۵ - What More Will It Take?

What will it take before we can't take anymore?

Today I wanted to illustrate the cost of our inaction. As amazing as it is to see the world begin to wake up, I wanted to take a second and calculate what it's taken for us to get here. What it's taken for us to finally begin opening our eyes.

So here we go:

We lost Reem. We lost Refaat. We lost these two young brothers crushed by their cement ceiling.  Our baby boy was beheaded, Ahmed Al Najjar. We lost this baby before she was even born, ripped from her mothers womb. We lost Wadea Al-Fayoume, stabbed 26 times in Chicago at the age of six years old. We lost Mahmoud Al-Ghoul, he drowned in the sea while desperately trying to get aid for his family. Faisal Al Khaldi's mother had her hijab ripped off, and was then shot in the stomach while pregnant. How about 10-year old Amro Mohammed Al-Najjar, shot in the head by the IOF? In the West Bank that is, not in Gaza. Do you know where that is? What about Yazan Al-Kafarneh, a 9-year-old Palestinian boy with cerebral palsy who starved to death? Or our brothers Amr and Muhammad Al Farra, shot while walking peacefully in the streets and left to bleed out for 24 hours. We lost our child Karam Muhammad Qadada due to severe dehydration and malnutrition.Or maybe this beautiful baby boy, Muhammad Hani Al-Zahar, who the media claimed was a toy doll (which was proven false). We lost the entire Hattab Family, every single soul in this photo. Our beautiful Hind, as she waited in a besieged car for hours while the genocidal war machine surrounded her. Our son, Wadee Olayyab, 14-years old and shot dead in Jerusalem, again not in Gaza. Our babies, 2-week-old twins, Lama and Sama to an airstrike. And of course, Udayy Abu Mohsen, one day old. His death certificate issued before his birth certificate was finalized.

So how many more pre-mature babies in incubators?How many more hospitals?How many more schools?How many more mass graves?I truly wonder if there is a single true Muslim or Christian living outside of Gaza today. What the Gazans and Palestinians have faced is the most vile, barbaric act of savagery in the modern era. It is the wicked hand of the devil himself.

And we should be ashamed that it's taken us all this time just to post an image on our story. Just to show up to an encampment on a free Saturday afternoon. Just to DM our Palestinian friend and say, "just know, I stand with and am praying for your people." Let's stop patting ourselves on the back. Long Live the Resistance.

The last point I'll leave you with is this, there are currently seven other genocides happening in the world right now. The Uyghurs of China, the Tigrays of Ethiopia, the Armenians, the Congolese, the Sudanese, the Rohingya of Myanmar, and the people West Papua. Do you research before it's too late, and maybe we won't have to share images of beheaded children just to get your attention next time.