Randa Abdel-Fattah
Mondoweiss / October 12, 2024
October 7 showed that Palestinians and Arabs remain the rightful heirs of our story. We remain the primary witnesses to testify to our past, present and future.
This is not the first time first I have written an anniversary essay. I had something to say in May 2023, June 2017, May 2018, May 2013, May 2008, May 1998. I had something to say one hundred years after Sykes and Picot carved up our homelands with their red and blue pens. I know the drill. To commemorate an event, to mark a discrete period often relies on certain narrative conventions and literary devices. These include chronicling what we have borne witness to, what the teachable moments are, the diagnostic and the remedial; a reflection on how I feel about the past, present and future. I respect everything about this exercise.
But this is not an anniversary piece.
I cannot write the way I used to. I cannot curate a paragraph of facts and figures that encapsulate the apocalyptic horror we have witnessed for the past year. I want to resist the impulse to stocktake our suffering. I cannot measure the destruction and injustice when the genocide continues and Israel’s industrialized slaughter has now expanded to Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen.
Since October 7, we have seen, in real-time, live-streamed to our screens, apocalyptic scenes of violence methodically inflicted on a besieged population as the world watches on—in the service of a political project that has unfinished demographic business, that requires the extermination of the ‘brutes’, the elimination of the native, in order to achieve the goal of a Jewish majority and control over the entire stolen land from the river to the sea and beyond, into southern Lebanon and Syria. Each day has been a horrifying chronicle of industrialized genocide, domicide, scholasticide, infanticide, femicide, medicide, and ecocide. I cannot bear to sift through my bookmarked tweets and saved posts— a library of unfathomable horror— and decide which horror story makes the final cut as the bombs keep dropping, and capital keeps flowing. I cannot bear to sift through the fact-driven infographs, expert threads, articles, essays, podcasts, video teach-ins, interviews, TikTok posts, and IG stories and offer a synopsis of this hellish landscape. How do I summarise this past year? What atrocity makes it into my word count?
I cannot, too, face crafting a narrative arc to one year of a genocide which continues as I write this. How could I begin to even sketch characters and create a plot out of Gaza? Every protagonist, every genre, every book and movie you’ve ever read or watched, anything you have ever imagined, is there in that tiny strip of land. Gaza can give you a hero’s journey, a children’s and young adult story, a horror, dystopian, sci-fi speculative story, an action plot, political dramas aplenty, tragi-comedies, legal dramas, ensemble casts, a spin-off series in Lebanon.
And none of them have been enough to stop the slaughter.
Instead of reflecting on the past year I find myself thinking about accountability. What this requires of us when the day comes and we witness the fall of empire. How we account for all the crimes and ensure the deliverance of justice. When (not if) Israel, the Western world, and Arab regimes collapse and are held to account by the people, it will be a time for reckoning where we present a register of our warnings, our pleas, our foreshadowing, and the chain of causation.
If you ask me about hope, there was a glimmer on October 7. It was palpable, real, and exhilarating. If you ask me about confusion, fear, and expectations, they were there in the early hours and days. If you ask me about genocide, it could have been stopped. If you ask me about freedom, justice, and peace, it could have been achieved. For these reasons, we must keep the exhibits for the moment of our reckoning.
For this essay, I offer not only my words, but some of the words of my friends and comrades with me in the diaspora in the settler colony of Australia whose initial reactions to October 7 reveal that Palestinians and Arabs remain, and must insist on remaining, the rightful heirs of our story. We remain the primary witnesses to testify to our past, present and future. We remain the owners of our narrative. We predicted, we analysed; sometimes we over-estimated, sometimes we under-estimated. I go back and read the messages we exchanged in those early October days, and I weep. Because at the time, as we typed words of hope, fear, and confusion, we did not know that some of us would witness the killing of family members. We did not know that one year on, the homes and lives of some of our family and friends would be destroyed. As some of us wrote about evacuating our families and friends, we did not know that they would be forced to complete their own Nakba. We did not know that our casualties would be a steady global livestream of Israel shredding, bombing, decapitating, and mutilating children, women, men, health care workers, journalists, students, teachers, and every category of human only because the Palestinian, the Arab, has been designated as non-human.
When we were inconsolable at 1,000 martyred children we could not imagine that the world’s governments would allow the murder of 16,500, possibly 100,000, children by Lancet’s calculations.
The messages below are from group chats I was part of. Palestinian friends including activists, academics, artists, lawyers. The messages speak for themselves. And remind us, one year on, that our voices are enough. If only the world would listen.
Shock, Confusion, Hope
October 7, 2023, 8:00 a.m. (Israel) 3:00 p.m. (Australia)
3:21pm: “I can’t believe what I’m seeing! Massive prison break!”
3:21 pm: “The current events are being described as unprecedented since 1973 when Israel declared a “war”!
3:33 pm: “I’m in between utter excitement and dreading the bloodshed. Reports of three soldiers captured. Either live or dead. Aljazeera trying to confirm.”
3:37 pm: “Aljazeera confirming. Looks like large number of casualties too.”
3:41 pm: “A fear in Israel that they lost control of Eretz crossing!”
3:43 pm: I feel like my dread denies the resistance agency. They know what they’re facing and risk and still persist. Nonetheless still feel the dread at what’s to come.”
3:48 pm: “Reports of tens of casualties on the Israeli side. Details hazy.”
3:48 pm: “Large fear in Gaza of what’s coming. Please not another May 2021 or Operation Cast Lead.”
3:49 pm: “Israel lost control of Eretz crossing point with Gaza!”
3:50 pm: “NO WAY! It can’t be!”
4:16 pm: “Gaza we did not see it coming! Just wow!”
4:22 pm: “Al Jazeera interviewing an Israeli commentator who is saying this will ‘strengthen Netanyahu’s hand against the opposition.” I think the neighbours would have heard me swearing at the TV!”
4:24 pm: “It makes no sense.”
4:28 pm: “Of course anticipating a response from Israel. A blood thirsty population in Israel would now appreciate the bombardment of Gaza, assassination of leaders and the destruction that will follow. And they will go to the hill to watch!!”
4:29 pm: “We were just there and everything pointed to an economic peace agreement…
no one I spoke to had any idea … it felt like Gaza was sliding away from the rest of Palestine.”
4:30 pm: “And now Gaza is back on the agenda.”
4:30 pm: “But if they have hostages?”
4:30 pm: “They will be happy to compromise them! They did during the last war.”
4:31pm: “This is different.”
4:31 pm: “Maybe.”
4:33 pm: “I’m betting on Gaza. It is unbreakable.”
5:00 pm: “Is it wrong to wish they go all the way to Ramallah and remove Abbas?”
5:00 pm: “My dad would say they should then free Barghouti and put him on top.”
5:33 pm: “Hamas is reporting 35 Israelis captured.”
5:34 pm: “It is either Israel would go into large scale war – or given the number of kidnapped soldiers/settlers and internal ‘pressure’ would hold them from conducting war and call for exchange of prisoners, all options are open. This time would be different that other times.”
5:42 pm: “Taking over Erez crossing is such a symbolic action, that will give everyone in Gaza a morale boost. The crossing is a symbol of humiliation, imprisonment and oppression.
Also, it will dispel the myth about electronic surveillance, satellite tracking and intelligence that Israel boosts about.”
6:54 pm: “Calls for pogroms now. We might see similar scenes to May 2021.”
8:51pm: “I still can’t actually believe this is happening.”
8:52pm: “Me too. The footage on TV is unprecedented.”
8:56 pm: “So, will Israel attempt to re-occupy the Gaza Strip? Last time 53 days of war. Not one objective was achieved.”
9:05 pm: “I’m seeing tweets where they’re comparing this to 9/11—they always use global Islamophobia to garner sympathy.”
9:07 pm: “We need to prepare for tomorrow. They’re going to make the clock start on 7 October.
9:07 pm: “Yeh because it was utopia for Palestinians on 6 October.”
9:08 pm: “We need to find quotes from Israeli ministers over the years how they want to live by the sword. Casualties this year alone is 230+, number of children, elderly etc.. houses destroyed, houses taken over, etc.. Remind people of the WHY.”
9:08 pm: “Just watched Netanyahu. He’s giving the biggest President Snow energy giving telecasts to the capital in Mockingjay.”
9:10 pm: “They say unprecedented force but I can’t imagine it getting worse than anything they’ve done… this is very frightening.”
10:29 pm: “Death toll from Israeli assault on Gaza climbs to 161 Palestinians. At least 1000 injured according to local sources.”
11:05 pm: “Ya rab make it easy for them.”
1:28 am: “I think I figured out why Hamas is doing this now. Haniyeh’s speech is clearly directed outward to the Arab and Muslim world. He is reinstating hope in Palestinian resistance and reigniting the imagination of defeatist normalisers. It is a show of strength that hopes to return Palestine to the centre after it was pushed aside.”
Evacuate or Stay?
October 13, 2023
2:29 pm: “People from Gaza are asking us to confirm if they should leave. They lost internet and communication and don’t know what to do.”
2:45 pm: “My family refuse to leave. They are saying this time is different. Gaza showed that Israel isn’t invincible. They believe this time the Arabs and Muslim leaders will come through.”
3:29 pm: “Evacuation order? Can someone check sources on this please? It could be an Israeli hoax part of the psychological warfare.”
3:39 pm: “Our families in fact neighbours too are all heading south. The eviction is happening. There is great fear over lack of water in the days to come.”
3:31 pm: “Organising with family now how to get out.”
3:31 pm: “Mine refuse. They say they will live and die in Gaza. My heart is breaking.”
3:35 pm: “UN says Israel is asking to evict 1.1 m from north to south Gaza. Not just genocide… it is redrawing the geography.”
3:40 pm: “Yes – my uncles are in middle of Gaza Strip – 1.1 million will be moving to middle and south Gaza strip – crazy I cannot imagine.”
4:48 pm: “I’m so angry. The insanity of this world.”
4:49 pm: “Where will you find water, food shelter for 1.1 million refugees within 24 hours?”
4:52 pm: “What can we do? Need to do something!”
4:56 pm: “Are they getting us in less geography to wipe us out with less weapons?”
5:02 pm: “It’s incomprehensible that the second Nakba is happening and we are trying to convince the world we aren’t baby killers.”
5:10 pm: “Zionist MO to distract deflect deny.”
Content Warnings
October 14, 2023
8:19 am: “A message from Perth homeschooling warning parents to delete social media apps from their phones as Hamas terrorists are expected to release distressing videos of Israeli hostages begging for their lives. As one psychologist has noted, ‘The videos and testimonies we are currently exposed to are bigger and crueller than our souls can contain. Australian parents are advised to closely monitor their children’s social media use and be aware that they may stumble across incredibly distressing content.’ Posted on white woman feminist site Mamamia. Obviously.”
8:25 am: “It’s hard to fathom how they are getting away with these atrocities.”
8:27 am: “Because atrocities on Palestinian bodies do not need content warnings.”
Academic Freedom
October 14, 2023
10:02 am: “I think things are going to get very bad at unis.”
10:02 am: “Academic freedom is going to be the battleground. IHRA.”
10:03 am: “Our existence on campus as Palestinian will literally be seen as a trigger.”
10:05 am: “People are entitled to actual safety. Not constant feelings of safety. I find that a lot of people are bad at distinguishing those.”
International Law and Courage
October 15, 2023
12:40 am: “I’ve been thinking about what can be done legally. The best thing I could think of was a third state/friendly state provisional measures application to the ICJ. But which state would have the courage is the question.”
Live-streamed Genocide
October 15, 2023
11:09 pm: “I just saw videos of beheaded babies in Gaza by Israel. I’m actually going to throw up. That was so horrifying.”
11:13 pm: “I am torn and think people need to see and face these horrors, I want to bear witness and people in Gaza are asking us to bear witness. It might be the only thing that will save them.”
11:13 pm: “It is all one giant content warning.”
11:14 pm: “Makes no difference. I don’t even know why we share this stuff all it does is contribute to our dehumanisation and further trauma.”
11:15 pm: “I get you. But this is evidence, real-time. It’s a gamechanger. 1982 Lebanon and Reagan. Israel can’t maintain its hasbara. Governments won’t be able to deny what we’re all seeing on our screens. Our dehumanisation yes but might finally make the world act.”
Can you put us in touch with people in Gaza?
October 16, 2023
4:55 pm: “I fear now the story is falling out of the news cycle. It happened in 2014. Already you’ll notice the calls for stories will dwindle.”
4:55 pm: “They want to connect with people in Gaza. What do I tell them? Between trying to find shelter, food and water can you speak to this journalist about how much you’re all suffering so they can edit your words and fit it into their BS both-sides story?”
4:59 pm: “Our families don’t want to talk to media they’re afraid Israel will bomb the houses they’re in.”
5:05 pm: “The ABC should have fought to have their journalists on the ground rather than accept Israeli orders to forget Gaza for decades now. I’m over having to spend half my days connecting lazy media outlets to people in the ground to fit whatever angle they need to peddle to get clicks and views. I’m over it but seriously can’t see another way.”
5:10 pm: “We have to keep telling the story. We are not seen as human.”
1000 kids
October 16, 2023
8:06 pm: “1000 kids are dead, man. I’m really not coping with it.”
It’s Spreading
October 18, 2023
5:00 am: “My God. It’s spreading.”
10:46 am: “I think the WB is going to ignite soon. Spoke to my fam in Jenin.”
4:22 pm: “I spoke to my father and I could hear shelling in the background. He said for the past six hours they’ve been firing shells onto Lebanon every other hour. They started at 2.15am and our entire house shakes due to their proximity because just like 2006 they’ve placed all their artillery units near Arab villages.”
Our hearts can’t take anymore
October 19, 2023
8:53 am: “600 children are estimated to still be under the rubble our nerves are tired, our hearts can’t take anymore, are they alive calls, where are they calls, I thought my family was wiped out yesterday this shit is real it is not a political game.”
8:54 am: “600! Ya Allah.”
9:02 am: “We will triumph and meet up in our free Palestine. We’ll rebuild and visit each other there. Catch a train from Haifa to Beirut. Let your rage help you imagine.”
9:02 am: “We can’t despair. The people of the world are with us. The ruling elite aren’t. The agonising question is how long do we have to wait and at what cost?”
Randa Abdel-Fattah is a Future Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
