Writing: Merlin Betts. Image: Archie Lauchlan.
Walking the border of Gaza… well, a similar length anyway. The Stade to the De La Warr is about 9km, not far off the length of the Gaza Strip’s southern border with Egypt. Gaza’s longer border is 51km – that’s basically from here to Brighton. I made this the title theme because I’m not sure we – collectively – realise how small Gaza is. A strip of Sussex from here to Brighton has been occupied for years and is now getting flattened while people starve in its ruins. And apparently those folk stuck in the ruins and the camps are the dangerous, inhuman enemy? Really is something to contemplate.
This Sunday, local opponents of the growing genocide caused by Israeli actions in Gaza will be walking from Hastings to Bexhill to raise money for Hastings Friends of Al-Mawasi, a charitable effort that supports one of the communities trapped in Gaza.
The organisation writes, “We have all seen the horrifying reports of famine in Gaza, and public protests against UK involvement in arming and supporting Israel are growing daily. People in Al-Mawasi tell us that our support gives them strength and means a great deal to them. We also know that the practical support we provide is making a real difference to their lives – providing food, water and shelter to many people who are completely destitute.”
Speaking for myself, the news coming in about Gaza has been too dire for too long, and I’ve stopped registering it. The daily humiliations of life under occupation are a distant memory. It’s now people being blown up and ripped apart daily. People being rounded up, stripped, searched, processed en masse, people being executed. Hospitals being bombed, pregnant mothers and newly born babies killed alongside the doctors and nurses who cared for them. Israeli soldiers digging around a shelter for children in the basement of a forcibly abandoned hospital, trying to pretend that it was some kind of torture chamber rather than a last ditch refuge from bombs. These were the things I was seeing on screen before I gave up paying attention – or rather preserved myself from inevitable madness.
Now I only hear about the latest from friends, particularly those involved with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Hastings Friends of Al-Mawasi. And thankfully many talk in broad themes rather than grisly details. Though I’m still painfully aware that the list of grisly details extends day by day, and the way Trump and the Israeli authorities started planning luxury beach houses on the still smouldering remains of peoples’ homes…
But now that I hear less about the harsh realities of war, I hear more about the harsh realities of opposing genocide if you live in Britain. You’re branded anti-semitic and attacked, or even transformed into a terrorist by our own government, just for daubing some paint on a plane and volunteering to get arrested – what’s terrifying about that? I mean if they damaged the planes you could do them for criminal damage and aggravated trespass, but terrorism? No. What’s the point in raiding the homes of pensioners who’ve never been near a weapon in their lives? It’s to intimidate them, and others, and shut them up, not to investigate them for terrorism offences. The freedom denied to the people of Gaza to live their own lives, is also being denied to people here who’d support their fundamental rights.
This violent opposition to anti-genocide, surely means, as written above, that our government is pro-genocide? Or at the very least, ambivalent to genocide, enabled by our own arms sales and historic international policy. And outside of government plenty of ‘pro-Israel’ (again, what does that really mean is this context?) activists are using similar tactics. Even in Hastings, as Friends of Al-Mawasi report, violence is used to silence protest:
“Unfortunately a small minority of Israeli supporters in our town are also intensifying their efforts to stop peaceful protest and trying to frighten people out of showing any signs of support for Palestine. On 20 July pro-genocide protesters shouted abuse and threats at people, including children, who were taking part in a fundraising walk for our friends in Al-Mawasi in Gaza, and a woman wearing a Palestine scarf was seriously physically assaulted.
“In recent weeks shops displaying pro-Palestine posters have been targeted with stickers accusing them of being anti-semitic or terrorist supporters. We are determined to continue our support for Palestine and resist these attempts to divide and frighten our community.”
Things have moved on a lot since, a few years ago, Israeli reviewers who’d never been to the White Rock Hotel tanked its online ratings to try and stop it hosting talks about what was happening in Gaza and the West Bank. If only that was all we had to deal with, rather than being physically assaulted for wearing a scarf and having a walk in solidarity.
I want you to know, I am very much aware that HAMAS (which roughly means “Islamic resistance movement” – I didn’t know that and thought it was interesting) have committed crimes and made many wrongful attacks against, and endangering, Israeli civilians. I’m also aware of many Jews’ long history of unfair persecution. And it shouldn’t need to be said, but neither of these things are acceptable. However, I don’t think Israel’s longstanding conflict with Hamas and its predecessors, or anyone’s unfair persecution and traumatic history, justify the genocide of thousands of innocent civilians. And I don’t understand how opposing genocide could be in any way “anti-semitic”. Saying you don’t think civilians should be bombed, starved, left without schools, medical care, religious and community centres… any quality of life… is very far from supporting Hamas, and very far from being anti-semitic.
So, I would join Hastings Friends of Al-Mawasi in inviting “as many people as possible to join our next fundraising walk on Sunday 10 August leaving the Stade at 11am and walking to Bexhill. Or join the welcome stall which will be set up at Bexhill De La Warr Pavillion at 1pm to welcome the walkers as they arrive.
“If you want to raise funds while you walk then let people know you are taking part and ask them to sponsor you by donating via paypal or bank transfer on the website. You can also share details of the event on Facebook here.”
I can be quite an anxious person and some part of me is worried that by coming out against genocide, I’m going to be personally targetted, at least online, or that Hex is going to be targetted. We have enough connection issues already without being cyber attacked. Hopefully that’s not going to be a problem. However, if I do get out on this walk, there will be a very real risk that someone will turn up, at some point, and hurl abuse at me. If I’m wearing the wrong kind of scarf, they might even hurl a fist at me.
I mention this because, as Friends of Al-Mawasi conclude, “In the current climate it can take courage to stand up for what is right, but we all need to stand strong against the violence and intimidation by a tiny minority who are trying to silence the voices of the majority in our town who want peace and justice for Palestine.”
Better to stand together than get picked apart.
