For Those *Still* Silent on the Gaza Genocide

[Author: Shivani Chaudhry | Date Published: 18 December 2024]

 



FOR THOSE *STILL* SILENT ON THE GAZA GENOCIDE:

If you could lose your job for speaking out against genocide, then it may not be a place worth working at.

If you worry what 'others' will say if you stand against genocide, then those 'others' need to be ignored.

If you feel a genocide occurring in another country doesn't concern you, you're wrong. It does. Genocide affects each one of us; it violates *every* principle of life, of humanity, of humanness, and of morality. Genocide anywhere is a threat to humanity everywhere.

What if your land, your home, your community, your city were being annihilated?

What if those being massacred were your children, your parents, your grandparents, your siblings, your friends?

What if your children's limbs had to be amputated without anesthesia? What if they never recovered from such trauma?

What if you had been displaced multiple times, pushed into supposedly 'safe zones', only to be attacked repeatedly and left with nowhere to go?

What if you were bombed while you were sleeping?

What if you were critically ill, badly burnt, or bleeding profusely and had no medicine and no doctor, clinic, or hospital to go to?

What if you were shivering, had no warm clothes, and your only shelter was destroyed again and again and again?

What if you were being forcefully starved for months, hunger cramps ripping your insides, your bones protruding through your skin?

What if your innocent brothers or sons were arrested, imprisoned, and brutally tortured?

What if you had to hear soul-piercing cries of pain, for over a year?

What if you had to bear the stench of rotting corpses and burning bodies, every day?

What if you lost a loved one every week, for 60 continuous weeks?

What if you lost *every* living member of your family overnight?

Would you still be silent?
I don't think so.
Then why are you silent now?

How would you feel if you knew the world was watching your extermination but chose to pretend it wasn't happening?

There is NO excuse for not using our voices, our platforms, our energy to oppose genocide.

Being human means feeling the pain of every human being as our own.
Having a conscience means confronting injustice, anywhere.

Speak out. Stand up. Act.
Listen to Palestinian voices.
Boycott. Divest. Sanction.
NOW!

NOTHING
IS
MORE
IMPORTANT
THAN
ENDING
GENOCIDE.

NOTHING.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hare Baba!

Image
[Author: Shivani Chaudhry | Date Published: 8 August 2009] Brazil makes me incredibly happy. It also makes me sad. You can't have the ecstacy without the agony, can you? Because then it wouldn't be life. It wouldn't be real. And Brazil is life. It is real. More than real. And here, in this land of passion and pain, I find myself swaying in the narrow space between the two... The warmth of the people, their affection, and their ability to live life to the fullest is what keeps my soul singing. The vibrance, the love, and the music make my spirit smile. But there is much suffering here. Much violence. Much heartbreak. Like everywhere else. But here it's different. Everything seems more intense. The joy and the grief. Because Brazil is intense. Brazilians are intense. And all my experiences here are intense too. Deep in my heart there's an alegria , an intense joy. But a deep feeling of saudade too.... How do I explain saudade in English? I can't. It has no trans...
Read more

Traffic Light Children

Image
[Author: Shivani Chaudhry | Date Published: 1 June 2009] Another street-associated child who I knew and was fond of, passes away, leaving me deeply grieved and dismayed. I don’t know who to blame anymore. Pradhan , a twelve-year-old boy, succumbed to injuries on 6 April 2009, after being hit by a truck at the Moti Bagh flyover in Delhi. No child should have to die at twelve. No child should have to be on the streets. I couldn’t believe it. I wept. It couldn’t be happening again. Radhakrishna , a boy who sold newspapers at the same traffic light, passed away on 4 October 2005. His death changed my life. And even though I tried, I wasn’t able to change the lives of the street children around me. Radhakrishna’s untimely passing away shook me deeply. In an attempt to process my grief, I wrote an article on him in the weekly newspaper - Tehelka.* In his memory, I set up a fund for the education of street children around Moti Bagh. The short piece I wrote on Radhakrishna in Tehelka received ...
Read more

MIHAN

Image
[Author: Shivani Chaudhry | Date Published: 10 February 2009] Exactly a week ago, I visited MIHAN near Nagpur. I thought Mihan was the name of the area. But no, it stands for Multi Modal International Hub Airport at Nagpur. I’d heard of the project and read about it some time back, but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. I’m still finding out the facts and details but because what I saw shocked me so much, I was overcome with an urge to write immediately. What I’ve learnt so far is that this Rs. 2, 581 crore project is being promoted by the state-sponsored Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC). Under Mihan, the MADC will acquire a total of 4,354 hectares (ha), of which 1,278 ha have apparently been earmarked for the airport, and 2,086 ha for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ). This includes 500 ha for IT parks, 955 ha for manufacturing units, 60 ha for a “health city” and 200 ha for a rail-cum-road terminal. I read that companies that have already booked land in MIHAN, i...
Read more