I’m writing from Paris, a city that’s been encrusted with blue and yellow. Ukrainian flags hang like moral deeds pinned to French facades all around me.
As a survivor of the genocide in Gaza, I just recently arrived in this city, leaving behind my nation. As a student at a French university, I had the honor of being expelled by the French government.
The curated grief, sanctioned empathy, and decorated silence that defined Paris, this so-called “city of liberty,” were what struck me first.
France is deeply depressed with Ukraine. On the other hand, Gaza must be whispered. Here, there is no visible Palestinian flag. It is feared, secret, and criminalized. If you’re lucky, you’ll discover it hastily sprayed like a secret, a shy declaration of solidarity.
Should I be surprised?
France, after all, was only rebranded as a colonial empire after it had abandoned itself. France’s hands are splattered with the blood of those who dared to resist it, from Algeria to Vietnam to Syria.
It wasn’t out of ignorance that France supported the Zionist movement in the 20th century, when it trained Israeli officers, and when it militarized a colonial-state on stolen land. Another colonial project came out of white solidarity.
Within a few hours, France condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It established new borders. On TV, it cried. Concerts were canceled and sanctions were put in place. Why? due to the whiteness of Ukraine.
France resents Israel, which bombs hospitals, starves children, cuts water, drops banned weapons, and grinds families to bone dust in Gaza, when it flattens entire neighbourhoods. It is contradictory. Hamas is to blame. It demands “context.” It gives Israel even more weapons.
Not a “conflict,” what is happening in Gaza. It is not “complicated” at all. It is a genocide.
Since October 7, 2023, more than 63, 000 Palestinians have died, according to official statistics, and according to scientific estimates, this number is in the hundreds of thousands. Women and children make up the remaining 80%.
More than 80% of the population can only eat one meal per day, frequently cooked grass or leaves, while the rest is barely surviving. Difficulty a day for the lives of those attempting to get aid. In a few months, 340 children and adults have already perished from starvation.
Every hospital in the north has been destroyed. Without anesthesia, children are having their legs amputated. Chronic disease sufferers are dying in large numbers because of a lack of medication and medical care.
The aid trucks are obstructed. Desalination plants use explosives. More than two million people have been displaced. There is still silence, though.
According to former Israeli officials, international human rights organizations, thousands of lawyers and other scholars, and even former UN officials, this conflict has violated every rule of international law.
Yet, we are instructed to lower our voices in France. According to what we are told, yelling “Free Palestine” might be anti-Semitic. People who proudly wave Ukrainian flags say our grief must be “balanced.” They protest Israeli colonialism while defending Russian imperialism. This is not neutrality, either. White supremacy is at play here.
Their moral exception has been found in Gaza. their perception. Their unneeded companion. Every newsroom avoids the news.
The truth is that Palestine lacks nuclear weapons, no ships, no jets, and no military. We currently have opposition. Hassan is not a military unit. It is the result of decades of apartheid, occupation, and abandonment. And while European leaders retaliate against Hamas whenever they see fit, they reject the occupation that led to its creation. They deny us the right to resist while glorifying the Ukrainian resistance, giving it weapons and praise.
Molotov cocktails are considered “heroism” in Ukraine. Stones are used as “terrorism” in Gaza. That is deceitful. White empathy is based on that formula.
Not a battle between two armies, as is happening in Gaza. One of the world’s most advanced armies completely wiped out an occupied population. It is a genocide supported by Western weapons, silenced by Westerners, and embellished by humanist lies.
France wants to pretend that it committed historical crimes against people who had ended formal colonialism. How do you explain the weapons, though? the immunity from diplomatic action? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to comply with the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court? the Paris protests that are pro-Palestinian being banned? Muslim students being watched?
I flew out of Gaza during a UN-arranged evacuation that included a number that was chosen from thousands of people. I was prohibited from carrying anything. No laptops are available. No publications. No recollections. just my phone and my backpack.
Soldiers looked at me as though I were a different person as I passed through Israeli checkpoints. It seemed like four decades after four hours in the desert. And now I’m standing in front of my city, admiring its streets, while my people are dying for daring to seek freedom.
Tell me that this isn’t just politics, please. It is discrimination. It is deceitful. From balconies with Ukrainian flags hung over the genocide of my people.
I dislike being pity. I want accountability. I want justice. Not as a competition, but as a truth, I want to see Palestinian flags hang next to Ukraine’s flags. Solidarity is not solidarity because it depends on skin color, borders, or geopolitical interests. It is supremacy.
