7th October: 1 Year of Genocide *

7th October marks a whole year since the Israeli forces invaded Gaza, turning 76 years of illegal occupation and brutal colonialism into a full blown, real time genocide. 

This year has been the bloodiest since the 1948 Nakba. An estimated 200,000 people have been killed, with the Lancet Medical Journal projecting over 335,000 could be killed by the end of the year if death rates continue; that is the equivalent of 15% of the Palestinian population. Most of these deaths have been children.

Life is dangerous and unbearable for Palestinians:

• Food, water and medical care is scarce, and what is available is expensive
• Disease spreads easily, such as the recent polio epidemic 
• Israeli forces have blocked the checkpoints, making the Gaza strip an open-air prison
• Watch any video from Bisan and you can hear the constant hum of drones and jets, meaning that the people are under constant surveillance as well as being constantly overstimulated by noise 
• 80,000 tonnes of explosives have been dropped by Israel since 7 October; this is more than the whole of WW2 combined, and there is proof that this is accelerating global warming
• Palestinians bare witness to horrors and atrocities daily, leaving them with psychological damage we cannot even fathom
• They are living in constant fear of death and injury

Needless to say, we are outraged, we are tired and we are heartbroken. Moreover, we are disgusted and disappointed at the lack of action, empathy and responsibility of most world leaders. The refusal to call Israel’s attacks on Gaza a genocide is cowardly and destructive, and has set a terrible precedent for Israel to expand their genocidal agenda on the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen and Syria. On 23 September, Israel carpet bombed densely populated areas of Lebanon, killing over 550, injuring and displacing thousands. On 30 September they announced Israel would be invading southern Lebanon, as part of Netenyahu’s plans to create “Greater Israel”. Israel’s Minister of Education Yoav Kisch has been quoted saying “There is no difference between Hezbollah and Lebanon. Lebanon will be annihilated. It will cease to exist.” Israel is not denying their actions, so why is the rest of the world?

We urge world leaders to demand a ceasefire and make Netenyahu and his cronies pay for their abhorrent war crimes, along with any complicit companies and governments. 

The UK government’s response has been appalling, from both the Tory government and the Labour takeover. Only suspending 30 out of 350 arms licences to Israel is not good enough. The hypocrisy of supporting Ukraine but not Palestine is not good enough. The UK news bias and language choice when reporting on Palestine is not good enough. And Keir Starmer openly defending Israel and condemning Iran is unacceptable.

The world said ‘never again’ after the Holocaust, yet history is repeating itself once again and world leaders choose to do nothing. This has never been about defeating Hamas; this has been the culmination of a colonialist, racist and islamophobic agenda to wipe out an entire culture and steal their land. Nor is this about anti-semitism; speaking out against the genocide and criticising Israel does not equate to hating Jewish people.

In all of this, it’s easy to feel hopeless. Standing up and making changes might feel futile, or even be difficult. But you have to ask yourself, is this the legacy you want to leave behind? To know that you could have done something, even something small, to play your part? We can’t wait around for Katniss Everdeen or a team of Avengers to come along and lead the fight or fight the oppressors for us. We must all work together to bring about an end to genocide.

As an organisation, Hidayah is committed to putting ethical practices in place as much as possible to minimise our complicity in the Palestinian genocide and other social causes. We had already switched our website from Wix to WordPress and have been open in our support for Palestine prior to 7 October, but since last year we have:

• Cut ties with University of Manchester based on their relationship with Tel Aviv University (which is funding scholarships for Zionists among other things)
• Switched our CRM system from Monday.com to ClickUp
• Pulled out of Manchester Pride due them not dropping their sponsors (namely Barclays and Booking.com as they operate on illegally occupied Palestinian land)
• Switched our charity bank account from Barclays to Co-op
• Called out the UK government and international leaders for their complicity in the genocide
• Signed open letters calling for ceasefire
• Shared petitions, email templates and fundraising links on our social media and newsletter

If small volunteer organisations such as ourselves are able to make small and large-scale operational changes, there is no excuse for larger ones to do the same. Whether this is through investors, goods or programmes, no action is too small. We do not profess to be a perfect organisation, but what matters is that we continually evaluate our practices and look for better, more ethical solutions, that do not support a genocide. It can be difficult, but we encourage everyone to do the same.

We have attached links to the official BDS website and Disoccupied, which keep lists of companies to boycott and reasonable alternatives. We live in a world where money talks, and if enough of us boycott Israeli products and services, we can make an impact and send a clear message that we will not do business with war criminals. 

Please consider donating to MAP or UNRWA if you can, or please share so that it reaches someone who is able to.

There a only a handful of people who knew Palestine before a genocide. We don’t want to see a world where Palestine is only a word in a history textbook.