A few weeks ago, we watched in sorrow and disbelief as the world seemed on the brink of another devastating war. After the first strikes by Israel on nuclear facilities, military bases, and leaders in Iran, we did not know what would follow.
We sat glued to live broadcasts, waiting for the next missile to fall, reading analyses of arsenals and strategies, speaking of alliances and wondering who would be pulled into this widening circle of violence. It felt like the unfolding of a terrible movie, only too real in its destruction.
We remember how the nations closed their borders, how neighbouring countries sealed their skies as warplanes roared overhead. We remember the sirens wailing without end, the people running to bunkers, the families displaced once again, the poorest forced to leave everything behind, while those with wealth fled to safety.
We remember how hearts that had been hardened to the suffering of Gaza now tasted the bitterness of fear and loss. We lament the blindness that keeps us from seeing the humanity in our neighbours until we stand in their place.
And then came the diplomacy of war: leaders who threatened each other on television while their emissaries conferred in luxurious hotels, calculating the terms of ceasefire as though lives were chess pieces on a board.
At last they declared the conflict ended, and we were told we need not worry anymore. But we know that agreements among the powerful do not heal the wounds of those who have lost loved ones, or whose homes lie in rubble, or whose children will tremble forever at the sound of approaching aircraft.
We remember that the people in Palestine are still facing a genocide. The people of Iran continue to seek justice and equity. The people of Israel will have to face the consequences of building a totalitarian and militarised society.
It is up to the people alone to stop this, the continuation of a world of inequality and social injustice, a world of exploitation and death. We should become the carriers of life, of justice, of solidarity.
And then the mice, will have beaten the elephants…
* “When the elephants fight, the mice get trampled” is an old African adage.
