Bear Witnessاشهد

Why this exists

My name is Noor. I'm 18 years old, from the UK.

Not long ago, I knew about Palestine the way most people do. Enough to have an opinion, not enough to truly understand. Then I started digging. And what I found, I cannot unsee.

This did not begin in October 2023. What is happening in Gaza today is the continuation of something that has never stopped.

The word genocide is not used lightly here. It is used because it is accurate. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry, and the International Association of Genocide Scholars have all concluded that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Gallant for war crimes including using starvation as a weapon of warfare. And through all of it, the UK and the United States have continued to fund it, arm it, and shield it from accountability. Not in secret. Openly.

Before I understood any of this, I did not know the difference between Judaism and Zionism. They are not the same thing and must never be confused. Jewish people are not responsible for this. Zionism is a political ideology built on the belief in the right to take, to displace, and to destroy in the name of ethnic and religious superiority. To hold Jewish people accountable for the actions of the Israeli state is wrong. To hold the Israeli state accountable for what it is doing is not only right, it is required.

I have seen a six-year-old girl, Hind Rajab, bleed out alone in the back seat of a car, on the phone with emergency services for three hours, begging someone to come. The paramedics sent to rescue her were killed. Her body was found twelve days later. This is verified. This is documented. This happened. She is one of over 21,000 children killed.

You do not have to be Muslim to care about this. You do not have to be Arab. You just have to be human.

But for those of us who carry a faith, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said:

Whosoever of you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand; and if he is not able to, then with his tongue; and if he is not able to, then with his heart, and that is the weakest of faith. Sahih Muslim

Donating is the hand. Sharing is the tongue. Feeling it and doing nothing, the Prophet ﷺ called that the weakest of faith. On the Day of Judgement we will stand alone. No friend beside us. No family to speak for us. Just what we did, and what we chose not to do, when we knew.

Bear witness. Donate. Share. Say their names.

Noor El-Sharawy, 18, United Kingdom