Looking for love in all the wrong places.
Today marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which was adopted the same year as the Palestinian Nakba.
It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners. — Albert Camus
Today marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948. This landmark document, since signed by all 193 members of the UN, enshrines the inalienable rights that everyone is entitled to as a human being - regardless of race, color, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Available in more than 500 languages, it is the most translated document in the world.
1948 was also the year of the Nakba, the term used to describe the violent displacement and dispossession of Palestinians by the Zionists, along with the destruction of their society, culture, identity, political rights, and national aspirations. It refers to the events where approximately 750,000 Palestinian Arabs were expelled or fled from their homes and became refugees in neighboring states. It’s happening again today, and worse this time.
The great tragedy is that the adoption of UDHR has meant little to the progenitors of imperialism, white supremacy, war, and neo-fascism. It did nothing to alleviate the oppression of the Palestinians.
As the historic genocidal slaughter of civilians, including children and entire families, in Gaza continues unabated this morning, Israel has killed more civilians in Gaza by proportion than in all world conflicts in the 20th century. 61% of airstrike deaths in Gaza are civilian, according to Israel's leading newspaper Haaretz.
I’m looking for some good, uplifting news (anything) to pull me out of the depths of the anger and frustration I’ve been feeling. But I’ve obviously been looking for love in all the wrong places.
I can’t find anything uplifting coming out of the White House. Just more hypocritical blather about increasing the trickle of “humanitarian aid” to the besieged Gazans while massive shipments of US bunker-buster bombs and canisters of white phosphorus continue to flow into Israel. Biden/Blinken keep talking about putting conditions on the use of those weapons. It’s “an interesting thought,” says Biden. “But…”
But indeed. I don’t know what humanitarian conditions you can put on the use of white phosphorus.
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Then there was Friday’s vote in the UN Security Council, calling for an immediate ceasefire. The resolution had 13 votes in favor and one — the U.S. — against.
With that vote, and its continued weapons shipments to the apartheid regime in Israel, the US is fast becoming a pariah in the eyes of the world.
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But finally, I found some good stuff.
More than 3,000 protesters supported Palestine by forming a human mosaic in Guernica, one of the symbolic places of the Spanish Civil War, which was bombed by the Nazis in 1937. This display was especially meaningful to me because my dad was a veteran of that war. As a teen, he had volunteered to join the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and fought against the fascists on the side of the Spanish Republic.
Viva La quince brigada!
Thank you.