Submission: A narrative on American compassion
By Leena Abdulla
Leena Abdulla is a Kurdish, fourth-year Sociology and Critical Studies of Race and Ethnicity major and a proud member of Students for Justice in Palestine. To learn more about the current attacks on the Palestinian people and to get involved, Abdulla suggests visiting the SJP Linktree.
When I was a junior in high school, we were watching the student news like we did every morning of AP U.S. History. There was one student in particular who always enjoyed playing devil’s advocate, regardless of what he really believed. For people in his position, politics could just be politics. He was white.
Something about former President Donald Trump waging war on Syria was brought up in discussion, and this same student said that the United States should bomb Syria because he didn’t agree with the current leadership in Syria. I told him that the people in Syria are not the government in Syria and innocent civilians should never die as political pawns. He proceeded to say that he didn’t care. I said, “People like my family could die,” and he replied, “I don’t care about people like you.”
This wasn’t the first or last time someone had told me something along those lines, whether it was about the Syrians, the Kurds or the Palestinians. I asked him this question because I have family who still live in the Middle East. Although I’m not Syrian, and Middle Eastern people are by no means a monolith, the one thing that you get right when you do put us in a generality is that our lives really are just mere numbers in the face of U.S.-related conflicts. Oftentimes, we become invisible and only reappear, negatively, in the eyes of humankind to make the case for the invasion of yet another people for the benefit of the United States.
Fast forward four years. It’s 2022, and I’m in my junior year of college now, and there is unequivocal support for the people of Ukraine. No one argues for their humanity. I, too, believe that no innocent civilian should die, but I’m sure you can imagine my surprise at how simple it suddenly is for people to care.
The Dew Drop bridge is in the colors of the Ukrainian flag and an email of condolences is sent out. Several emails are sent out. It felt like almost every house in Highland had a Ukrainian flag on their lawn.
I thought for a second that maybe my confusion was misguided and maybe I was mistaken that this stark contrast in visibility was attributed to whiteness. Until, that is, a reporter flat-out said it for the whole world and made it clear to us all. CBS news correspondent Charlie D’Agata said that Ukraine, “Isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan, that has seen conflict raging for decades. You know, this is a relatively civilized, relatively European – I have to choose those words carefully, too – city where you wouldn’t expect that or hope that it’s going to happen.”
It was jarring to watch the news overtly admit the disregard and even “hope” for the murdering of innocent civilians. This same year, 2022, Zhina Amini is murdered.
Suddenly, the average U.S. civilian expresses concern for the safety of Middle Eastern people, yet simultaneously engages in putting words in the mouths of Iranian and Kurdish women. This unwittingly serves to justify the ongoing sanctions against Iran, all the while without even verifying whether the correct name was used for the woman being employed as a political pawn.
It’s 2023 now, and I’m sure you know where this is going. Hamas murders approximately 1,200 people in Israel. The entirety of the Gaza strip, smaller than the size of St. Paul, is attacked by Israel as a collective punishment, again and again. The West Bank is also attacked again and again.
Despite the way the average U.S. citizen ignores Palestine, the “war” becomes unavoidable to speak about because Israel murders 11,000 innocent civilians in the span of a month, and more than four out of 10 of these casualties are children. (By the time you are reading this, the number has likely increased.)
Most attacks are made in places where Hamas isn’t located, like refugee camps and hospitals. Israel goes on to make several human rights violations. American citizens realize the United States funds the very attacks Israel is making; all the while, we in the United States have not even a quarter of the social services countries with half as much money possess.
People across the country march in the thousands, demanding President Joe Biden, the leader of “the free world,” call for a ceasefire. He plainly says, “No,” for all the world to see.
Since my father played Aljazeera on the living room TV at 8 years old, I’ve been aware that for Black and Brown people, compassion in America is contingent and merely political. America would prefer us to be invisible unless it pitifully grants us the opportunity to be a number. Compassion may even be the wrong word for the recognition America claims it gives to suffering because compassion would require empathy.
Five Fridays have passed, and I’m still refreshing my email inbox, waiting for a mere recognition of the lives of people who come from the same region of the world as me.
Thirty days have passed for the rest of us, but not for the Palestinians.
