An apology is required.

I have come to that conclusion through witnessing this holocaust in Palestine.

The mass killing of innocent children, women and men.

Destruction that no human mind can imagine.

I have come to that conclusion after observing the inability or unwillingness of the “international community” to help the children and people of Gaza.

The failure to help is a failure of humanity itself.

I hereby apologize for all the concepts, values and principles of human rights that I have worked hard to promote over the course of 25 years.

I had believed that these principles enjoyed some respect from governments.

I had believed that governments and international institutions had a sense of morality.

I had believed that governments and international institutions would strive to protect the innocent at a time when they called for help from the whole world, help to end the injustice against them and to stop the premeditated cold-blooded massacres inflicted on them.

Palestinians are guilty of no crime – unless being Palestinian is itself a crime.

The destruction of life in Gaza is happening before the eyes and ears of the world.

It will remain a stain of disgrace on the forehead of the “international community” and each individual working for that “community.”

I am certain that every official in international institutions will feel a sense of shame, that all these officials will be haunted every time they look at themselves in a mirror.

No answers

I admit that I have been deceived.

I had thought that law would always prevail.

Reality on the ground proves otherwise. It is the law of the jungle that rules in this unjust world.

We have been stabbed in the back by the “international community.”

We have to turn away from our children, when they ask us questions.

Didn’t you tell us that international law triumphs for the oppressed?

Didn’t you tell us that the Fourth Geneva Convention is binding, that it requires states to protect peoples in times of war?

Didn’t you tell us about children’s rights?

Didn’t you tell us about the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women?

So why are we seeing children and women being torn to pieces?

Why are heavy missiles being dropped on their heads?

This world does not belong to us, the people of Gaza.

International law seems to have excluded us from its provisions.

I apologize to my children, Nour, Muhammad and Nessma.

I apologize to my friends and colleagues for promoting human rights and the principles behind them.

I apologize to every child, woman and man who has become a victim in Gaza.

I do not have answers to their questions at this time.

And I do not think that I will have answers any time in the future.

I apologize to all those that are not with us anymore.

Human rights were nonexistent when they were slaughtered and torn to pieces.

I promoted and sincerely believed in human rights.

I was wrong.

Gaza is now the graveyard of human rights.

Khalil Abu Shammala is a human rights activist in Gaza.

Tags

• Operation Al-Aqsa Flood

• Facebook
• Twitter

Comments

Gaza

Permalink Hank replied on Sun, 11/12/2023 - 17:50

Say also that Gaza will be the graveyard of centuries of Western hegemonic control of this planet, its resources, and the minds of its inhabitants. Gaza has broken the illusion of western cultural and moral superiority for all to see. When history is written, the leaders of the west will be remembered for their callousness and moral cowardice at best, if not their outright complicity. Human rights are not possible under barbarous imperialism. The hegemon must sit down at the table as one among equals. They will learn this lesson the hard way, the only true education.