by Renwick Rose

There are some events in world history of which we are constantly reminded and corralled into support for the victims. Foremost among these are the enslavement of Jews in Egypt and the six million Jews killed by Hitler’s Nazi hordes during the second World War.

By contrast, the killing of hundreds of millions of black people who suffered and died during the inhuman enslavement of African people, colonial plunder and racist and ruthless exploitation under Apartheid and white minority rule, is not only to be forgiven, but we are also supposed to forget it. The Jews received reparation including the forcible seizure and handover of Palestinian lands to set up the modern state of Israel, populated largely by European Jews. The irony is that today these Zionists are themselves carrying out the same genocidal practices as those employed against their own people.

But it is not the Palestinian people who murdered the Jews in death camps and committed the bestial acts in concentration camps. We all, especially Black and indigenous people who suffered far worse than that, should unreservedly condemn all such acts of injustice. It was the Nazis, many of whose followers are now in positions of power and influence in many European countries, Ukraine being a well-known example, who butchered the Jews, not the Palestinians, Arabs or Iranians.

If we have been following world news, we would find it hard to remember a week when there was not almost a daily report of Palestinians, including children, being killed by Israeli soldiers or land-grabbing zealots in the so-called “occupied territories”. The children of Palestine have become victims of a perverted version of history, in which they, the children of Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem, the sisters and brothers of Jesus Christ, have become the guilty ones. The concentration camps such as the infamous Auschwitz, have their successors in Palestinian “refugee” camps like Jenin, with Zionist settlers and soldiers alike free to abuse, terrorize and murder. Did they not expect that one day the victims would rise up and in the face of the world’s silence, say “NO MORE! KILL US ALL!”

That, not the warped ideas of politics and terrorism spawned by the international media, not the crooked misinterpretation of religion, is what prompted the Palestinian people, to once more launch resistance last Saturday challenging the fallacy of Israeli infallibility. The crazed response of the Zionists speaks for itself. We, as perpetual victims, should take note. Vowing to flatten Gaza, the Israeli Defence Minister has made a statement that we should keep etched in our memory. He said that Israel was fighting “human animals”. It was not so long ago that black freedom fighters in Kenya, the Congo and Haiti were so branded. So were those who fought against slavery in the Caribbean and the USA.

Let us take note. The Palestinians have rebelled. They have no planes, no warships, no nuclear weapons, yet the USA has sent a veritable army to support those who have taken Palestinian lands. Draw your own conclusions. I do hope you find time to pray, at least for the children of Palestine. There is still “no room in the Inn” for them; their children are still being “born in a manger”. How could we support such injustice?