We're all Refuseniks

By sheer coincidence, I came across footage and interviews from the sizable Anti-war protests in Israel. It is refreshing to hear a voice of reason in midst of all this barbarity, to hear individuals touched by this conflict on a quotidian basis denounce violence, all violence. Whether this violence is directed against a child in Sderot, or an equally innocent child who happens to reside in Gaza.



Perhaps '09 will be the year we will finally concede that one's geographic location should not appreciate/depreciate the value of one's life? That a child - or for that matter, any human being's - death should never be justified, regardless of circumstances?

Will '09 be the year that we - for once - collectively recognize the hypocrisy of paying lip service to 'Peace' while still implicitly/explicitly participating in the cycle of violence by serving in the military or voting a fascist party to power?

That having you heart-in-the-right-place (so to speak) while being part of a killing machine does not humanize/validate what you do? That intentions don't matter, only outcome, and outcome has never mounted to more than constant blood spill?



Will '09 be the year we stop justifying violence, stop blame-shifting, and for once, claim responsibility for the lives lost?

Will '09 be the year we all become Refuseniks? Or are we destined for a dozen more barbaric wars like the one we're engulfed in now?

In highschool in Cairo my sophomore year, we read a poem in English Literature class about a little girl dying in the Warsaw ghetto. It was compelling in light of the European 20th century history class we took that same year, in which the holocaust was a pivotal event. I remember thinking that a part of my humanity was lost forever in Auschwitz, that something died in me that can never be restored. Part of my humanity is dying today on the shores of Gaza.

"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?"

- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi