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I have a friend in Gaza. He is an ordinary person like you or me; he has a family and wants to keep them safe.
He has told me how he and his wife haven’t eaten anything in nearly a week so that their children can eat. He told me how just going back to his own house to get food for his family was a terrifying, dangerous experience: people have been shot at and killed by the IDF on their way to get food, even from designated aid centers. The aid itself has been inadequate. People are still starving!
When I hear his voice, he sounds so exhausted. He is living proof of how the world failed the people of Gaza.
This is what I think about when President Donald Trump complains that he hasn’t been thanked enough for what he’s supposedly done for Gaza. People need to realize that this is nowhere near enough. We have sabotaged them at every chance. We’ve funded the killing of civilians with weapons we manufactured; we’ve gutted aid organizations far better equipped to help, like the United Nations Relief Works Agency. Now we trickle in aid through our own poorly-executed programs.
If we are going to help the people of Gaza, from my perspective, it won’t be by rushing in and saving them ourselves, it will be by taking our country’s boot off their necks! After all we’ve done, we haven’t earned thanks from any Gazan, not even close. Before we receive gratitude, we must earn their forgiveness.
Lydia Merrick
Mount Vernon
