Another Blow to The Resistance

When I lived in the UK, we had to be very careful about what we chanted at rallies and spoke at speeches. UK hate speech laws are strict, and never stricter than when they are applied to alleged instances of anti-semitism. It also illegal to express support for proscribed organisations, such as Hamas and Hezbollah. Saying "Globalize the Intifida" will get you arrested, and on a bad day, so could "No Justice, No Peace" or "Resistance is justified, when People are occupied". These slogans are commonplace at protests in the US. But, most people who come from former colonies are not very conflicted about supporting armed resistance. Many of our freedom fighters, figures who are now feted, whose portraits adorn the walls of government offices, were called terrorists by the colonizers in their time. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, indeed. Today, Hamas' leader in Gaza, the alleged mastermind of Oct 7 was killed. Once upon a time, media pundits speculated that his killing would be sufficient revenge for the humiliation of Oct 7, and Israeli would halt its military campaign in Gaza. No one beleives that any more. Israel has made it amply clear that its goal is genocide. This evening I also attended a book reading and talk by a Palestinian writer recounting her time growing up in the West Bank and visiting her jailed brother. My eyes did not just well up with tears, I had tears flowing down my cheeks. The grace, courage, dignity and largeheartedness of the Palestinian people is an exemplar and a reminder to those of us who are not Palestinian to not despair. In the past year, those of us involved in the movement for Palestinian liberation in ways big and small have found reserves of both courage and love that we didn't knew existed thanks to the Palestinian people.