What Does It Take for You to Speak Out?

Silence is a good intention on the way to someone else's hell.

It’s time to have that conversation. It has been 8 months since you have been watching a live genocide unfold daily on your screen and you are still silent. You have witnessed what people speaking out can do, you have seen the power of a combined effort to beat the misinformation and propaganda the legacy media is serving you to get your consent for this carnage. You heard genocidal intent coming directly from the mouths of Israeli politicians. You saw the mass graves, and you saw a deliberate targeting of aid workers, schools, hospitals, and refugee camps. What needs to happen for you to finally speak out? How many blown-up children do you have to see for you to say - this is too much? Is there a magic number? What is your red line?

Why are you silent?

Are you silent because you’re trying to avoid grasping what you see, and understanding it demands an obligation or an action? Could the blown-up body parts of a small child be perceived as anything other than what they are? Are you looking away because facing it means you’re witnessing it, which requires responsibility; is that why you’re looking away? Are you stubborn in your silence because it gives you the security of a silent majority? Are you silent because silence is polite and you don’t want to be rude? Is it because silence is so much more pleasant? Are you silent because silence means no harm? Or because silence is never accountable for anything?

You aren’t noble with your silence. If you think your silence is not damaging anyone, you are mistaken.

Silence is a good intention on the way to someone else's hell. 

If you are still silent about an ongoing genocide happening live, on your screen, with approximately 247 humans killed daily because you just “don’t know enough”, well - why don’t you know enough? Can you truly consider yourself a compassionate human being if you can witness this daily carnage without even being curious about why it's happening? What is the context? What historical events led to this? And if your knowledge is based on Israel’s decades-long whitewashing propaganda; isn’t your life journey about learning? Isn't life about accumulating knowledge and reassessing your stance as new facts emerge?

How can you be a part of any community if you choose to be ignorant about something so important as the biggest atrocity and the most televised war crime committed in our lifetime?

Scott Ritter, a military analyst, explains the correlation between ignorance and community with great insight:

“I believe that if you're going to call yourself a citizen of any nation, if you're going to be a citizen of any community - you don't do your community the honor it deserves if you're ignorant. You have to empower yourself with knowledge and information so that you can be the empowered citizen who can hold his or her elected representative accountable for what they do in your name; that’s what makes any organization, any society work.”

What is your red line here? What needs to happen for you to finally say something? Do we have to be on the brink of WW3 for you to speak out? Or does your own life have to be threatened for you to care? Posting birthday pics, gym pics, food pics, vacation pics, not willing to let go of your light existence; what does it take? What needs to happen in this world for you to step in and step up? What needs to happen for you to join the collective effort to stop this genocide?

Make no mistake, collective effort is needed here. If you are still on the - “but what can I do, I can’t change anything” train, you’re just not that intelligent. One person is one brick in the wall. One person is one brick needed to build the wall. If 20 million people said - “but what can I do”, where would we be? Right now you are riding on the backs of people who are doing something to stop the slaughter of the stateless civilian population under siege. The more voices that speak out against the biggest atrocity of our time, the safer those who speak become. With increasing numbers of people raising their voices, the pressure on authorities to implement diplomatic and political measures increases, contributing to the eventual end of these horrors.

An insight into a silent mind.

On March 3, 2022, and yes I know an exact date because I’m petty as fuck when it comes to any kind of suffering - a friend, or rather an acquaintance of mine, posted the following status on her Facebook page: 

“While innocent children are dying, can people who say “that’s not our problem” be called humans? While those who in the 21st century tear down, persecute, and kill; our civilizational obligation is to confront those characters (Putin) who come from the darkest bunkers of the last century. While some mock the president (Zelensky) by calling him a “comedian”, it’s us who call this planet “our collective home” that should and must stop the dictators such as Hitler, Stalin, Putin, etc. Long live Ukraine!”

When Israel launched their onslaught on Gaza, she said nothing. Weeks passed, she said nothing. The second month of bombing children to pieces started, she said nothing. By mid-November, I sent her a message:

“I found it a bit strange you cannot post one thing about children being blown to bits in Gaza daily whereas you did not close your mouth about Ukraine. You know how important it is to say something because of all the legacy media censoring what’s happening. The only thing those stateless civilians in Gaza have is us on the outside posting about it so that the world can hear them. You have children. What’s happening here? Are Muslim kids not as important to you as Ukrainian kids? Are you afraid for your job? Please make it make sense?”.

She responded:

“My profile is private, if I had a public business profile which I plan to open soon, I’m seriously thinking about it, I would post my thoughts there and I would gladly share. Right now, who would I share it to? People who follow me are a small bunch and they don’t understand these things. I don’t want to attract sickos like what happened to me with pro-Russian people when I posted about Ukraine. They were cursing me and I don’t need that in my life. I was talking about Gaza on a panel not long ago, in the circle of very powerful people, and I have a bigger influence there. I’m not afraid. I’m deeply affected by all this, mostly because I’m a mother and I can’t close my eyes to all this. It’s great you are posting every day, but your platform is not private and there is potential for your voice to be heard.”

She’s a mother and can’t close her eyes to this, says her, while having her eyes close to this.

Panel about Gaza, in some off-beat Florida town, in November, organized by some very powerful people? Sure, Jan. Those folk down there care about Palestinian people to organize a straight-off panel to have a bit of a think-tank about stateless folk who just don’t want to die easily to let them destabilize the whole of Middle East to fill their pocket from a bit of military-industrial complex side gig; yeah right.

To this day, she has never said one word about the televised genocide she sees on her phone daily.

In January, she launched her other Instagram profile she mentioned to me, where she said she’d gladly talk about this issue, yet never did. Instead, she spoke about healing, learning, and manifesting together through deep insights, conversations, transformation, and practical tools to get you to live your best life.

Now, I’ll go on a limb here - don’t we, as a community have an obligation to make sure EVERYONE gets to live their best life? Or the bare minimum of making sure everyone gets to LIVE their life?

It takes a special kind of human being to open a life-coaching business smack in the middle of genocide to talk about intuitive mindsets, abundance, confidence, bravery, and authenticity in life while staying silent on the worst war crime of our time she claims (in private) she’s deeply affected by.

Maybe you’ll think I’m unfair to single her out from possibly many others who aren’t speaking, but I cannot compare this woman with, for example, a Bosnian woman who contacted me and told me she is devastated she can’t say anything, given she herself survived a genocide, but told me she works for a company that explicitly forbade her to comment on Israel, explaining she cannot afford to lose her job given she has 3 kids and a husband who currently isn’t employed.

How can I, in good consciousness - compare these two situations?

One woman, the sole breadwinner in her family, is morally devastated and overwhelmed with guilt for not being able to give her word to the same suffering she once experienced herself. The other woman has a financially secure husband, often finds herself between jobs, and isn't tied to any corporation that would condition her social media activity. This is a person who told me that there's no need to post about Gaza and risk inviting stress and anxiety from people who might disagree with her. "I have a child", she said, as if that should exempt her from speaking out, rather than be the very reason she does.

In the last 8 months, I often heard the phrase morally sound when discussing Palestine. If you are a morally sound person, you should be devastated by the scenes coming from Gaza, people say. And I say, why aren’t you morally precise? I came to appreciate souls who are consistent in their uncaring and individuality, who never engage in anything, rather than the people who call out humanity when it’s safe for them to speak, and not call it when it could damage their privilege and opportunities.

It’s this fake performative caring that gets me. Talking about abundance and mindsets while not giving your voice to the people being obliterated to pieces.

It’s the genocide-supporting yogis and banana bread bakers who have nothing to say about children being bombed to smithereens that get me.

I read an interesting post (no author) on Instagram early on, in this onslaught on Gaza:

You can drink all the juice, do all the yoga, meditate everyday - but if your wellbeing doesn’t take into account the well-being of other humans elsewhere in the world, your concept of ‘wellness’ is not only narcissistic privilege but ultimately, well, a spiritual and moral death.

Just start talking.

You can start talking at any point. It’s not too late. You can redeem yourself. Don’t be one of those people who are sticking to their guns just because you started that way and it’s hard for you to change course. I’ll repeat what I said at the beginning of this article: life journey is about learning. Life is about accumulating knowledge and reassessing your stance as new facts emerge.

If Jewish people can challenge their whole upbringing and reassess their identity being tied to the State of Israel, overcome the crises of their integrity and identity, break that bond to see the atrocities committed in their name and say - not in my name, go out on the streets to protest this genocide with all the people of good faith, you can too. You can always get your integrity back.

In fact, you must.

This is not just about Palestinian people. It’s about your government that is meant to represent you putting a foreign state before your best interests and sending that state billions of dollars to fund the death of other people, all while not investing it in bettering your own life. It’s about international laws being implemented and respected by all people. It’s about giving your voice to one of the most heartbreaking injustices in history.

You don’t even have to say I was wrong, just pick up. Change course. Be informed. Care about this world. Care about all people in it, not just the ones that look like you or have the same customs as you. You don't even have to have this great moment of epiphany or self-reflection, just pick up. Say something. Give your voice. It will come. Speak up!

For the past 3 weeks, you have witnessed students all around the world jeopardizing their careers, safety, police record, their future - getting beaten and arrested in their convictions to demand their universities divest from funding the occupation of Palestine. You have seen professors, doctors, lawyers risk their safety and their jobs to stand with their students and for justice. You have seen people relentlessly protesting on the streets and demanding their representatives call for a ceasefire. You have seen your government sending billions after billions of dollars in aid and weaponry to Israel while you are struggling to pay off your student loan or your latest medical bill.

The world is burning, and you are still silent?

Whatever your reasoning here might be, don’t you think I face the same exact fears as you? Do you think my privilege and my opportunities aren’t jeopardized by my speaking out? Why do you think I don’t also worry about my future? Why do you think I can do this, and you cannot?

It’s because you are a coward.

In one of his videos, Owen Jones masterfully examines this cowardice and the moral righteousness of people with influence and platform who chose to remain silent on Gaza but were passionately vocal on Ukraine:

“Most of the people did not hold back when it came to outrages for the war crimes committed by the Russian army in Ukraine; in fact they spoke with eloquence, passion disgust, horror. I passionately denounced and condemned those crimes too repeatedly, I did so under no illusion that my condemnation would have any impact. I just felt it was the right thing to do.

You see, Russia is not a Western ally. It is a hostile State. Its crimes are not backed by the West the West does not arm Russia, and it does not offer aid or diplomatic and political cover for Russia. Every single mainstream newspaper in the UK and other Western countries has opposed and denounced Russia's war crimes. 

Nothing you say about this war will have any impact on this at all. You are merely repeating what an overwhelming consensus has already agreed on, almost everyone with a major public platform has already covered. Why do I say this? It’s not just that those who use their public platforms to denounce Russia's war crimes have often acted as though they're somehow showing courage, somehow standing up to Putin as though the Russian autocrat will somehow be shaken by their fiery tweets and videos and podcasts.

If you speak out about war crimes when it's a hostile state committing them, but not when a Western ally is committing them, then you don't really care about human rights at all. It's that you are choosing to denounce war crimes when you have zero leverage over them, and you're choosing not to denounce those war crimes when you do have leverage over them. 

If you speak out about the war crimes being committed by Israel then you can encourage public opinion to turn against those war crimes, and for the electorate to put pressure on their governments to stop arming and backing Israel and giving it a de facto blank check to slaughter innocent people with impunity. The truth is that you know if you speak out against Russian war crimes, you’ll get nothing but applause and pats on the back commended for your moral righteousness.

But you know that if you condemn Israel for its war crimes then you may well be attacked aggressively, denounce your public position, even menaced. If you speak out against war crimes when you know there is no cost, but refuse to speak out against war crimes when there is a cost, then there is a word in the English language that has you safe to say - you are a coward. A straightforward coward.

What do you feel when you see these crimes clearly the tip of a hideous iceberg when you remain silent, notwithstanding some occasional futile and pointless hand ringing ashamed guilty worried about how history will judge you?

Well, you should be worried. But the judgment of history is not enough. Those who remain silent as a crime of historic proportion has been committed should be shamed in the here and now. Silence is complicity. Those who don't speak out in the full knowledge of the terrible atrocities being committed with the full involvement of Western governments should be publicly shamed into speaking out. They may resort to cry bullying, and consider this to be harassment, but to be honest - I don't care.

I care that one of the greatest crimes of our age has been committed in full sight, live-streamed to our social media feeds, on a daily basis, and that those with power and influence are making a choice not to use their platforms to encourage the people to speak out and end this madness. So that's why the silent need to be shamed; not threatened, but shamed; there are no excuses, none, zero, and they should be called out. People's lives depend on it and we should not hold back in saying so, and that's why it's time to take on that silence.”

People’s lives depend on it, and we should not hold back in saying - it’s time to take on and talk about your silence.

All artwork in this article is created by a screenwriter, author, and illustrator Henry James Garrett.

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