We Didn’t Start The Fire: The Challenges Faced By Palestinian People
Whilst many of the names and events from Billy Joel’s song “We didn’t start the fire” have faded from the collective memory of the masses, it is interesting to note that one name, now more than ever, has embedded itself into the minds of people around the world: PALESTINE.
The late great Nelson Mandela once said: “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians. ” It is easy to see and understand why Mr. Mandela identified with the plight of the Palestinians. Like they, people of colour, the indigenous people of South Africa were for many years, stripped of their land, their rights, their freedom and their dignity when the white man seized power in South Africa and instituted the apartheid regime. Similarly, the land we know as Palestine has been seized by the Israelis who have over the years created a similar apartheid regime and we know only too well that Apartheid is a crime against humanity. Israel too, has deprived millions of Palestinians of their liberty and property. It has perpetuated a system of gross racial discrimination and inequality and like the South African Apartheid regime, it has systematically incarcerated and tortured thousands of Palestinians contrary to the rules of not only international law but the humanitarian law too.
Very sadly though, Israel has in particular waged a war against a civilian population specifically children. There are small, precious and innocent children in Jerusalem that belong to both Israeli and Palestinian parents. None of these children know that they are Israeli nor Palestinian. They are unaware of the problems that presently exist between the two lands. They have no knowledge of the tragedies that have gone before and have in no way contributed to present day problems. Still, these children bring much love into their parents’ hearts. For there to be some kind of future for these children, there has to be an acceptance of past tragedies between these nations. In 1948, the majority of the Palestinian people were forcibly removed from their homes. This tragedy is referred to as the Nakba and until there is some kind of recognition of this tragedy, there can be no possibility for these innocent children to have a future together if one of them is continuously being shot at and being rained on by missiles. For this forced removal cannot be written off in history, it cannot be trivialized and it must not be ignored. Silence should not surround it.
The United Nations have set up many organisations for example UNRWA - The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. The purpose of this organisation is to assist Palestinians in exile and those born homeless and stateless in refugee camps. Donald Trump’s recent cutting of funding to this organization will in no way destroy and diminish the Palestinians’ spirit to return to their homeland. We, the people of the world should say with one voice that we will not let the tragedies of the Palestinian people go quietly into the night as the poet Dylan Thomas said. We too will rage against the dying of the light not because it is the easy thing to do but because it is the right thing to do. These young and innocent children deserve a better future than the one mapped out for them. Collectively, we the people of the world should tell the Palestinian people that we have heard you calling out from the darkness and we cannot and will not ignore you, even thirty years after Billy Joel so poignantly mentioned you in “We didn’t start the fire”.
