Asem is from Gaza and came to Serbia in 2022 to study medicine. His family was forcibly displaced from him hometown of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, and they are now sheltering in central Gaza. As has been the case throughout the genocide, Israel is currently bombing these so-called “safe zones” where millions of Palestinians are sheltering.
For the first four to five months of the genocide, Asem did not have any contact with his family whatsoever. Israel cut communications throughout the besieged enclave in an effort to hide its crimes. Now, Asem speaks with his family briefly every week. He tells me that within weeks of October 7, his family’s house was destroyed. “We are grateful that is all that happened to us,” he says. Such is the warped reality Israel has created, where the level of suffering is so great, that people find solace in what is already considered a devastating loss.
His family has been forcibly displaced five times, the mental toll of which is hard to comprehend. “Imagine for 10 months you are without a home, without anything,” Asem says. While Israel consistently claims it is “evacuating” civilians for safety, time after time again, Israel bombs areas where there are no fighters and no military equipment. Asem brings up the latest unspeakable massacre in Gaza, where over 100 people were blown to pieces as they were about to pray. The reality is that Israel’s “evacuation orders” are nothing but death marches meant to psychologically torment and exhaust Palestinians.
Asem says that Israel is even trying to turn Palestinians against those who are resisting the occupation. Just yesterday, Israel dropped leaflets into Gaza with cigarettes attached writing “do you want cigarettes or your leader?” Israel, in its dehumanization of Palestinians, thinks it can blackmail them into turning against the only forces resisting the annihilation of the Palestinian people.
Before the genocide, Asem says, many were critical of the government in Gaza. The economic situation has always been very difficult in Gaza, as it has been under siege since 2005. But now, Asem says that Palestinians are united in supporting the resistance, which includes but is not limited to Hamas. A May 2024 poll indicated that two-thirds of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank support the October 7 attack on Israel. Since October 7, support for armed struggle in Gaza alone rose by 17 percent and approximately 50 percent of Palestinians surveyed indicated armed struggle was the most effective means to liberating Palestine.
In contrast with the ruling party in Gaza, the government in the West Bank has long renounced armed struggle. Fatah, the party which governs the Palestinian Authority, now serves the Zionist occupation by working with Israel to arrest and kill Palestinians resisting the violent dispossession of their land. About Fatah’s tactic of “fighting through electoral politics,” he remarks: “At a certain point you cannot wait for someone to give you your rights anymore, you have to take them with your own two hands.”
A.M.
