vuelta cycling race was suspended due to protests over Spain’s inclusion in the race, with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez saying he supported the protests:
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/14/europe/spain-cycling-protest-vuelta-gaza-israel-latam-intl
And now, Spain has sent a warship to protect the flotilla!:
In other news, the Irish government raised concerns….
Stop raising concerns you muppets and send at least one boat to protect the Somud flotilla! The Irish Defence Forces have eight vessels!:
https://www.military.ie/en/who-we-are/naval-service/the-fleet/
You can surely spare at least one of them! Come on, this all talk no action business is getting beyond embarrassing!
The third country to send their military to help has been Turkey, which has deployed military drones to monitor the Somud Flotilla.
A Different Type Of Hope
I might as well admit to what happened with the title of this section and the title of this blogpost. I was about to call it “A New Hope”, then realized I couldn’t because of copyright infringement. So “A Different Type Of Hope” will have to do!
Because for the first time in two years, I am feeling a different type of hope. Not the type of hope I felt all this time, where it was pretty much a case of, I couldn’t surrender to hopelessness, almost as a matter of principle. Not the kind of hope where, you couldn’t give into hopelessness because you’d always wonder, was it really hopeless or was it just a convenient excuse to not bother your arse doing anything about one of the most horrific genocides humanity has ever witnessed. Not the kind of hope where, if you were wrong, and there was even a chance, a tiny chance, that you could have helped the people of Gaza, you would regret not doing so for the rest of your life.
But it looks like this might be the type of hope where, it’s really starting to look like those who oppose apartheid, colonialism, and genocide, can actually win.
I didn’t know 2025 would be the year when there would be a massive strike in Italy for the people of Gaza. I didn’t know 2025 would be the year that a military escort from no less than three different countries would be sent to aid the Somud Flotilla.
It’s a different type of hope, and it feels really good! I don’t know whether ten years from now, or a year from now, or even a month from now, I will realize that this was an utterly naive and unwarranted optimism. But all I can say is I hope, there’s that word again!, that that’s not what it is.
And just because things are going well, or at least it looks that way right now, for the pro-Palestine movement, now is NOT the time for complacency. We’ve never been closer to ending this horrific mass slaughter, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a long way to go. There are still people starving to death. There are still people being murdered. There are still Western countries actively complicit in this horror. It’s not over yet, not even close. But massive strikes in Italy led to that country sending a military escort for the Somud Flotilla, so if nothing else, it demonstrates that the people, the “ordinary people”, are a mighty force in this world that with enough will and determination can force those in power to do the right thing. We’re a long way from winning, but we CAN win.
Saoirse Don Phalaistín
Palestine Libre
Özgür Filistin
Palestina Libera
Ponderings Of An Autist 
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