Browsing: Gaza

For about the last six months, Israel and Hamas-led Palestinian groups have been at war along the Gaza Strip. As tensions have ebbed and flowed, it’s been sad to watch the destruction and devastation — but what about the stories we don’t see in nearby countries?

If your realization is that you really don’t know all that much about journalism, don’t worry — you’re not the only one. Mob mentality spreads like fire on the internet, and it’s all too easy to connect the negativity and offensiveness of what’s happening in our world to the source that reports it. But we ask you, please, don’t shoot the messenger.

As normal people on our own, we can’t really do anything that will put a stop to the bombings, the injury, the genocide. However, as a collective, we can put in an effort to attain peace by providing humanitarian aid, writing to Congress for cease-fire, supporting Palestinian-owned businesses or even just spreading the word on how to help if you don’t have much to give. In the grand scheme of the war, these acts may seem small, but the truth is that Gazans will take all the help they can get.

There is honest and healthy debate to be had about Israeli politics and the path toward permanent peace in the region. But Hamas wants to play no role in that discussion. Hamas wants nothing but the death of the Jewish people. They have said so for years, and this Simchat Torah we watched in horror as they sought to make good on their word.

This is not something that can or should be reduced to a single repost in support of Israel or in support of Palestine. People are dying. Violence is ongoing. Having tunnel-vision on one opinion or another and making this about taking sides is insensitive. Violence to this extent is wrong, no matter what.