“Palestinians are alone, fighting with rocks, knives and screwdrivers against one of the most well-equipped armies in the world. “

The world was shocked by the footage of Israeli settlers taunting a 13-year-old Palestinian boy who was shot by occupation forces in the West Bank. 

“Die you son of a whore,” a Jewish settler told the boy, who was lying bloodied on the sidewalk gasping for breath. “Give him one in the head,” another settler told the Israeli officers.

Although coming to the rescue of the distressed and fighting to preserve one’s honor have been at the core of Arab values since antiquity, Palestinians are alone in this. Arabs have abandoned Palestine. Arab states and the Arab League have not even put out a statement to condemn Israel’s barbaric crimes against Palestine.

According to the Electronic Intifada, Ahmad Manasra, the boy in the video, survived but is in critical condition; his 14-year-old cousin was killed. Israeli forces alleged that the two boys were involved in a stabbing in the illegal settlement of Pisgat Zeev in East Jerusalem.

The occupation army and its supporters have a long history of fabricating narratives to vilify Palestinian victims. But even if it were true that the teenagers were involved in attacks against the occupation, it is still a tragic story.

The status quo of the apartheid regime in the West Bank is no longer a viable option. 

The U.S.-sponsored peace process has failed. The two-state solution will not solve anything because Israel elected a prime minister who won on the premise that he will not allow Palestinians to realize their national aspirations. Meanwhile, settlements continue to illegally chew off the land of the would-be Palestinian state and suck up its resources. Jewish settlers attack Palestinian civilians and desecrate their (Christian and Muslim) houses of worship.

Palestinians have no choice but resistance. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed since the people have stepped up their struggle against the occupation.

Israel is backed by billions of dollars in U.S. military aid. The American veto also protects Israel from condemnation in the U.N. Security Council.

Palestinians are alone, fighting with rocks, knives and screwdrivers against one of the most well-equipped armies in the world. Contrary to popular Zionist propaganda, Israel is not surrounded by enemies that want to destroy it. It is the Palestinian people who are surrounded by enemies, from the Egyptian dictators that facilitate the siege of Gaza to Arab governments that have forged friendly relationships with Israel at the expense of Palestinians.

The Arab League is ineffectual and has done nothing to aid Palestine. But what is alarming about this round of unrest, which is likely to turn into an Intifada and shake the Zionist regime, is that even the Arab masses have largely remained silent to Israel’s crime.

Even locally, community organizations have not bothered to call for protests or release statements of condemnation.

The unrest and civil wars throughout the Middle East have pushed Palestine to the back of Arabs’ agenda.

But Palestine needs us. Palestine unites us. 

In his book State of Siege, Mahmoud Darwish says:

We have siblings beyond this horizon.

Kind siblings. They love us. They watch us and cry.

Then they say in their silence:

I wish the siege were here, so perhaps… 

And they don’t finish the statement.

Don’t leave us alone. Don’t leave us.