By SAMY MAGDY and MARIAM DAGGA Updated 9:15 PM EDT, July 26, 2025
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — A mother pressed a final kiss to what remained of her 5-month-old daughter and wept. Esraa Abu Halib’s baby now weighed less than when she was born.
On a sunny street in shattered Gaza, the bundle containing Zainab Abu Halib represented the latest death from starvation after 21 months of war and Israeli restrictions on aid.
The baby was brought to the pediatric department of Nasser Hospital on Friday. She was already dead. A worker at the morgue carefully removed her Mickey Mouse-printed shirt, pulling it over her sunken, open eyes. He pulled up the hems of her pants to show her knobby knees. His thumb was wider than her ankle. He could count the bones of her chest
I used to think this too in the past - in my country I never voted for those who supported the genocide, and in the country I live in now, in the case where I was eligible to vote, I also didn’t vote for the genocide supporters. I also am too poor to have any power. Only rich people have power, and the majority of them are pro-genocide, so that’s what’s happening, they decided it for all of us.
But the more I’m thinking about it, the more I realize we’re indeed fucking monsters. How did we allow this to happen in the first place? There are more of us than rich people. We outnumber them. Why are we so incapable? Why don’t we just stand up from work, go to the streets, all at the same time, and throw those out the window, who make those decisions to deliver those weapons? We’re cowards, that’s why.
The fact that we live in this kind of world shows we are a failure. As the old quote goes “Every nation gets the government it deserves” - a quote I also disagreed with in the past, but eventually I understood the meaning. It’s not about whom you’re voting for. Hell, there are countries where you cannot even vote. This is more like about people accepting what’s given, and not even trying to do more. We all are a failure.
I wish I could disagree but every day when I try to talk about it, or get people to do something about it with me, so far 100% of time I get pushback for being alarmist, or that it’s fine, we’ll just vote better next time.
It’s more than just the apathy, it’s willing apathy, desired apathy, WEAPONOZED apathy. That’s the problem, those in control know they are working against the will of the people, but they also know the people are to scared, distracted, lazy and stupid to do anything about it.
I don’t know how often you get out into the world, but I run into people doing little pieces of good all the time. Those little pieces of good don’t grab headlines, but for most, that’s all the power they really have to make change. The same was true in Nazi Germany, with many people whose names didn’t survive (because they couldn’t give their real names) doing little pieces of good to help save lives.
You’re welcome to your misanthropic and self-critical views, but respectfully, I won’t have that put on me. If you feel like a failure in this fascist world, it’s time to find the little pieces of good you’re able to do on your block.
Of course I’m aware that there are people doing good deeds. You might be one of them. I’m trying my best as well. All I’m saying is, we must try harder, because despite our best efforts, we still let this happen. A genocide is something that simply must not happen. Those who live in, or citizens of the so-called “first world countries” have by far the biggest responsibility in this.