All eyes on Rafah
Moyosore Ale
Humanist & Technologist. I study people, see patterns and create emotions. | Building Human-Centered AI/ML strategies & products for startups| ex Doctoral Researcher HCI| Young Africa Centre Committee member
The revolution will not be sanitised, only truth will prevail
"If you want to dispossess a people, the simplest way to do it is to tell their story and to start with 'secondly'." - Mourid Barghouti (Palestinian Poet and writer)
The latest death toll stands at 36,615 Palestinians since October 7 2023 (Aljazeera)
- More than 15,000 children killed
- Injured: more than 81,136 people
- Missing: more than 10,000
I’ve wanted to write about the horrors and tragedies being committed against the Palestinians by Isreal and allowed by the world governments But I’ve lacked the words and each time I am overwhelmed by guilt Recently there was this AI image in circulation “All eyes on Rafah”, and millions of people shared Mostly people I had never seen say anything against the atrocities happening publicly It became a trend While I am happy people did share, I am unsettled by the image I am unsettled by the false reality it creates Unsettled by how it allows people to distance themself from the gory details of what is actually happening in Rafah Unsettled that this is the reality we are living in Where want and speak ‘truth’ only when it is sanitised, cleaned up, packaged in nice little bows and artificially created images Is that not the lies of the oppressor? The image subtly says “Secondly, there is no genocide in Rafah” “The genocide doesn’t look that bad” when you edit out the thousands of dead bodies and crushed homes and beheaded children buried under rubbles “The truth doesn’t look that bad” When you scroll fast enough to avoid the videos of fathers and mothers carrying dead and injured bodies of loved ones, Pregnant mothers killed with dissected stomachs and their foetus lying outside of them to ensure no one survives Palestinian tagged and numbered in concentration camps like cattle, Babies waking up startled by bombings, Blood-soaked tiny boots that used to belong to a Palestinian toddler Refugees burnt alive in their sleep Kids eating batteries because there is no food, no water Survivors missing limbs, organs, kinfolk and any hope for justice How does the the truth look now?
DO NOT TURN AWAY ALL EYES on RAFAH
If we turn our eyes away from the blood being shared, are we not as culpable as those who shed them? When you look at the truth through rose-tinted glasses, even blood looks like drinking water We hide behind the luxury of selective exposure that the children of Palestine do not have a choice in Disconnected from our humanness; Constantly numbing the ability of our mirror neurons and spirits to fire when we see suffering of others Before this AI incident, a few weeks ago on May 6, there was the MET gala While the rich desecrated our timelines with flamboyant displays of their wealth, Isreal attacked Rafah raining death and destruction Using our tendency to anaesthetise our existential pains with celebrity gossip & worship Saying look here at the shiny human gods, turn your eyes away from our devilish deeds
DO NOT TURN AWAY ALL EYES on RAFAH
I have a confession; I’ve been having nightmares. Some have constituted of imagery & visions of me and other people under the light of bomb shelling raining from the night sky like fireworks The one I had today; I was lying still outside a cage by what looked like an overground train station; trying not to move so the guards would not notice me On the other side of the iron bars were men with faces I cannot make out, stripped naked like caged hens I usually wake up from these dreams terrified, heart rate elevated and depressed At least I have the luxury of it being “just a dream” Imagine what the people of Palestine experience in their waking and sleeping Yet I see faces of them smiling, dancing and singing that they cannot be buried Celebrating birthdays in refugee camps knowing fully well that it might also be their death-day What heart! What courage! What love! What joy!
DO NOT TURN AWAY ALL EYES on RAFAH
E fit be you; In pidgin this means “this could also happen to you”. While I refrain from saying this because I find it concerning that I have to appeal people’s empathy on the ongoing holocaust using the possibility that it could happen to them Some people will never understand the gravity unless explained in such a manner So, let me ask you this; Do you not see that there is a whole ethnicity being wiped out right before your eyes? Children, parents, young, old, even books and knowledge? And no one is able to stop the aggressor? Do you not know how dangerous that is? Do you not imagine that if another oppressor were to decide to take the same approach towards you and your people, no one would stop them? Or do you just see the people of Palestine as “unlucky casualties” in a sea of global politics? Whether you like it or not, the suffering of one is the suffering of the collective So if you’ve been feeling depressed and heavy lately, it is likely the grief and suffering of the people and land of Palestine, Congo and Sudan
FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA PALESTINE WILL BE FREE
领英推荐
We were made to believe there were rules, Are your eyes open now? Do you see very well that these rules were only made for the oppressed? These social contracts do not bind them, they only keep you bound and in line
NO JUSTICE NO PEACE
- 37 children lose their parents everyday in Gaza - Nearly all 600,000 kids in Rafah are injured, sick and malnourished - Israel has killed 142 journalists in Gaza; more than the total number killed during the 20 year of the Vietnam war and the 6 years of WW2 combined
“More than 18,700 Palestinians, most of them civilians, including more than?7,800 children, were?killed?between October 7 and December 12 2023
Since October 7, more than 46,000 housing units have been destroyed and 234,000 others damaged, accounting for 60 percent of the housing stock in Gaza, as of November 24, according to?aid organisations.
At least 342 schools have been damaged, according to?OCHA, and 187 “attacks on health care” were carried out, damaging 24 hospitals, according to the?World Health Organisation (WHO).
As of December 1, Israel?held 7,677 Palestinians?in custody for “security” offenses, according to Israeli Prison Services figures. This includes 200 Palestinian children” - Human Rights Watch
I do not feel qualified to tell this story so I will share more stats from the United Nations and Aljazeera since we love pretty images so much
Al-Quran Surah No. 2 - Ayah No. 42 says: "????? ?????????? ????????? ???????????? ???????????? ????????? ?????????? ???????????? ? " Translation: "And do not confound truth with falsehood, and do not hide the truth when you know" While I hate to quote the Christian bible in this case, there is also a verse in Corinthians that says: “Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong—not that we will appear to have stood the test, but that you will do what is right, even if we appear to have failed.?For?we cannot do?anything?against?the?truth,?but only?for?the?truth” DO NOT TURN AWAY ALL EYES on RAFAH
If you’d like to take action, here’s a spreadsheet of GoFundMes for Palestinians shared by “@Criminalplaza” on twitter