There are scores of Palestinian writers and photographers, many of whom have been killed, who are determined to make us see the horror of this genocide. They will vanquish the lies of the killers.
Once again your incredibly beautiful writing of this epic horror has moved me to tears. Tears for the dead, tears for the wounded, tears for all those trapped in this waking nightmare and finally tears for my own shame. The great Dietrich Bonhoeffer said “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil, not to act is to act”. It is my country that makes me cry in shame for not just it’s silence and failure to act but in it support for this evil committed in the full light and without one scintilla of its own shame. As I sit in comfort and safety I fear for the justice of history which will call us to account for what is being done in our names and our tax dollars. Thank you for always refusing to remain silent and for your never ending eloquence
The Cost of Bearing Witness...broke my heart. Yes I wept. I still get tears while thinking about it. I will be thinking about it for a long time. I hope, in fact, that I never forget it...though it is a nightmare, which includes the image of my 10 year old granddaughter without her legs, without her hand, without pain medication, without her family, without hope, and begging for death. My two adult sons and my daughter under tons of rubble that used to be their family home....but was never a refuge. They have none. They have no safe place. There's nothing I can do to help or protect them.
Thousands of pregnant Palestinian "Mary's" giving birth in the Giant Zionist designed Manger called Gaza! While celebrating Christmas for millennia, was anything learned? Jesus the Prince of Peace was considered a heretic, today in Israel he would be called a "self hater" and traitor! As the Genocide continues, over 20,000 so far. Quoting Gwynne Dyer "Ranking with the worst air raids in WW2, the firestorm of Dresden killed 25,000 German civilians, the first thousand bomber raid killed 40,000 in Hamburg in 1943. About ONE IN A HUNDRED of the residents of Gaza have been killed so far in 75 days. Compared to Germany from 1942-45 500,000 German civilians were killed or ONE IN ONEHUNDRED AND SIXTY over four years! Palestinian's are therefore having a much worse time than German civilians under British and American bomber raids!" As Chicken Hawks Genocide Joe, Bloody Blinken and Butcher Bibi play 21st century Wise Men! WAR IS PEACE IN ORWELL WORLD ISRAEL!
Nobel Peace Prize for literature to Chris Hedges. But even that award has been wesponized. Thanks Chris. Thank you also for making me be a proud member of Veterans for Peace where you are an active member of our Advisor Board.
Your stories, experiences, touch me, and leave my heart weeping and grateful for the sensitivity that deeply appreciates La Vida and courageously defies the brutes drive to hollow it out and throw it on the ash heap for the faux thrill of power at others’ precious expense. Cuidate a ti y tu familia.💚
You never fail to remind us of our common humanity, and of the damage the powerful and demented by ideology have so often done to it. We will be carrying candles in a silent vigil tonight for the people of Gaza......and I keep thinking:
IF WE WERE TRULY A FREE PEOPLE....ALL OF US WOULD BE IN THE STREETS TONIGHT...TOMORROW NIGHT...AND EVERY DAY AND NIGHT TO COME...until this genocidal slaughter ends and real Peace on Earth comes to pass.
Whatever we believe.........we fail that belief when our passivity lets this continue. Thank you Chris Hedges for everything you write.
I don't know how to thank you for these words, these heartbreaking images. They are unbearable. But the Gazans and Palestinians - truly our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, our own beloved children - whose suffering we are witnessing daily need all of our tears, need us to grieve with them, our remembering them, and need our unflinching witnessing.
I don't know what brings us to our life tasks, but I am so grateful to you, Chris, and for the difficult one you have carried and that you have the courage and heart to share with us.
Chris you have exceeded my expectation of writing about war.
Interestingly I am reading the newest book about John Donne: Super-Infinitive by Katherine Rundell. I don't particularly like the book but Donne's writing is sublime.
I am an artist and am fighting the American public (I am not a war correspondent) BUT I have seen DEADLY war in Sri Lanka and have NEVER forgotten it. Perhaps one day I can write about it. To see a man dragged from a bus and beaten to death by mindless citizens has and still does change my life. MY probable age was about 6yrs old. I just remember my mother ripping me away from the window and nothing was said.
Americans do NOT know war and I feel until they do nothing will change.
MY Father was in the 2nd World War in the desert. He got a wound in his knee and was taken out of service because he could not walk.
MY brother and sister tried to get him to talk about war BUT he couldn't. The atrocities he saw made him an insomniac all his life. My mother tried to stop us asking questions. WRONG.
IF we as human beings (men in particular) do not talk to our family friends we are screwed.
What is it to "bear witness?" Mr. Fish's drawing shows us clearly what it is, and at the same time, why so many of us cannot do this.
Thank you Mr. Fish, and Chris Hedges for bridging the gap of the pain of the distant "other" to my safe and filled with daily busy-ness being, so I can feel the pain of the world and begin to reclaim my self.
Your writing so often moves me to tears as does this essay. I have the Harper's magazine with your article Gaza Diary. I copied the part of the article in which you talk about the sadism of the Israelis where they taunt children and shoot them for sport. I have used that part to confront supporters of that evil country. What breaks my heart even more is that is is my people committing those crimes on Palestinians. When I was young and very naive I never dreamed for a minute that Jews could be cruel, evil and sadistic. Israel proved that I was wrong.
Thank you for your words. They should sound out around the world and especially into the White House, the supporters of the Gaza genocide.
Jesus is a Palestinian. A Jewish man who came to give us a "New Law": The new law is simple, it is "Love thy neighbor as thyself" -- Treat others as you wish to be treated. In the 3 most prominent holy books there is a common verse, in the Bible it is Micah 6:8 = "What does the Lord require of you? That you act justly, Love mercy, and walk humbly with your God".
Chris lets me know I’m not alone in my grief, horror and shock at the cruelty of war. As a teacher, I hardly know how to face my students. I’m not supposed to be political, yet saying nothing seems cowardly. My mind just keeps returning to this nightmare brought to us, once again, by the US death machine. When will we Americans demand an end to this insanity?
I think Mr. Fish is one of the finest 'illustrators' (I don't like to use the word cartoonist) this country has ever produced. One after the other. One image like this one above and I'm immediately in tears.
As always Mr Hedges' writing touches both the mind and the heart. Like many I find it difficult to read him without shedding tears. My frustration is not knowing how to stop the killing. The bravery of those covering and being killled should be honored by our actions but what are they?
Chris
Once again your incredibly beautiful writing of this epic horror has moved me to tears. Tears for the dead, tears for the wounded, tears for all those trapped in this waking nightmare and finally tears for my own shame. The great Dietrich Bonhoeffer said “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil, not to act is to act”. It is my country that makes me cry in shame for not just it’s silence and failure to act but in it support for this evil committed in the full light and without one scintilla of its own shame. As I sit in comfort and safety I fear for the justice of history which will call us to account for what is being done in our names and our tax dollars. Thank you for always refusing to remain silent and for your never ending eloquence
Vinnie De Stefano
National Organizing Director
Assange Defense
The Cost of Bearing Witness...broke my heart. Yes I wept. I still get tears while thinking about it. I will be thinking about it for a long time. I hope, in fact, that I never forget it...though it is a nightmare, which includes the image of my 10 year old granddaughter without her legs, without her hand, without pain medication, without her family, without hope, and begging for death. My two adult sons and my daughter under tons of rubble that used to be their family home....but was never a refuge. They have none. They have no safe place. There's nothing I can do to help or protect them.
My heart is Gaza. Broken. Broken. Broken.
Thousands of pregnant Palestinian "Mary's" giving birth in the Giant Zionist designed Manger called Gaza! While celebrating Christmas for millennia, was anything learned? Jesus the Prince of Peace was considered a heretic, today in Israel he would be called a "self hater" and traitor! As the Genocide continues, over 20,000 so far. Quoting Gwynne Dyer "Ranking with the worst air raids in WW2, the firestorm of Dresden killed 25,000 German civilians, the first thousand bomber raid killed 40,000 in Hamburg in 1943. About ONE IN A HUNDRED of the residents of Gaza have been killed so far in 75 days. Compared to Germany from 1942-45 500,000 German civilians were killed or ONE IN ONEHUNDRED AND SIXTY over four years! Palestinian's are therefore having a much worse time than German civilians under British and American bomber raids!" As Chicken Hawks Genocide Joe, Bloody Blinken and Butcher Bibi play 21st century Wise Men! WAR IS PEACE IN ORWELL WORLD ISRAEL!
Nobel Peace Prize for literature to Chris Hedges. But even that award has been wesponized. Thanks Chris. Thank you also for making me be a proud member of Veterans for Peace where you are an active member of our Advisor Board.
https://www.veteransforpeace.org/
Perfectly written, as always. I hope the Palestinian people know how many stand with them and want peace and justice.
Attacks on journalists reveal the genocidal nature of the Israeli project in Gaza. Regimes that respect human rights do not fear transparency. https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/the-first-casualty-of-war-is-the
Your stories, experiences, touch me, and leave my heart weeping and grateful for the sensitivity that deeply appreciates La Vida and courageously defies the brutes drive to hollow it out and throw it on the ash heap for the faux thrill of power at others’ precious expense. Cuidate a ti y tu familia.💚
You never fail to remind us of our common humanity, and of the damage the powerful and demented by ideology have so often done to it. We will be carrying candles in a silent vigil tonight for the people of Gaza......and I keep thinking:
IF WE WERE TRULY A FREE PEOPLE....ALL OF US WOULD BE IN THE STREETS TONIGHT...TOMORROW NIGHT...AND EVERY DAY AND NIGHT TO COME...until this genocidal slaughter ends and real Peace on Earth comes to pass.
Whatever we believe.........we fail that belief when our passivity lets this continue. Thank you Chris Hedges for everything you write.
I don't know how to thank you for these words, these heartbreaking images. They are unbearable. But the Gazans and Palestinians - truly our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, our own beloved children - whose suffering we are witnessing daily need all of our tears, need us to grieve with them, our remembering them, and need our unflinching witnessing.
I don't know what brings us to our life tasks, but I am so grateful to you, Chris, and for the difficult one you have carried and that you have the courage and heart to share with us.
Chris you have exceeded my expectation of writing about war.
Interestingly I am reading the newest book about John Donne: Super-Infinitive by Katherine Rundell. I don't particularly like the book but Donne's writing is sublime.
I am an artist and am fighting the American public (I am not a war correspondent) BUT I have seen DEADLY war in Sri Lanka and have NEVER forgotten it. Perhaps one day I can write about it. To see a man dragged from a bus and beaten to death by mindless citizens has and still does change my life. MY probable age was about 6yrs old. I just remember my mother ripping me away from the window and nothing was said.
Americans do NOT know war and I feel until they do nothing will change.
MY Father was in the 2nd World War in the desert. He got a wound in his knee and was taken out of service because he could not walk.
MY brother and sister tried to get him to talk about war BUT he couldn't. The atrocities he saw made him an insomniac all his life. My mother tried to stop us asking questions. WRONG.
IF we as human beings (men in particular) do not talk to our family friends we are screwed.
What is it to "bear witness?" Mr. Fish's drawing shows us clearly what it is, and at the same time, why so many of us cannot do this.
Thank you Mr. Fish, and Chris Hedges for bridging the gap of the pain of the distant "other" to my safe and filled with daily busy-ness being, so I can feel the pain of the world and begin to reclaim my self.
Your writing so often moves me to tears as does this essay. I have the Harper's magazine with your article Gaza Diary. I copied the part of the article in which you talk about the sadism of the Israelis where they taunt children and shoot them for sport. I have used that part to confront supporters of that evil country. What breaks my heart even more is that is is my people committing those crimes on Palestinians. When I was young and very naive I never dreamed for a minute that Jews could be cruel, evil and sadistic. Israel proved that I was wrong.
Thank you for your words. They should sound out around the world and especially into the White House, the supporters of the Gaza genocide.
Jesus is a Palestinian. A Jewish man who came to give us a "New Law": The new law is simple, it is "Love thy neighbor as thyself" -- Treat others as you wish to be treated. In the 3 most prominent holy books there is a common verse, in the Bible it is Micah 6:8 = "What does the Lord require of you? That you act justly, Love mercy, and walk humbly with your God".
Chris lets me know I’m not alone in my grief, horror and shock at the cruelty of war. As a teacher, I hardly know how to face my students. I’m not supposed to be political, yet saying nothing seems cowardly. My mind just keeps returning to this nightmare brought to us, once again, by the US death machine. When will we Americans demand an end to this insanity?
I think Mr. Fish is one of the finest 'illustrators' (I don't like to use the word cartoonist) this country has ever produced. One after the other. One image like this one above and I'm immediately in tears.
As always Mr Hedges' writing touches both the mind and the heart. Like many I find it difficult to read him without shedding tears. My frustration is not knowing how to stop the killing. The bravery of those covering and being killled should be honored by our actions but what are they?