The scene that broke the internet in the last few days of the Syrian toddler flushed on the sea shore dead brought to my mind with all its cruelty, the scene of the four Palestinian children who were killed last year on Gaza beach by Israeli missiles while playing football. Between two images of children playing football. A photo of the toddler while playing football somewhere shortly before with the same clothes the shores washed with his innocent body and those images of the children playing football the moment before.
Is it cruelty of governments or submission of nations that allow these tragedies to go on?
While flipping the pages of the different outlets in Israeli media, the photos of the child were filling it’s news headlines. I was thinking, what would Israel think? Are these moments of pride for Israel, to witness cruelty that can be measured with even higher measures than theirs? After all, this whole massive refugee escape to the sea is another image of the cruelty and failure of Arab regimes. There is no way to escape the fact that this resembles a reality that we barely know about, of those difficulties and unbearable lives that force people to throw themselves to the unknown hollowness of the sea when the earth no longer endures them. But this land is that Arab soil that is closing it’s doors from its own people, with also those scenes of the Europe opening it’s gated while Arabs are standing still not even joining in a statement that may think of stopping this tragedy.
To a Palestinian whose life is about a diaspora and exodus … such scenes can only bring back the memory of the past of what happened to Palestinians as the result of the becoming of Israel.
It is another refugee boat image that carried Jews from Europe to Palestine, but safe and with a land that will become a homeland. Those same refugee boats take Palestinian Refugees of the past, and Syrians refugees of today to death boats destined for Europe.
The controversy between nations and governments is what marks Europeans, but doesn’t mark Arabs anymore. We can still insist on the causes of all this occurring mess. The West is not white hand and clean. It is all about the west interests in the black treasure of this hollowed area. The fact that nations can still count there is what makes them more civilized and makes future on their end, not a drowning one.
The painful reality of the Arab world silence. Arab neighboring countries closing their borders and their eyes and yet actively work in the mess of Syria is the real tragedy.
I have never thought I will witness a day that will portray within its every detail the failure of Arabism and nationalism under the name of Islamism. While innocents continue to drown in an image that should haunt any human conscience forever. Drowning on those shores that cross the borders of nations and identities is another signal to the shame humanity if filled with.
As much as we Arabs are tragically embarrassing for the loss of our integrity. The failure of all our systems including that moral value that disappeared. Israel stands in the same place like us … enjoying a moment of a tragedy they didn’t directly cause. And we are split in blaming another side for causing that disaster.
The sea and its shores seem to be the redemption of what is left of our absent humanity
Sadly, the world governments play a large role in what is happening in Syria and with all of the refugees fleeing violence in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. They are the ones who allow arms to flow freely and criminally. All we can do is pour forth our visions, prayers, and thoughts for the care and help of those suffering.