PALESTINE | WORLD

Witness شهيد

We are all witnesses. As witnesses, we owe Gaza accountability.

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Shaheed, Arabic for ‘martyr’, is one who is called to testify, one who sees and records — a witness. In the days when warfare was less cowardly, the shaheed would see his or her killer. But the shaheed is not the only witness. Hundreds of Palestinian journalists and photographers in Gaza -double-martyrs- gave their lives to share their testimony with us, making us witnesses, too.

Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian American al-Jazeera reporter whom Israel assassinated in May of 2022, a moment we can regard, in retrospect, as the first shot of the genocide (Photograph by the author; poster by artist Brice Patterson at the Palestine Writes Festival, Philadelphia, PA, Sep. 2023)

We are all witnesses to the war crimes in Gaza. As witnesses, we cannot be expected to pretend nothing has happened and go on with our lives. We have to see accountability to stop feeling like accomplices. The witness has a duty to testify.

Throughout the day yesterday, I rode a roller-coaster of feelings, from elation to crying.

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