All This Was a Lie, Then?

Why do you doubt the evidence of your own senses?

Image created by DALL-E 3 via OpenAI.

There’s a moment in A Christmas Carol where the cruel, miserly Ebenezer is confronted with a vision of his apprenticeship by The Ghost of Christmas Past. The vision shows a Christmas Eve, many years prior, when Scrooge was still a young man and, with his best friend, was employed by Fezziwig. “Old Fezziwig” is a happy, jovial, good-natured man who delights in throwing a Christmas Eve party for his staff, his friends and his family.

The Ghost wryly asks Scrooge what the fuss is about — Fezziwig has just spent a few pounds, three of four at best, and has only made “silly people” happy… is it an act of largess great enough that he deserves such affection as he receives?

Ebenezer snaps at The Ghost, telling him that working for Fezziwig was a privilege and a delight because, for all his power over them as employees, the man always chose to make their work light and their days fun. What The Ghost implied to be an illusion, a lie, was nothing of the sort.

Sir Patrick Stewart’s performance in the 1999 adaptation took this further. The Ghost of Christmas Past presents the miser (Stewart) with this joyous chapter of his life, and Ebenezer initially rejects it. He cynically airs that things in the past often appear better than they were, and that “one can’t trust anything”.

With Scrooge sitting in the exact place and time of his youth, seeing it play out exactly as it did before him, with every one of his senses and his very heart and soul telling him yes, it was so, The Ghost then probes — “all this was a lie, then?”

Scrooge, reflecting, is forced to concede: “it truly was just like this, right down to the last mince pie and dance”.

I don’t know who is going to read this, or if it will change anyone’s mind. I don’t flatter myself important enough to warrant being a target of a dogpile or the online two-minute hate, and I hope it won’t come to that. I just want to show you some information, best beloved, and ask you what a reasonable person would conclude. I’m hoping, perhaps, to be your Ghost and help you listen to your senses.

I’d like you to consider, especially, these three questions as we move forward:

1. How many resultant child deaths would a reasonable person say qualifies a military action as unworthy of a modern state?
2. Accepting Hamas as well-worthy of the epithet villain, would a reasonable person consider the actions of the Israeli government since October 2023 to represent the actions of a hero?
3. Would a reasonable person consider it likely that all of the sources that I will list are lying and/or on an anti-Semitic campaign against the people of Israel?

Let us begin. I have much to show you, and I will group by source.

The United Nations as a Verified Data Source

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency has been hit by Israeli military force airstrikes. 323 refugees and 146 UNRWA colleagues have been killed by Israeli forces shelling. 1,730,000 people are being sheltered by the UN. Source.

The UN World Food Programme verified numbers indicate 2,200,000 people are at “crisis point” or worse in terms of food supply. Source.

The United Nations Population Fund estimate 5,500 pregnant women who will give birth in the coming month with most unable to access health-care. The lack of water makes keeping clean nearly impossible and raises risks of infection. Source.

The Office of the High Commissioner says that, as of November 2023, military operations in Palestine point to a “genocide in the making”. Source.

UNICEF as a Verified Data Source

The Global Nutrition Cluster estimate 90% of children under five years old now have a disease. Source.

Half of the 1,700,000 displaced people are children. 17,000 children are orphaned or unaccompanied. Source.

These children don’t have anything to do with this conflict. Yet they are suffering like no child should ever suffer. Not a single child, whatever the religion, the nationality, the language, the race, no child should ever be exposed to the level of violence seen on the 7th of October, or to the level of violence that we have witnessed since then.”

— UNICEF, February 2nd, 2024.

One in six children under two years old are malnourished, and the situation is getting worse. Source.

World Health Organisation as a Verified Data Source

As of 5th November 2023 (4 months ago), 4008 children have been killed. This number is an estimate and it does come from the Palestinian Health Authority… however previous estimates have proven accurate enough that the WHO considers them sound-enough to cite. Source.

If we accept that the PHA is usually broadly accurate, then we must accept their report that, as of publishing, 30,000 Palestinians are dead and 70,000 injured; of whom 70% are women and children — CNN.

“WHO strongly condemns the attack on Al Ahli Arab Hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip. The hospital was operational, with patients, health and care givers, and internally displaced people sheltering there. Early reports indicate hundreds of fatalities and injuries.” Source.

Amnesty International as an Expert Source

Use of white phosphorous as a military weapon harming civilians by the Israeli government; a war crime. Source.

The Israeli government is restricting aid into Gaza, further tightening the existing blockade. Source.

Human Rights Watch as an Expert Source

The Israeli government is starving civilians as a war tactic. Source.

In one instance, 84 children were killed by Israeli security forces. At least 28 were hit above the waist, including 14 in the head, raising concerns that lethal force may have been used intentionally. An Israeli security forces soldier shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian girl in front of her house. Source.

Rafah evacuations are not only unlawful but possibly a war crime. Source.

Vox Populi from the Region and the Diaspora

“The war is bad for Israelis and Palestinians. The war is good for the Hamas and Bibi [Netanyahu]. They both have interests in the war, of dead people, people scared from each other.”
— Omi Goren, campaigner in Israel to end the war in Gaza.

“As if a huge massacre in Gaza can compensate the awful massacre that we had in Israel. I cannot accept it.”
— Brody-Bareket, Tel Aviv, protesting against the war in Gaza.

“In recent years, this is unprecedented. All the crackdown on freedom of expression and on freedom of protest is unprecedented,”
— Noa Sattath, director of Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

“When nobody is paying attention, they are eliminating the freedom of speech. They are not allowing any real opposition. Yesterday night, there were two protests in Tel Aviv and in Jerusalem led by our Jewish comrades against silencing the Palestinian community. And they were cracked down brutally.”
— Aida Touma-Sliman, Arab-Israeli lawmaker in the Hadash party in the Knesset.

“If I must die, let it bring hope, let it be a tale.”
— Refaat Alareer, professor of English Lit. at the Islam University of Gaza. Killed early December, 2023, in Gaza by the IDF.

“I don’t know. They came without telling me they wanted to destroy. They came to destroy everything. You know, they destroy the stable when the horse was inside. And now if you just spoke one word, they will shoot you.”
— Khalid Hamad Afranji, Palestine Equestrian Club, surveying the wreckage of his life in Gaza.

“We fear for the lives of six children suffering from malnutrition and diarrhea at the hospital’s intensive care unit as a result of the cessation of the electric generator and oxygen and the weakness of medical capabilities.”
— Ashraf al-Qudra, Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson, 3rd March 2024, on the dire health conditions.

“I miss my room and my toys. I wish I could see the school, see my friends and my teachers.”
— Ella Hamouda, six year old refugee sheltering in Rafah, Gaza, having fled with her family.

“They are very fearful. All day, we have to be by their side. They keep asking me about when we will go back home.”
— Mohammed Hamouda, Ella’s father. Their house in Beit Lahia was destroyed.

“Only when Palestinians live in freedom and dignity will Israel have security.”
— Marco, spokesperson for Na’amod, a British-Jewish organisation against war in Gaza.

“I left [Israel] because I could not bear the burden of being a privileged [Israeli] citizen in a racist state”.
— Naama Farjoun, Spain. A former Israeli citizen reflecting on the state’s attitudes and actions.

“Israel claims Jews as its national asset, and it weaponises us, as Jews — both as bodies in the demographic battle vis-a-vis non-Jews and particularly Palestinians, and ideologically as born representatives of the Jewish state… That claim, in turn, makes [us] the human shields of the state, as it assaults Palestinians under its settler-colonialist agenda, be it through ongoing ethnic cleansing, through siege or through seasonal massacres.”
— Ofir, pro-Palestinian campaigner, Copenhagen, on the Israeli government’s public-image strategy.

“Erase all of Gaza from the face of the Earth… Or let them die… Gaza needs to be wiped out. Revengeful and vicious IDF is required here. Anything less than that is immoral.”
— Galit Distal Atbaryan, former Public Diplomacy Minister in the Israeli government, calling for the eradication of all life in Gaza.

“complete siege… there will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed … we are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.”
— Yoav Gallant, Israeli Minister of Defence, planning collective punishment of all Palestinians.

“All the civilian population in Gaza is ordered to leave immediately. We will win. They will not receive a drop of water or a single battery until they leave the world.”
— Israel Katz, Israeli Energy Minister, calling for the expulsion of Palestinians through dehydration.

“It is not true this rhetoric about civilians being not aware, not involved. It is absolutely not true.”
— Israel President Isaac Herzog, justifying the actions against civilians in Gaza.

“Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist… Creating a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza is a necessary means to achieving the goal.”
— IDF Major general Giora Eiland, detailing a humanitarian crisis as a means to eradicating all life in Gaza.

Me

I am connected with several actors and creatives who have lost loved ones in Palestine since October 2023. When people are dying in large numbers who are only twice-removed from me, of course I notice.

Many News Reports

The Guardian, Time, Al Jazeera, Reuters, The New York Times, the Washington Post… click on the citation links to see the articles.

There, I have shown you what I intended. Now, I must ask you, best beloved, those three questions once more:

1. Is using the suffering of children, as a tactic, an action worthy of an enlightened, modern state?
2. Would a reasonable person consider the Israel government’s actions to be heroic?
3. Is it likely that all of these sources, from the UN to the WHO to UNICEF, are lying?

Even the most staunch defender of the Israeli governments’ actions must agree with the many Israeli people who see that harming children and pregnant people is a crime against humanity (source: NPR) that must stop. There is no military or political aim that justifies hurting and killing children.

Hamas should be brought to justice. Israeli citizens should be safe. Palestinians and Israeli people can coexist, sharing compassion and love.

We must have peace, for all our sakes. Protest and lobby your elected representatives to push for a ceasefire and negotiations. If you see anti-Semitism: call it out and challenge it. If you see anti-Islam or anti-Palestinian sentiment: call it out and challenge it. Although aid is currently unable to get through, you can still support Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) trying to save lives in the region. Keep abreast of new developments via fact-based reporting from the Associated Press and Reuters, and consider amplifying moderate Israeli news sources like The Times of Israel and Haaretz.

Unless, as The Ghost of Christmas Past challenged Ebenezer Scrooge, you think all the evidence of your senses is a lie, then?

Important footnotes for your consideration, my best beloved:

• I am deeply saddened by the loss of so many lives on October 7th, and I sincerely hope the remaining hostages are released back to their loved ones immediately.
• The Israeli Government is not The Israeli People, and definitely not the Jewish diaspora. Not all Jewish people support Israel’s policies and it is racist to assume that they do or must. Many Jewish people are very unhappy with what is happening in Gaza. Not-supporting Israel is not, inherently, anti-Semitic. The subject here is the actions of the Israeli government, not her people or Jewish people in-general. The Israeli government and police are actively suppressing free protests. Source — The Times of Israel. The Israeli police also regularly use violence against ultra-orthodox Jewish people who resist the draft and the war because of their values. Source (video) — Sky News.
• It is possible for criticism of Israel to be, in fact, a stalking horse for anti-Semitism. I am mindful of this, and constantly challenge myself on it — as should we all. We are addressing the political decisions of a state and must not fall into anti-Semitic thinking. It requires vigilance and resistance.
• Too many countries, including my own, have committed war crimes and been held to no account. That is monstrous. I protested and lobbied against those actions then, and will do so again in the future.
• Israel is clearly committing war crimes. The IDF shot and killed 115 people queueing for aid parcels yesterday (2nd March, 2024). Source — The Times of Israel. This prompted fresh protests in Israel against the actions of the government. Source — Haaratz (Tel Aviv).
• The crimes against humanity happening in Gaza are prompting increased hate crimes against Jewish and Muslim people, worldwide. This is abominable and must be opposed. Source — BBC.