Humanity
Palestine-Israel Conflict
First and foremost, being Muslim doesn’t mean I’m against Jews. Similarly, being Indonesian, a country with the largest Muslim population, doesn’t imply I harbor hatred towards the Western world. I need to emphasize this because the media often perpetuates such misconceptions. Let’s disregard our identity; we’re human. Let’s set aside our identities, religions, races, and zodiac signs and let’s just focus on our shared humanity.
As we are aware, tensions between Palestine and Israel have been escalating in Gaza since October 7th. The reason behind this is that Hamas attacked Israeli people on that day. Do I condemn Hamas for their actions? Absolutely. As a human being, I condemn all acts of violence for any reason. Within an hour, all the headline news from outlets like BBC, CNN, and other Western media reads, “Hamas attacks music festival in Israel. Inhumane.”
Then, I think Palestinian are having sex with inhumanity for a decades. They deal with injustice, and where are the western media? When Hamas launches attacks on Israel, the news are quickly spreads across the country, even the planet if there are entities out there. However, for over a decade, Israel has been bombing Gaza. Why isn’t the news as prominent as it is now? Ahh that’s fine. More than 5 thousands Palestinian died, and more than 40 thousands man got injured is a normal. Where are they? Are they eating donuts while watching this slaughtery? Is this a fucking circus or what?
Perhaps the Western world has embraced Foucault’s notion so well — knowledge is power. They have the power to control the media, which in turn shapes the narrative of truth. However, this concept becomes meaningless when confronted with basic humanity. Regardless of whether Hamas follows utilitarianism ethics or Israel’s forces adhere to Kant’s deontology, we should all agree that killing or harming another person is an act of terrorism — inhumane.
What makes me “laugh” is the response of the IDF to the October 7th attack: They are bombing Gaza’s hospital, though they’ve denied it. For fuck’s sake. Imagine you are Palestinian, and on that day, you had constipation, which made it incredibly difficult to put out your shit. Then, you decided to go to the Al-Ahli hospital. While you were in the queue, you saw a lot of dead bodies passing in front of you. This is not ‘The Walking Dead,’ by the way. A minute later, boom, happy birthday motherfuckers. “This is our revenge for attacking our music festival,” they say. After that, 200–300 people were calculated to have died in that hospital.
In your grave, your soul is questioned by Munkar and Nakir about the cause of your death. “Ah, it was just a normal day in Palestine, sir. I couldn’t defecate and release my shit. So, I went to Al-Ahli hospital, and unfortunately, the Israeli forces dropped a bomb like in an Angry Birds game. Please take care of my wife and kids. Adios!”
Lastly, I may live 9,050 km apart from Gaza. I may not have families in Palestine or Israel. But I feel sorry for what’s happening there. I feel sorry for all the Israel citizen who got killed on October 7th, and I also feel sorry for all the Palestinian citizen who get killed on the Al-Ahli hospital. I’m just an ordinary writer from ordinary country in South-East Asia. But I hope our humanity becomes better after this, and let’s stand with humanity. Al-Fatihah for all the victims…
