I had to write this out to express my absolute shame and frustration. But I still know words cannot express how disappointed and horrified I am.
I've been crying on and off over what's happening the past few days and I haven't been able to concentrate on the things I love. I had to stop playing FateSR (there is absolutely no way I can concentrate on games atm) and just draw/write in the hopes of drowning out the overwhelming emotions due to that feeling of helplessness. I've seen countless other people on social media who are feeling the same way, such as game devs who haven't been able to focus on their passion due to these events.
And then, there's the matter at hand. My country and its higher ups siding with the Zionists and offering them sympathies and condolences - but staying silent and stating repeatedly to 'stay neutral' when it comes to Palestinians.
Appalling. Absolutely appalling. When it comes to atrocities, we don't even have to look far. We were occupied by Imperial Japan for 3 years from 1942 to 1945, during which so much unspeakable horrors were committed by the occupiers towards our people, including ethnic cleansing. We were a colony under the British, and yet they failed to defend us due to their incompetence and arrogance. We know of the pain and suffering our people experienced during that period of time. And YET in this day and age, you are siding with monsters who continue to allow such brutal atrocities to be committed DAILY towards the natives of the land.
We've been taught the dark history of our country for 12 years of our school lives. We've been taught the drill in the event of air raids. We've been taught the significance of February 15th - the day we fell to Imperial Japan. What happened to all of that?? Did we ultimately just discard everything that took place on our very own soil? Did we suddenly forget that all of that occurred? The thousands of victims who died in the Sook Ching massacres, did they die for naught? They did not lose their lives just for our current generation to support a regime that conducts apartheid and brutal colonisation instead of standing up for the oppressed who have been fighting for decades to defend their homeland!
Where is the empathy for the ones who have been suffering all this time?? Why is it so hard enough to stand in solidarity with the Palestinians?? What is happening to Gaza right at this moment is genocide, literally another Holocaust! Why are we not doing anything to stop this madness and evil?? We have to speak up for the oppressed, we have to stop the culling of innocent people, we have to believe in our common humanity!
My grandmother was born a few years before the Nakba of 1948. She was a toddler during the Japanese Occupation and her parents, like everyone else at the time, were forced to be subservient to the Imperial Japanese soldiers, or be tortured and killed. She passed away in December of 2022. She didn't get to see the liberation of Palestine and its people from 75 years of oppression. I want to witness a liberated Palestine in my lifetime.
And to my country, do better. We the citizens do not support your stand. We do not condone the actions of Hamas. We are simply standing in solidarity with the people who are fighting to one day attain a life of peace, freedom and hope that they deserve, but have been denied for 75 years.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
These past few days when I wake up and before I go to sleep, I think of the people suffering. My heart goes out to all of them, all of them who have to go through this injustice as the world simply watches and allows a second Nakba to happen.
My country doesn't even allow rallies to happen without a permit, so I can't even do anything except sit and share the truth as much as possible.
The worst thing is that in this globalised 21st century we all have the means to find out about what's happening in a place far beyond where we're residing. We have to refer to credible sources and do research so as to not be led astray by lies and deception that the oppressors and their supporters want us to believe. World leaders and people alike have absolutely no excuse to turn a blind eye to the literal genocide that is currently happening in Gaza.
Free Palestine.
