Am I Going Crazy?

The world has gone crazy, and I don't know what to do about it.

This has been going on for a while. Billions of pounds were wasted in the pandemic on PPE or contracts to the MP's friends, the cost of living crisis and the war on Ukraine, started by an utter madman (just to name a few).

Now this. The Israel-Palestine conflict has been continuing since 1947 when the British partitioned the land between the Arabs and Jews. In 2023, 76 years later, we really haven't come much farther.

An ethnic cleansing is unfolding before our very eyes. A genocide. A massacre. Victims in an apartheid state. And the worst part? Our leaders are helping this happen by providing weapons to Israel, to pursue this further. They are not taking action to stop it or reduce the violence, only condemning people for even waving a Palestinian flag.

When you learn about the Holocaust, you think

'This is horrific, how did we ever let this happen?'

But we did. We did let it happen. Because no one knew any better.

Now, with the internet and social media able to spread the word faster than any news outlet ever has done, we are still back to square 1. It's 'us' against 'them'. The media is outputting a false story about the Palestinian people representing Hamas and that they are terrorists. It is fine for Israel to defend itself, but when the Palestinians do, which they definitely deserve to, they are suddenly made the victims.

Another Holocaust is happening again, and the West is helping it happen. This conflict has been ignored for far too long and we see how it has escalated.

So, I feel like I am going mad.

How can anyone possibly think the extermination of a group of people, for their own land, is OK? The land is not yours if you need to fight for it.

At the same time, antisemitic incidents have increased drastically in the UK and US. This is incredibly worrying. How can people think that every Jewish person represents the Israeli government who is perpetuating these horrific war crimes? Of course, they are not, and most detest the Palestinian occupation.

Hamas does not represent Palestinians, yet Palestinians are being punished for it.

The Israeli government does not represent all Jewish people, yet Jewish people are being punished for it.

The West does not condemn the killing of innocent people unless they are Palestinians.

Palestinians in Gaza have been living in an open-air prison for decades. Torn by war, that is not somewhere safe for any human to live. The West cannot empathise with living that way, as it's our governments that have perpetuated this violence.

This is the culmination of decades of media coverage perpetuating negative stereotypes of the Middle East. De-humanising them, to the point that no matter how many dead babies we see on our Instagram feed, our government still believes that Israel is the one that requires weapons.

I don't know if I'm going mad, or if I'm in a privileged position to see both sides since I have social media. I am neither Jewish nor Arab, so I do not have a personal empathy for either cause. However, I can see the facts. The facts are, are that thousands of people are left without the essentials for human life (food, water, fuel), as they are living in an occupied state run by a government that is a bully. This needs to stop, and the leaders need to see this.

And the worst of all? The world is simply watching and fighting amongst themselves. We said 'never again' to mass genocide, yet, this is unfolding, again, right before our eyes.