I have walked past the US consulate every second day for 467 days, pretending life was normal.
I have arrived at my job, and looked at the children I teach, and have had to ignore the similarities in their voices to those of the children I saw pleading online, begging for mercy, for their parents to be alive, and for their pain to stop. I Ignore their similar form and size to the shredded bodies that had been the focus of every app with a curated algorithm.
I have laughed, eaten, seen friends, danced, and celebrated in that time. I have cried at every video that was able to escape Gaza, and the brutality of true survival. And I cried this morning at 5am, with the Palestinians on my screen, their joy and hope that the hell they had endured would be over.
All eyes on Jabalia.
All eyes on Rafah.
All eyes on Gaza.
All eyes on Palestinian joy as resistance.
As people began discussing the ceasefire in its specifics, a post began circulating:
“Today, the world has finally decided that Gaza has suffered enough.”
And while a ceasefire and true liberation for the Palestinian people has been necessary since the unethical establishment of Israel, the people of the world have not stood idly by. The freedom of Palestine has been in the mind of the global consciousness since Oct 7th, 2023, with protests of tens of thousands in major cities across the world. People were, and are, fighting fiercely for Palestine, desperate to help stop their suffering through cutting their nation’s ties to Israel’s genocide campaign, send aid, or demonstrate their appal at the lack of condemnation.
So we have to ask, who truly decided that Gaza has suffered enough?
The answer, predictably, is the United States.
The “special relationship” of Israel and the United States has been the deciding factor in Israel’s aggression since its establishment. As the influencing power, the US had almost exclusive say over when the genocide would cease, as evidenced by their numerous deescalations of past Israeli attacks. It was this power, led primarily by Donald Trump’s cabinet, that forced the Israeli hand into a ceasefire, and will force the Israeli parliament to vote in approval of the agreement on Thursday.
Each phase of the ceasefire will last approximately 42 days, with the first beginning on Sunday, 19th Jan.
The first phase of the ceasefire will see six weeks of armistice, in order to allow for women, children, and elderly hostages to be released to Israel, and Palestinians kidnapped in Israel to be exchanged. Israel will withdraw its forces from Gaza’s population centres to areas no more than 700 metres inside Gaza’s border with Israel. Israel will allow a wave of aid agencies and supplies to enter the strip, allow the wounded to leave the warzone for treatment, and open up the Rafah crossing into Egypt.
The second and third phases, although not concrete until negotiations begin in the first phase, will see the remaining hostages and prisoners released, the ‘complete’ withdrawal from Gaza, and a long-term 3-5 year reconstruction effort.
But how many times have Palestinians been given false hope, just for Israel to completely violate what they’ve agreed to?
We saw them violate the ceasefire in Lebanon, violate the ‘humanitarian pause’ earlier in 2024, bomb ‘safe zones’ and refugee camps. How many times has there been news of the murder of UN and foreign aid workers, violations of medical and press neutrality, war crimes of using white phosphorus, targeting of civilians with snipers, usage of mass starvation and siege tactics - all of which maximise civilian casualties, after promising to minimise them.
Even today, only a day after the news of a ceasefire was announced, 80 Palestinians have been murdered and martyred. There are children who celebrated, prayed in thanks for an end to their suffering, only to be carried in pieces by their parents mere hours later.
The unbearable weight of uncertainty, the weight of wondering if Israel will keep to its word now that its keeper has told it to heel. Or, will it rip more families apart, leaving more parents unable to shield their children from the trauma of genocide? Are we able to begin processing the intense trauma that will stay with generations of Palestinians, or do we hold our breath for the next drone to arrive?
And if the shells stop, what will happen to those who fired them indiscriminately? To those who sought out civilians to maim and rape, who sought refugee camps to set ablaze? Will the United Nations’ International Criminal Court pursue the undeniable war crimes committed by Netanyahu and his cabinet? Will justice be buried under indifference as ‘peace was reached’? Will there be accountability for the genocide, shredding of life, torture, and utter devastation that was wreaked upon Palestine?
It has been 467 days, and I will continue to pretend that I can celebrate this ceasefire without fear.
From the river to the sea.