This post is also available in: العربية (Arabic)
The words below may not be able to heal any wound or stop any bleeding. But they will undoubtedly make a difference. Maybe Bassem Youssef was finally able to demonstrate the power of words in his viral interview with Piers Morgan: he managed to change the equation with his witty and satirical style as his mockery of the oppressor brought some seriousness and clarity to the issue.
So yes, words do have power. It is Christian belief that “In the beginning was the Word,” and “the Word was God,” and God was the revolution against all the Pharisees and priests who controlled the world and Palestine and used their thrones to oppress people. But just as Christ rose from the dead, Gaza will rise from the pile of destruction and flames it has been reduced to. These mothers will stand, will shake off the cruelty, will show that love is the greatest force.
Here, from Syria, you are joined by the voices of women who have resisted and are still resisting despite the suffering they endure from the effects of the war that has not yet ended, whose consequences continue to unfold. Today they feel the pain of their Palestinian neighbors and extend their wounded hands to them. Might some sincere words halt the blood flowing from the hands on the other side?
In Syria today, and since the beginning of the war on Gaza, many people are wailing for Palestine every day, screaming loudly from beneath the rubble. The camp may just be broken stones, but it is ironically still vibrant with life.
Zeina Shahla, a Syrian journalist, has been taking part in these marches and vigils. Every day, she and her colleagues scream with all their might against the oppressor. Zeina tells Medfeminiswiya,
Today they feel the pain of their Palestinian neighbors and extend their wounded hands to them. Might some sincere words halt the blood flowing from the hands on the other side?
“I am fully aware that what we are doing will not bring about the change we want and that Gazan women may not be following social media or the news as there is no electricity or fuel in the Gaza Strip. But we still want to say to them that we are with them, that we feel an insurmountable amount of anger, pain, and rage every minute. We are also learning a lot from them, things about ourselves, about right and wrong, about the issues we suffer from that must ultimately have the correct light shed on them.”
Syrian journalist Lina Dayoub remembers with every mother’s screams the night her own child was miraculously saved from the shell fragments that lodged themselves into his small body when the war in Syria was at its height. She says to Medfeminiswiya,
“The brutal killing that has been ongoing since October 7 and the negligence at the Arab and international scales both reinforce the lack of confidence I have in all these international documents and agreements. To the women of Gaza, I say: I am holding your hands tight, the hands of the women who are witnessing this betrayal and still rise every morning to make breakfast for your sons and daughters and dream of a new, lighter day, with no more pain, no more loss. I always wonder how you could be feeling with your children in out-of-service hospitals… I think of my pain and yours and find that mine pales in comparison. God’s providence alone will take care of it all.”
“I feel exhausted and a great sense of helplessness, futility, and hurt. I was displaced from the Syrian Golan Heights and today I am a refugee in a foreign country. I have lived through displacement and asylum, through all the lies the world makes up… I understand very well what the women of Palestine and Gaza are going through,” Alaa Muhammad tells us.
She adds, “I see the mother searching for the remains of her son among the dead, I see the father collecting the remains of his daughter, I see Youssef with his curly hair, Muhammad with his black hair, Fatima, Bisan… so many names floating around me… but I also know that lies do not last long before the truth finally reigns.”
