Reflections on the war against Gaza and a call for Ceasefire.
In the aftermath of another rocket strike, my imagined self rushes to the piled rubble of concrete debris, an image seared in my mind from social media and the nightly news. In this dream-state, I hear the whimpers of a child. I dig, you dig, we dig until we find the listless body, wrapped in pink – a mixture of blood and concrete dust, whimpering as it struggles to breathe.
#Ceasefire
Those around say it won’t make it much longer, we should keep digging to find others. I am paralyzed. I will not release the child from my arms. Whose child is this? Israel? Palestine? Does it matter. No child should die as a casualty of the latest battle in a generational war. What if baby Moses had not survived? I stand to shield this child in its last moments, hoping to foster memories in heaven that it was loved.
#Ceasefire
Watching the destruction of human life in the cosmic womb of Abrahamic faiths strikes the global human soul more than any other conflict happening at this time. Victims of trauma weaponizing pain and projecting it on another. Piling on revenge, fear, impotence like shattered concrete imploded when pierced by bombs. Hate is the outcome of a supported process of dehumanization deployed to find comfort in the suffocating of the other as a move to elevate in a superior, binary world constructed of hierarchies and scarcity.
#Ceasefire
Unholy leaders on all sides using human shields to justify their funding and bloodthirst for war. Women raped; seniors and babies kidnapped; children scared to sleep; citizens voluntold to join the army and fight for a flag. Where is God in the heart of such carnage?
#Ceasefire
Peace activists and defenders of history, around the world outside of the conflict zone, enter their own battlefield seeking to reason with a primordial beast of consumption for a pathway forward, initially to save the children and as time moves on, to save their own human souls and dignity as the grasp of power turns on them too.
#Ceasefire
In this moment of carnic global reckoning, the roots of human life buried under colonial flags once again shifts to break the incarcerated Indigenous soul from the bellows of the earth-god’s chambers, to rise up to see the light of consciousness previously silenced by violence and chains.
Lies have been told that man or nation or flag controls the earth and its people. The confusion of idol worship backed by twisted interpretation of sacred texts, and of privileged minds and ideas that segregation yields safety and peace.
#Ceasefire
The children of the world are watching. They are not confused. They are frightened by the possession of wars fought in the name of honor; human hunting games that lack the strength of peace, and are fed by blood and repetitive actions that sustains fear, insecurity, and generational curses.
This is not sustainable. This is not in alignment with the privilege of being on earth. This is not compatible with humanity. This is not the way for which the people are asking.
#Ceasefire
May the waters from the river to the sea rise up and offer a gentle mist of rain to cool the heads of men.
May the milk and honey of the land seep into the ravines of broken earth to heal the spiritual, physical, emotional, and mental well-being of its people.
May ammunition jam and create a ceasefire – take a beat – and inspire minds to wonder, are we fighting for God or the fantasy of man?
May the inner resistance to peace be a call to healing.
May the rage of our own traumas not turn on those closest to us as scapegoat for this greater sickness in the human psyche seeded by the greed and wickedness of a few that has been violently imposed on all. Hate is wasted on individual attacks yet can be composted to fuel the change of systems and beliefs.
May I remember in the heat of passion that my Jewish neighbor is not responsible for my forced displacement wound as I fight daily to help people restore a sense of home. May I greet him with peace.
May I remember that my Palestinian neighbor is not responsible for my intergenerational racial healing, although I am grateful for their presence in the demonstrations for Black police justice. May I greet him in peace.
May we find the courage to stand side-by-side in the heat of our emotions to share our collective concerns to the universe – safe return of loved ones, acknowledgement of the right to exist, reclamation of sacred lands where ancestral bones are buried and future hopes are planted, safety, peace, economic opportunity, religious freedom of expression, the right to dream, the joy of loving, ability to grow old, space to grieve – and be humble enough to honor the universe’s response.
Our greatest strength is to stand together in solidarity for the grieving, for the murdered, for the unhoused, for those for whom hope has enabled them to survive, and demand a new way of living together.
#Ceasefire
Tear down the walls that make our earth and our own beings unfree.
#Ceasefire
Alisa's thoughts on Beloved Communities 