He walked with conviction. A travel coffee tumbler was in one hand and a livestreaming iPhone in the other. Ahead of him, just beyond the high, spiked fence, a pale blue Star of David rippled slackly.
Still recording, he set his phone on the ground, stood before the wrought-iron gate, and tilted the coffee tumbler over his head. In the cold February early afternoon sun, a shimmering liquid slooshed down hair — short and sandy — eyebrows, nose and mouth. His voice rang out. He flicked his thumb. And dripping from his chin, the veil of accelerant ignited —
“Free Palestine!
Free Palestine!
Free Palestine!”
At the turn of the 20th century, Palestine was a territory within the Ottoman Empire, which had governed it since the early 1500s. Palestine was home to a majority Arab population living quite peacefully alongside a small percentage of Jews and other ethnicities.
The Empire declined in power in the coming years, and with its disintegration immediately after World War I, European Zionists arrived by the tens of thousands, snatching up land and uprooting Palestinian peasants.
Tensions between Zionists and Palestinians turned increasingly bellicose. So, in 1947, the United Nations intervened with a partitioning plan that allotted Palestinians just over 40% of the land, even though they comprised more than two-thirds of the population. Seeing themselves as native inhabitants, Palestinians rejected the proposal.
Owing to war between the Zionists’ newly self-proclaimed state of Israel and surrounding Arab nations in 1948 and again in 1967, more than one million Palestinians became displaced. Many of them were banished to a 25-mile strip of land called Gaza, abutting Egypt to the south and the Mediterranean Sea.
In the time since, every aspect of these Palestinians’ lives, now comprising more than two million densely packed-in people, has been aggressively controlled through advancing means, right up to modern day’s panopticon-like border of razor wire and remote-controlled machine guns.
On Oct. 7, the militant governing body of Gaza, called Hamas, launched an attack on Israel that left nearly 1,200 people dead. And although questions remain about Israel’s culpability for a portion of these deaths, through a hostage-thwarting directive known as the Hannibal Protocol, Hamas’ offensive provoked a forceful Israeli military response —backed by $12.5 billion in U.S. military aid — that continues to this day.
On July 27, Israel bombed a Gaza school, killing 30 and injuring 100. It brings the total dead Palestinians, mostly women and children, to almost 40,000.
However, according to a new study published in the medical journal The Lancet, the death toll is expected to rise to an estimated 186,000. This number includes the anticipated indirect deaths attributable to the conflict.
It has been almost half a year since he set himself ablaze in front of the Washington, D.C., Israeli embassy. He sought to illuminate for the world over 70 years of barbaric persecution of the Palestinian people.
Members of Congress have not kneeled in the Capitol rotunda for him as they famously did for another American citizen in June 2020, paying homage on white marble for eight minutes and 46 seconds. And our president has not acknowledged him. He was an Air Force airman, just 25 years old, with a deeply righteous conviction he deemed worth dying for.
His name was Aaron.
Submitted as Commentary
This column was submitted as a letter to the editor by the listed author. Publishing does not imply endorsement by The Paper or its staff. Submit yours at editor@abq.news
Letter to the Editor: Remembering a Martyr, as a Study Reveals Shocking Numbers in the War Between Israel and Gaza
Share this story and add your comments:
Submitted by Scott Hammond
He walked with conviction. A travel coffee tumbler was in one hand and a livestreaming iPhone in the other. Ahead of him, just beyond the high, spiked fence, a pale blue Star of David rippled slackly.
Still recording, he set his phone on the ground, stood before the wrought-iron gate, and tilted the coffee tumbler over his head. In the cold February early afternoon sun, a shimmering liquid slooshed down hair — short and sandy — eyebrows, nose and mouth. His voice rang out. He flicked his thumb. And dripping from his chin, the veil of accelerant ignited —
“Free Palestine!
Free Palestine!
Free Palestine!”
At the turn of the 20th century, Palestine was a territory within the Ottoman Empire, which had governed it since the early 1500s. Palestine was home to a majority Arab population living quite peacefully alongside a small percentage of Jews and other ethnicities.
The Empire declined in power in the coming years, and with its disintegration immediately after World War I, European Zionists arrived by the tens of thousands, snatching up land and uprooting Palestinian peasants.
Tensions between Zionists and Palestinians turned increasingly bellicose. So, in 1947, the United Nations intervened with a partitioning plan that allotted Palestinians just over 40% of the land, even though they comprised more than two-thirds of the population. Seeing themselves as native inhabitants, Palestinians rejected the proposal.
Owing to war between the Zionists’ newly self-proclaimed state of Israel and surrounding Arab nations in 1948 and again in 1967, more than one million Palestinians became displaced. Many of them were banished to a 25-mile strip of land called Gaza, abutting Egypt to the south and the Mediterranean Sea.
In the time since, every aspect of these Palestinians’ lives, now comprising more than two million densely packed-in people, has been aggressively controlled through advancing means, right up to modern day’s panopticon-like border of razor wire and remote-controlled machine guns.
On Oct. 7, the militant governing body of Gaza, called Hamas, launched an attack on Israel that left nearly 1,200 people dead. And although questions remain about Israel’s culpability for a portion of these deaths, through a hostage-thwarting directive known as the Hannibal Protocol, Hamas’ offensive provoked a forceful Israeli military response —backed by $12.5 billion in U.S. military aid — that continues to this day.
On July 27, Israel bombed a Gaza school, killing 30 and injuring 100. It brings the total dead Palestinians, mostly women and children, to almost 40,000.
However, according to a new study published in the medical journal The Lancet, the death toll is expected to rise to an estimated 186,000. This number includes the anticipated indirect deaths attributable to the conflict.
It has been almost half a year since he set himself ablaze in front of the Washington, D.C., Israeli embassy. He sought to illuminate for the world over 70 years of barbaric persecution of the Palestinian people.
Members of Congress have not kneeled in the Capitol rotunda for him as they famously did for another American citizen in June 2020, paying homage on white marble for eight minutes and 46 seconds. And our president has not acknowledged him. He was an Air Force airman, just 25 years old, with a deeply righteous conviction he deemed worth dying for.
His name was Aaron.
Submitted as Commentary
This column was submitted as a letter to the editor by the listed author. Publishing does not imply endorsement by The Paper or its staff. Submit yours at editor@abq.news
Related