90 000 displaced in Gaza.

5 590 Palestinians killed between 2008 and 2020.

95% Gaza’s water unfit for human use.

For around a century, millions of Palestinians have been constantly alienated, displaced and injured. Their livelihoods stripped, their families taken away, their rights lost, they live without living. Tension is like macabre disease, unable to be evaded by even the strongest.

Can you think of a time when you had to run away from persecutors?

The inhumane Palestinian-Israeli conflict is perhaps the summit of human corruption. Unable to find a peaceful solution between themselves, humans instead trade the cost of other humans. If diplomacy was a boat, it was long blown away by the wind of humanity’s apathy, crashing into rocks, with its flotsam buried under the behemoth sea. Instead, the debris of war-torn Palestinians remains.

Many people claim that we are living in a revolution. The black-and-white TVs are replaced by coloured technology; the non-conformists are accepted by all; the freedom of speech is normalised and ideas are spread. Yet the Palestinian war demonstrates that we have not moved on. We are still abhorrent killing machines, keen on avenging and unable to look each other in the eye.

In 1948, there was no polio vaccine. In 1948, there was still racial segregation. In 1948, there were no artificial satellites. And in 1948, a war began. Why have we not moved past the war? Are we saying that we haven’t truly embraced diversity? The depth of racial and religious differences between the Israelites and the Muslims runs centuries-deep with many historical battles and conflicts. Yet surely we have to move on. Yes, there are differences. But look at the similarities: the holy ground of Jerusalem, also shared with Christians. Can this not be a source of mediation between everyone? Or are we still stuck in 1948?