By Paul Salvatori  

They are betraying the Palestinian people. We are obliged to defy that. We have no other option. Our shared humanity is at stake.

I sit here debating whether to write anything. I wonder what it will do to help the Palestinian people, especially at this stage where Israel is waging a genocide against them in Gaza.

But I feel compelled to write. I don’t know why.

Perhaps it’s the only thing I can do.

I’m not sure if I’ve felt like this before. I do know however it’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever experienced.

It’s because governments globally failed to intervene, as they absolutely should (without qualification), to stop the genocide.

They can do many things in keeping with international law to do that: sanction Israel, pressure it to comply with the growing world cry for a ceasefire, and expel Israeli diplomats (as some governments have done already) from the countries over which they preside.

But instead, they choose to support Israel. The American government is an obvious example. Despite the genocide, it continues to fund Israel with billions and billions of “military aid.”

The term smacks of dishonesty. It’s not “aid.” Not really. It’s blood money, going toward slaughtering defenseless Palestinians. As of this writing, over 11,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since October 7 alone in Gaza and approximately half of whom are children.

Over one million, on account of the same forces and during the same period, have been displaced from their homes.

This doesn’t seem to be “enough” for the West. Canada, the United States, the UK, Germany, still others continue to support the genocide carried out by Israel, at most providing Palestinians with pitiful “humanitarian assistance” to make it look like they “care.”

The assistance, ultimately self-interested and barely enough to sustain Palestinian life, acts to shield donors from criticism; they want to enjoy the appearance of somehow honoring Palestinian life when in reality they want to destroy it.

Like Israel, they are trying to eliminate Gaza.

As I write, there are at least 37 babies in Al-Shifa Hospital at risk of death because the hospital is without functioning incubators. Israel is preventing the hospitals, part of its total blockade on Gaza, from accessing necessary energy supplies to keep the incubators going.

This is but one aspect of Israel’s “solution” to the Palestinian “demographic problem.” As the vicious state tries to not only eliminate Gaza but the Palestinian population itself, it is seeing to it that its youngest, the precious little babies outside the incubators (wrapped on the floor in blankets), don’t get to live.

Otherwise put, Israel is acting to ensure that future generations of Palestinians won’t be around. And if they are, it will continue doing what we’re seeing now. Because nobody, that is, none like government officials that can exercise the power to do so, is stopping Israel – wreaking nothing short of demonic evil.

Like others I’m assured by the growing support for Palestine globally. Yesterday, at least 300,000 took to the streets of London to demonstrate in solidarity with Palestine. Some are calling it one of the largest demonstrations in UK history.

Countless other demonstrations internationally mirror it. Everywhere it seems people are loudly – and publicly – demanding the genocide to end. If it were up to them, not governments (fewer in number), it’s hard to fathom that the genocide would be happening right now, let alone Israeli and other officials not be held accountable for it.

But till then I only, yes, feel disgust. And if I’m to be honest, perhaps some disappointment in myself.

How could I have been so naive to think that if things ever came to this, descended to this level of horror where the world is witnessing an accelerated genocide against the Palestinian people – beyond the ethnic cleansing they experienced prior to October 7 and fuelled by barbarous military might – governments would finally intervene?

It is up to us, people globally in solidarity with Palestine, to bring down the evil empire that is Israel. Elected officials, so-called “leaders” of the world, will not do it for us.

They are betraying the Palestinian people.

We are obliged to defy that. We have no other option. Our shared humanity is at stake.

– Paul Salvatori is a Toronto-based journalist, community worker and artist. Much of his work on Palestine involves public education, such as through his recently created interview series, “Palestine in Perspective” (The Dark Room Podcast), where he speaks with writers, scholars and activists. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.