The evil that is 50:1
War must not be allowed to have its way unchallenged
The ratio is now over 50 to 1.
That’s the current equation for the value of one Palestinian life against that of an Israeli. Many are immediately offended by reference to such math (most especially those who defend the current war on Palestinians). They argue that it is offensive, crude, vulgar, emotive and ‘sick’.
When I state this figure, I am told that this is ‘going too far’. On this, I completely agree.
But I pose a related question. At what stage did it go ‘too far’? Was it at 5:1, 10:1 or 20:1? At what stage did it cease to be ‘just far enough’ and become ‘too far’? At what stage did the pile of Palestinian bodies come into ‘proper’ balance with the pile of Israeli bodies?
At what stage did the theoretical equality between Palestinians and Israelis become redundant and when might it become operative again?
When do Israelis cease to be just ‘victims’ and Palestinians just ‘barbarians’? And at what stage does the wider world actually call a halt to the industrialised killing and actually mean it?
After 19 months of slaughter, when does the leadership of the EU discover the same moral framework and solidarity for Palestine that it rightly shows for Ukraine? At what stage do we reject Roberta Metsola’s dismissal of whataboutisms, our hypocritical hand-wringing and contemplate the lessons of history?
And, at a micro level, when do the far too many commentators posting in this paper under stories on the war stop justifying and celebrating the killing and rediscover their own humanity? Mangled history, conspiracies galore, bile and bigotry without any sense of embarrassment or apology continue to abound, even amid the bodies of the dead and horribly injured.
And then go on to use that war to nourish their own bigotries and hostilities here in Malta.
To repeat, in the deafening clamour of this genocidal war and the strategic objective of ethnic cleansing, there still appears little or no room to listen to those who directly suffer and suffer deeply. Those like Doaa Sama Eid, the many times displaced Gaza City mother or those of the Israeli families of some 58-hostages still in captivity.
Voices such as that of Rami Elhanan (ex-Israeli soldier, whose 14-year-old daughter, Smadar was killed by a Hamas suicide bomber) and subsequently became co-Director of the reconciliation organisation Parents Circle:
"…it will not stop unless we talk…we are doomed to live together, and we have to choose whether to share this land or share the graveyard under it."
Co-Director Bassam Aramin (whose daughter Abir was killed by a bullet fired by an Israeli soldier) echoes this:
"In the end there will be a peace agreement. That is absolutely clear. It will happen at the moment when the price of not having peace exceeds the price of having peace."
War must not be allowed to have its way unchallenged. Despite all the utterly indefensible killing, the evil justifications and the sense of despair, there is still time to save lives. This must be our imperative, we simply must face down the warmongers and armourers, including those at the ‘highest levels’ in Europe, the US and beyond.
To not do so or to prevaricate is to be complicit.
To repeat that repugnant idea, peace must be reimagined.
Promoting peace as against war is not, in the first instance, about trying to change the external world but is about discovering and strengthening our own moral framework. This is the initial and unavoidable step. Being then prepared to declare that morality publicly and build common cause with others, the follow-on move.
Most especially for our leaders who, to date, continue to extensively and successfully fail.
There is now no strategic, political, moral or defensible reason to defend the killing. 50:1 must not be allowed to become 60:1.