History will not forget, Generations will not forgive

Article: History will not forget, Generations will not forgive

Writer: Ammar Ahmed

Instagram: @zoya_noor543

status: complete

History will not forget

Generations will not forgive

Leah was sitting on sofa in her lounge. She was watching TV. She has just celebrated her 17^th birthday last week. Like youth of all countries, she also takes keen interest in regional and international politics but she does not believe in hearsay and she confirms the information she gets, verifies it then forms some opinion on that. She was a sensitive girl. She belongs to a Jewish family. Her ancestors moved to US after 2^nd world war. Her mother, Elijah is very active social worker with deep interest in religious matters. She has been a firm believer of the faith that Messiah will come in near future and then all the Jews will get their homeland and they will rule the world under his leadership. Her husband Viktor has been in Israeli defense forces for last 5 years.

Elijah was busy doing daily chores in her open kitchen with the lounge when she heard Leah screaming.

“Mom, mom see this”.

She turned back and look at the TV screen. There was some headline saying HAMAS has attacked Southern areas in Israel and killed hundreds of Civilians.

“These terrorists will never let this world be a peaceful place.” She said with anger. Viktor has been posted towards northern side so she was not much worried about him with this news.

“I just can’t understand why they simply do it, why can’t they stay without fighting with others.” Leah asked her with disbelief.

“You should see for yourself now. They do this to peaceful citizens and tourists and then become victims as if our forces have been killing them.” She was talking with hatred.

“Mom there are some students in my class who says that we have forcefully captured their land, I told them that this is not true but they don’t believe.” She said with confusing face.

“This is their reality. They have attacked our territory. They have killed innocent people. We didn’t capture their land. I think you should keep your company with like-minded people in your university.” She said angrily pointing her finger to the TV screen and then went to her room. Although Leah has also learned about their religious beliefs but Elijah avoids to discuss it with her as she asks different questions and Elijah wants her to learn about them when she will get much older.

Next day the news details came that it was an attack on a music festival. They killed around 260 people and captivated others. There was a german tourist girl called shani louk and she is also killed by Hamas terrorists. Leah was in shock. She talked to her father after the attack and he said that rescue work is still in progress and situation is very tense there. She also had a verbal spat with her classmates about this. When she told them about casualties and wounded people, they said it is the first time in 50 years that someone from Palestine has retaliated and that they have been dealing with these casualties for last 75 years at the hands of IDF (Israel Defense Forces).

Meanwhile Israel has responded with 500 strikes since Hamas’s attack and these attacks have reportedly killed around 600 people. Later that night she was having dinner with her mother. Elijah was still very angry and she just wanted to kill every single person in GAZA (The city of Hamas’s headquarter). They both were quiet and barely eating. Leah was worried about the situation but there was something missing. She saw the videos of Israel’s attacks on Gaza but she didn’t see a single clip of attacks carried out by Hamas. All she has seen on TV is news tickers with number of attacks, casualties and wounded people from Hamas’s strikes. News channels are definitely biased and barely showing news of Israel’s strikes but social media is full of clear footages of Palestinian civilians crying over dead bodies of their beloved ones who have died in Israel bombings. Leah was still thinking about this when Elijah said:

“Oh my god!” she was watching TV and Piers morgan in his show was talking about this recent exchange of attacks between two sides. Leah also started listening.

“Yes that’s right. There are reports that 40 babies have been murdered and some of them have been beheaded”. Piers Morgan said.

Leah was in shock. Elijah started crying and cursing Hamas. Leah who was already barely eating, couldn’t sit there anymore. She also had tears in her eyes when she went to her room. She was sitting on her bed, bending her legs. Thought of beheading small babies has terrified her. She has seen that in some horror movies but this was not about a movie it was with human beings and especially babies. She lie down trying to sleep.

Next day Leah did not go to university as she was suffering from fever. She didn’t check the social media all day as she was still terrified with that news. Elijah was worried about her condition. She knew Leah was too sensitive with these sort of things.

“You can take two or three days off dear!” She told Leah who was reading some book.

“No mom! I am fine now, I’ll go tomorrow. I just wish this all to stop soon” Leah replied.

“Oh don’t worry about that, IDF has been on rampage to kill every single Islamic terrorist who has done that horrible crime.” Elijah said making angry face.

Two days later Leah returned from her university and went straight to Elijah’s bedroom where she was half lying and having some juice. Elijah was surprised to see her as Leah was clearly angry with something. 

“Mom! It was a lie.” Leah said, she had her mobile in her hand.

“What? What are you talking about dear?” Elijah asked her sitting straight.

“That news about 40 babies being beheaded by Hamas, it was a fake news mom. They all lied” Leah replied.

“Oh and how can you say that?” she asked calmly.

“See this.” Leah played a video clip on mobile showed it to her. In that clip, Piers morgan was talking in a program and he was saying that he did not say anything about babies being decapitated/beheaded. 

“It must be a misunderstanding.” She said casually as if she already knew about this.

“A misunderstanding mom, telling the world that Hamas beheaded 40 babies is just a misunderstanding. Portraying them as the biggest monster and evil of this world is just a misunderstanding for you. You were crying, cursing them that day. I didn’t sleep properly for last two days. There is no proof of this news. It was not a misunderstanding, it was a propaganda, a lie to get a license to kill people.” Leah replied as she was puzzled with her mother’s response.

“Leah, President Biden also saw that video of those babies.” Elijah argued.

“President Biden lied about watching the video of this horrible crime and then President’s office denied it. This killing game should end now. “She was not giving up either.

“They started it dear and they will have to pay for what they have done and I do not want further argument on this.” Elijah said trying to finish the argument as she knew she will have no answer to her daughter’s questions and she didn’t want to start any argument with her regarding their religious beliefs.

“Mom you know now I actually doubt that whether that attack from Hamas on the music festival was real or was it a lie like this and that German tourist, shani louk who according to media was killed by Hamas, is still alive as told by her family.” Leah angrily replied and left the room. She was in startled at her mother’s reaction on this.

On weekend Leah was checking social media when she read about an attack from IDF on Al-ahli hospital in Gaza. 470 people were reported to be killed. All social media platforms were full of bloodied images of men, women, children and infants. Israeli PM’s respondent tweeted that Israeli Air Force struck Hamas terrorist base in Gaza hospital and after seeing criticism from public he deleted the tweet soon and started putting blame on Hamas for the strike. She scroll through the phone for a while but it was too difficult for her to watch so she put the mobile down and started crying. After sometime when Elijah came to ask her for tea, she found her crying badly. She rushed to her and ask her:

“What happened Leah? Why are you crying?”

“Mom IDF, they have bombed the hospital mom. There were dead bodies everywhere mom. It is inhuman. We are worse than animals’ mom! “She replied while crying.

“Leah dear please try to understand, this had to happen. If not today then after some years. It was bound to happen.” She decided to talk to her about everything today.

“What do you mean it had to happen?” Leah surprisingly asked.

“Listen and listen carefully. It was our land where they have been living. It was our sacred land. Our ancestors migrated there under the leadership of Moses and Messiah is bound to come there so we had to clear the land for him to arrive and return us our rule over the world.” Elijah said separating each word so that Leah can understand it clearly.

Leah was looking at her with her mouth open. Tears flowing from her eyes. After few seconds, she took a long breath and then started talking looking into her mother’s eyes.

“You said you have to clear the land, right? From what? Was their some dirt or garbage or animals? And how did you have to clear it? By sweeping or deporting? They were human beings like us mom. You cleared that place by bombing them? You vanished them.”

She took a breath and continued again. 

“I still can’t believe what you have just said. And who told you to clear the land for Messiah like this by killing innocent injured people in a hospital? Did your Messiah told you to do this? If he told you mom then you must be waiting for some false messiah.” She was still in tears while Elijah let her complete then replied:

“We have been trying for last 75 years but they are not leaving our land. And Messiah didn’t ask us to do it but someone has to sacrifice Leah so please don’t take it so seriously. You are still immature to understand these things.” 

“My class fellows were right then, we have been forcefully trying to displace them from their land where they allowed us to refuge when all others rejected. And sacrifice for what? Killing 4 months baby with a bomb is a murder, a cold blooded murder. How would you feel if they would have killed me like this?” Leah asked.

“I will kill everyone before they touch you. “Elijah replied immediately.

“They will have this same hatred for us right now mom. We have murdered them. We are not civilized people. No one attacks hospitals even during a war.” She yelled.

“Leah calm down. I didn’t want to have a debate with you over this but since you are just getting too emotional about it so let me tell you that we are the “Chosen People”, chosen by god. We are His beloved people so even if we do something bad intentionally then we will not be severely punished. And as far as I think we have not done anything wrong yet. We are just recovering our land from them and all is fair in love and war.” Elijah told her specifically emphasizing the word chosen people.

Leah was stunned to hear the thoughts of her mother. She looked at her for a moment then got out of her bed to leave the room. On reaching the door, she turned back and said:

“Mom I am sorry to say but I am deeply in pain knowing your thoughts and seeing your ignorance about this barbaric act. You are right you shouldn’t have discussed it with me not because I am immature to understand but because I can never think like that. I never debate with anyone about religious beliefs but I would just like to say that whatever you have attributed from this theory of “Chosen People” is wrong. You are accusing God to be unjust with this theory. We are not the contract killers of God to kill His other creatures. These people murdered by us are not of any lesser God. History never forgets mom and generations never forgive. It’s been around 90 years since Hitler murdered our ancestors but still we hate them the same, similarly next generations of people will remember and keep hating us for this. There was just one Hitler in Germany but today we all have become Hitler. We ruined the sacrifices of our ancestors. We had to learn the lesson of empathy from what we had faced in our past but unfortunately we chose to learn racism. You can stay with your beliefs but I will not be a part of this anymore.” Then she left.

Next few days were more difficult for people of Gaza and humanity. Leah was busy in social media campaigns to collect aid for Gaza. She was normal with Elijah and her father whom she called twice during these days. There was a protest in support of Gaza where she was also present collecting funds for people facing terror in Gaza. Elijah saw her on TV in that protest. Leah was also invited to speak to the crowd. She came and started her speech:

“Hello everyone, I am Leah Robowski. I know few eyebrows have raised and there are few whispers over my presence here. I am ashamed today not because of my religious background but because I see myself today as a failed human being. Whatever has happened in last three weeks have shown us that we are all hypocrites shouting for human rights everywhere but when it was needed the most to speak, we kept quiet. We didn’t do it for the first time, we had done this in the past in Germany, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Kashmir and many other territories. We have prioritized our wealth and foreign relations over humanity. I personally tell you that being a Jew, I never forget the holocaust, concentration camps and all that happened to us in Germany. I didn’t forget the silence of these civilized country that time. I can never forget that. Although I didn’t witness it, I just read it. What I have been witnessing now is the same thing. I will never forget this and I will never forgive those who helped this heinous act and those who chose to be neutral. Today I want you to remember few things and never forget them. When you go to purchase ice cream for your child then don’t forget that ice cream truck in Gaza, full of dead bodies of children of your child’s age, killed by your government. When you carry some food parcel for your loved ones then remember the father who had to carry the body parts of his children in shopping bags because we blast those children with our bombs. When some Jew asked you to don’t talk about holocaust then show them the clip of the little child shaking with fear in Gaza. When they ask you condemn some injustice here then remind them that it was US who not once but twice opposed the UN resolution for Ceasefire in Gaza. When they ask you to respect their dead ones then remind them that it was Joe Biden who asked for the list of His victims that he murdered in Gaza giving the impression that Gaza health ministry is giving wrong numbers. According to that list, 7028 innocent unarmed civilians have been bombarded to death by Israel and US. When they tell you that Hamas is a terrorist group then remind them that hostages who have been released by Hamas have praised them and the country which has committed most number of civilian murders ever is US. Last night the communication of Gaza with the world was cut down and like cowards, at night, Israel Air Force bombarded Gaza with unlimited bombs. The casualties have not been counted till now. When they lecture you about freedom of speech then show them how media was biased in their favor and they were murdering the journalists who were reporting the truth. The wrong beliefs, false faith of some people and criminal silence of world leaders is the reason of this genocide, massacre and inhumanity. I wish we could send the weapons with food and other aid to people of Gaza so they could fight against them because they are way more courageous than us in their faith. I want you all to keep raising your voice, keep sending aid and keep praying for them. May those who killed, rest in peace and May God keep others safe. Ameen.” She wiped her tears at the end join the crowd again.