It is called Racism.

* This post is for people in my network, friends and colleagues of all faiths who know me and know my firm belief that civilian casualties on either side of any conflict are & should be a criminalized red line.

* Opinions in the below post are my own.

If you’ve been watching the horrific news and wondering why the IDF has been murdering 160 Palestinian children everyday in Gaza through carpet bombing densely populated civilian neighborhoods, ignoring all humanitarian laws and calls for ceasefire and committing war crimes on live TV, don’t wonder much, it’s called racism.

Those murdered children did not plan or participate in the Oct 7 Hamas attacks. They just happen to be Palestinian, just like Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was murdered by the IDF in 2022 in broad daylight, while wearing a clearly marked PRESS vest and helmet.

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The opinions I am sharing here are not based on what I read in the news or watched on TikTok. They're based on my own personal experience. I was personally there, in Gaza, on June 3 this year to lay my father to rest. My first trip to Gaza in over 30 years.

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As a Palestinian-Canadian, I experienced firsthand the subhuman treatment of Palestinians at boarder crossings, on the streets, in regular TV programming, and even once at my late grandfathers home.

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My first experience of that subhuman treatment was in 1986, when my sister and I traveled with my late grandmother to Gaza for our first visit to my dad’s family.

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I was 12, and I remember vividly how my sister and I - together with 100s of Palestinian travelers - were strip searched by the IDF at the boarder, in side-by-side rooms covered by loose curtains. I remember how once we were done and got dressed, we were pointed to a few large baskets that were filled with 100s of traveler shoes, and asked to find ours.

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The security checks at the Israeli boarder took us 7 hours, and then we spent another 5 hours to get through over 10 military checkpoints between the Jordan river and the Gaza Strip. Just because we were Palestinian.

Those are facts about how Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have lived for decades under the Israeli occupation. Those are facts about my own experience.

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While the Hamas attack on Oct 7 may have triggered this latest onslaught on Gaza, and while NOTHING justifies civilian killings on either side of this or any conflict, the occupation and the conflict that followed did not start on Oct 7, 2023. A fact António Guterres, Secretary General of the UN, recently shared.

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The IDF’s inhumane treatment of Palestinians, and the repeat attacks on Palestinian civilians have been happening for 75+ years. Google it.

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All the Palestinians I know believe the holy land belongs to all faiths.

It’s the illegal, brutal military occupation that needs to go, per many ignored UN resolutions.

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The sad reality the world has to come to terms with today is that those mass scale civilian deaths in Gaza - and as of late the West Bank - are only possible because Palestinians are seen as less. They are seen as expendable.

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Humanitarian laws that apply in the western hemisphere don’t seem to apply in The West Bank or in Gaza, and that is the definition of racism.

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So if you’re struggling to condemn the IDF for murdering thousands of innocent women and children, murders that are very well documented, or if you’re morally “fine” with what’s happening to civilians in Gaza, or anywhere else, then maybe you should stop attending the DEI sessions your company organizes every year.

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Maybe diversity, equity and inclusion are not really your thing.

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And for those looking to silence people who are opposed to the war and to the murder of thousands of innocent civilians, I say …

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• Criticizing the IDF for committing war crimes on live TV, IS NOT antisemitism. It is human.
• Criticizing the Israeli government and the well-known extreme elements within it, IS NOT antisemitism. It is human. In fact, 75% of Israeli citizens have been doing it according to recent polls and streets filled with demonstrations.

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While there is so much happening in our world that causes me great despair, the one thing that gives me hope is the millions of educated, self-informed, digital native youngsters from all faiths and backgrounds who are raising their voices against racism and genocide, and refusing to be brainwashed by the IDF propaganda machine, which started crumbling as of late.

Millions of young voters of all backgrounds who will make their mark in the upcoming elections and who already started shaping polls.

Citizen journalists who are broadcasting the news as is on the street, not according to a politician’s agenda or an occupier’s propaganda, but for the love of freedom and human dignity.

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May this next generation of leaders celebrate a just and lasting peace for all, where the rest of us have clearly failed.

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#ProtectAllCivilians

#EndTheOccupation