While packing for the flight to Berlin, did anyone think of Gaza?
Is there a single Israeli who, as they pack their bags and board a flight, thinks about the fact that the gates of the world have closed on the Gaza Strip and that their country is responsible for the imprisonment of two million people?
By Hanin Majadli • Translated by Sol Salbe
“Hello to the group, I took my children and fled Israel (again) with the destination this time being Amsterdam. I’d love to hear about a 2–3 bedrooms flat in the city, until things calm down and we return home or move on.” “Yesterday I arrived at the breaking point, I was travelling with the children between rockets, just like that… when I reached the end of tether yesterday my spirit was poked full of holes and crushed from every rocket hit that happened near me, and there were many of those, we began to think about Thailand, about Canada, about leaving in general.”
More and more such posts have been written in Israel since the war began. Relocation groups to Silicon Valley, high-tech people and others suchlike, a group for tours to the East, outbound flights, incoming flights, normal Israelis in Berlin, fascist Israelis in Berlin, flights abroad for those who can make up their minds quickly, and other groups have become the go to online sites where those who visit ask for tips on immigration or temporary escapes. This has been happening more intensely in the past week, since the threats of Iranian response.
I see these posts and my heart goes out for all the Gaza Strip inhabitants, who were unable to escape before the war began because they have no airport at all, and leaving Gaza requires planning for at least a year or two, if it’s possible at all. Their liberty and freedom of movement are controlled by external forces. They did not have and do not have the basic right to be rescued, to rescue their children, to flee until the storm passes over.
Even the Rafah Crossing, which was their only and last escape route (paying thousands of dollars to heartless Egyptian officials), has been closed for three months. The last link with the outside world was closed, and hopes of escape faded away. In Gaza, people are waiting for their deaths under unimaginable shelling. These are sounds that people living in Israel have not heard and do not know. Among Gazans, there are those who call it “the sound of doomsday.”
This is the picture: the residents of the Gaza Strip are like ducks at a shooting range. The Israelis consult among themselves on where to flee — to Canada, Amsterdam, or perhaps London? — and I’m reminded of the Gazan hashtag trend, “Wein enrouh?” (Where will we go?)”.
Yes, I am angry at the Israeli panic because it is taking place without a scrap of thought about the Gaza calamity. How can this injustice exist in such a small space? How is one side allowed to escape and maybe start a new life, while the other side doesn’t even have the ability to hide in the purpose-built safe room?
What about us who see these atrocities happening before our eyes and can do nothing? Gazans have no Righteous others to save them like the Righteous Gentiles who save some Jews, and we cannot take up the role.
I ponder the inevitable comparison: Do those who are fleeing for their lives now, who know the stories of their grandparents who fled for their lives, think of those who cannot flee for their lives? Those whose fate is either to die in the bombardments, or to live in the shadow of the bombardments?
Is there a single Israeli who, as they pack their bags and board a flight, thinks about the fact that the gates of the world have closed on the Gaza Strip and that their country is responsible for the imprisonment of two million people?
