Sometimes, we send analysis, action alerts and challenges. Today, we focus on first-person messages concerning the disasters in the Middle East caused by imperialism and suffered by humans.
Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh is a Palestinian scientist, author and professor known for his extensive work in biodiversity and environmental sustainability. He is the founder and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History and the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University. He writes from Bethlehem, the West Bank.
Monday 10/21: Dear friends and colleagues,
The situation in North Gaza is beyond the word catastrophic: horror, massacres, extermination. People are shot on site as they even try to evacuate injured people, medical personnel are targeted, hospitals are targeted. No food or water allowed. Israel simply rejected UN and humanitarian organization access. People are dying by injuries and by thirst. It would be more merciful to drop a nuclear bomb on them…
In some places they simply rounded people up, forced the women and girls to the south and took men and boys (we remember mass executions like this in 1948 ethnic cleansing). In other cases they simply sent robot explosives to clear neighborhoods or bombed people (men, women, children) from the air. How could we tell our children and grandchildren that we had a chance to stop this and did not? Please see the examples of what is happening. Stop the world to stop a genocide. Speak out, act now urgently. The horror is beyond description…
She wrote October 19 in Counterpunch, reposted on
…It wasn’t until 2024 that the pieces of the puzzle started coming together for me.
The active genocide in Gaza is in blatant disregard of international law and in violation of every rule surrounding civilian casualties in war, both concepts that were heavily covered during my academy schooling. I had tried to take a neutral stance, one that would allow me to continue justifying the US’ actions, but seeing in the news and talking to veterans and active duty members who had the courage to speak up gave me the push I needed to decide for myself that I wouldn’t stand by anymore.
I was horrified at the violence that was being endorsed and supported by our government in clear violation of what I had once thought was basic ethics. More than that, I realized that the U.S. decides who is worthy of life and who is to die, and by being part of the military, I have a hand in that…
Shabal Al-Dalu, 19-year-old Palestinian wounded in the Israeli attack on Deir al-Balah, and burned alive in another Israeli bomb attack on Al-Aqsa Hospital on October 14. He had made a video for a campaign to raise funds to evacuate his family after they were displaced 5 times.
Golrokh Iraee, Evin Prison Women’s Ward, Iran; political prisoner and protest leader held with women convicted of protest during the Women, Life, Freedom uprising of 2022/23. More here.
…The women’s ward of Evin prison, whose voice of protest has repeatedly reached beyond the walls in recent months, has been our home for years. But we have not become accustomed to it and still think about tearing down the walls… The women’s ward, with its high stone walls, increasing number of doors every year, and key-holding guards, has not been a place where the voice of justice prevails. But it has become so through the presence of mothers who have left their children behind, beyond the tough beliefs, these unkind walls, and years of separation… We continue to stand firm on our beliefs…
As the Israeli bombing campaign in Lebanon, and the siege on north Gaza continues, we demand no spread of the war on Iran or Yemen. The danger of escalation just before the U.S. election is acute.
We learn from these thoughtful, brave and committed humans, representative of the hundreds of millions of oppressed people and of those who don’t want to work for an oppressive system: “Stop the world to stop a genocide.”