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Palestinian writer and journalist Plestia Alaqad paints a stark portrait of life for Gazans under siege with The Guardian, describing a world that is both physically and symbolically shrinking. She writes, “In my homeland, I’m trapped by bombs. Outside, I’m trapped by identity,” highlighting how Gaza’s relentless bombardment, displacement, and starvation leave Palestinians confined within a tiny, ever-diminishing strip of land. Even beyond Gaza’s borders, Palestinians face systemic barriers, from visa rejections to intrusive scrutiny of their passports, exposing the global double standards that treat their identity as a security threat while ignoring the ongoing genocide. Alaqad underscores the human cost of this isolation, noting how international attention often only recognizes Palestinians in moments of suffering. She observes that the so-called ceasefire does little to relieve the reality of displacement, destruction, and exposure to the elements. Reflecting on winter in Gaza, she writes of families shivering in tents, children without shoes, and lives perpetually on the edge of survival. For Gazans, safety is measured not in distance but in minutes, in the path of a drone, or the direction of the wind, as the world largely looks away. Her testimony calls for a reckoning with the persistent injustice, asking with Mahmoud Darwish: “where should the birds fly after the last sky?” |
https://x.com/QudsNen/status/1997829483642966394