Hostage

My thoughts on the symbolism of the hostage situation in Gaza

Image courtesy of Diana van Eyk

Listen to an audio recording of Hostage:

Since October 7, 2023, the only expression of sympathy to be heard from Western politicians and Western mainstream media is for the hostages that Hamas took on its prison break into Israel. There is some alarm about casualties among UNRWA and other humanitarian aid workers, medical professionals, journalists and UNIFIL peacekeepers. But not a sincere word is said, not one tiny tear is shed, no hands are demonstrably wrung over the thousands and thousands of slaughtered, displaced and traumatized Palestinian, and now Lebanese, civilians. No urgent, genuine pleas go out to save their lives from Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Justin Trudeau, Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz, and the likes. Not a peep!

I don’t know about you, but for some time now, I’ve been feeling like I, too, have been taken hostage in this conflict. When I say this, I do not make light of the Israeli hostages still in Gaza, nor do I minimize the enormity of what they have endured physically, emotionally and psychologically for over a year. And I do not put aside for one nanosecond the brutal captivity under which the Palestinian population has suffered in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem since Israel’s founding in 1948, and to which they are relentlessly subjected each and every day with no end in sight.

The hostage situation, however, seems to me symbolic of the helpless and frequently hopeless circumstances in which many of us find ourselves. And by we/us, I mean, everyone who wants nothing more than for the genocide in Gaza to stop but who is neither heard nor seen, as if we have been blindfolded, stripped, zip-tied, and locked up in some tiny, soundproof, windowless underground coffin with no hope of escape, rescue or ransom.

We, who oppose and abhor genocide, are being held hostage by governments that, without our consent and against our conscience, misappropriate tax money for essential public services in order to supply Israel with more weapons and military aid and, thereby, facilitate Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.

We are being held hostage by so-called world leaders who, instead of doing everything in their power to secure peace through diplomatic negotiations, strut around on the world stage like amateur thespians and spout threats of World War III, even a nuclear war that no one in their wildest dreams can win or survive.

We are being held hostage by an electoral process that allows citizens to choose every four years or so between lesser and greater evils; that only big money has the power to influence; that ensures that the elected can do whatever the hell they want once in office; an electoral process that functions like used car or real estate salesmen whose interest goes out the door along with you the minute they’ve got your money.

We are being held hostage by new laws and regulations which, passed under the guise of combatting antisemitism, hate speech and mis/disinformation, aim to silence, shut down and criminalize pro-Palestinian, anti-Zionist and anti-war protests in violation of the democratic right to free speech as enshrined in the First Amendment of the USA, the Canadian Bill of Rights or the equivalent in other democratic countries.

We are being held hostage by social media platforms that, contrary not only to the democratic principle of free speech but also the spirit of community, censor or remove what they arbitrarily deem “offensive” content; that suspend or permanently cancel user accounts at will; that defund users who criticize Israel/Zionism and its enablers.

We are being held hostage by a corporate mainstream media that feeds us thin gruel-like narratives in order to manufacture consent for genocide and government complicity and to keep readers and listeners in the dark about the truth; that disseminates government propaganda instead of promoting investigative journalism; that vilifies independent journalists and accuses them of being backed by Iran, Russia or China.

We are being held hostage by daily reports of yet another massive Israeli strike on Gaza, the West Bank or Lebanon, complete with live-streamed images of another 12, 35, 100 or more dead, broken, crushed, dismembered, mutilated, shredded or burned Palestinian bodies laid out in bloody shrouds and plastic bags or piled up under dirty blankets to decompose in streets overflowing with sewage and garbage and covered in rubble: Graphic images that no human beings with beating hearts can get out of their heads.

We are being held hostage by an international legal system that, despite its mandate to uphold humanitarian law and punish war crimes, moves so cumbersomely that by the time the ICJ issues its final ruling on South Africa’s case against Israel, or Israel and its accomplices appear before the ICC, only extreme heroic efforts will be able to detect any sign of life, let alone resuscitate justice.

We are being held hostage by multinational companies whose grip on the consumer market is so pervasive that boycotting them because of their ties to Israel is nearly impossible, leaving us with limited local alternatives, if we are lucky enough to afford them.

We are held hostage by the indifference, apathy and obliviousness of a general public who does not see, does not hear, does not care about what goes on beyond their comfort zone, and who refuses vehemently to let any sort of unpleasantness rock their boat and spoil their day.

We are held hostage by friends and family who have bought so solidly into the fairy tale that Israel/America/the West is good and Hamas/Hezbollah/Iran is bad that, as soon as you try to present a broader, more informed argument, they lash out, close their minds, turn their backs, and want nothing more to do with you.

Last but not least, we are held hostage by a torrent of emotion—outrage, disgust, disbelief, frustration, sorrow, despair, anguish, fear—that we must carry inside us like a malignant tumour until a light leads humanity out of this darkness and into a promised land.

We hostages are at the mercy of lunatics, fanatics, maniacs, sociopaths, monsters, mass murderers and terrorists in high office. And with our captors, we do not bond or experience the sympathy associated with Stockholm Syndrome. No, instead, we feel only anger, contempt, shame. And the longing along with the yearning of the Palestinian people to breathe fresh air, to see the sun, to be free. To go home.

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A word of thanks to Diana van Eyk for letting me post her evocative painting.

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