Lyna Al-Tabal, Rai
Al Youm, Aug. 12, 2025
Translated by Tlaxcala
Dear readers, aren't you tired of these old lies about
the sea protecting the city? Let's not be naive. The sea protects no one, the
sea knows nothing of politics, the sea is just water, destined to evaporate,
and the waves are nothing but meaningless physical movements. Gaza, drenched in
salt and blood, is not a myth... Gaza is a painful reality.
Mourners march with
the bodies of journalists who were killed in an overnight Israeli
strike on their tent outside a hospital in Gaza City. Photograph: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images
From there emerged Anas al-Sharif. Who said he was a
hero in an old story? He was a young man from the Jabaliya camp who photographed
the truth. This is the only story. Anas is not a legendary hero, but he is the
creator of a new legend: the legend of truth.
Here comes Anas, wearing a vest with “PRESS” written
on it, a heavy cloth vest that hides compressed panels, a modern talisman made
of Kevlar and ceramic, trying to protect his body from bullets... But like all
talismans of this gloomy era, it is useless when Israel is the one firing the
shots. Anas, like Ismail, Shireen, Hamza, Abdulhadi, Salam, Hani, Muhammad,
Ahmed, Majid, Shimaa, Ola, Duaa, Hanan, Samer... like hundreds of other
journalists targeted by Israel, they witnessed its crimes and the crimes of its
army, which defeats itself every day by killing witnesses.
Israel, the state that sells itself to the world as an
oasis of democracy, is setting a new Guinness World Record for death...
Can you imagine that in less than two years, Israel
has killed more journalists in Gaza than were killed in all the wars between
1861 and 2025? Can you comprehend that number? This period includes the USAmerican
Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War,
Cambodia, and Laos... Add to that the wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,
Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Ukraine...
Yesterday, it was Anas's turn... Anas al-Sharif was
martyred... martyred... martyred on the road to Jerusalem. It is the usual
phrase, the slogan we repeat to endure. Because death here, in Gaza, is a daily
routine like bread, or rather, like the absence of bread. It is like hunger,
like fear, like the dark color of blood when mixed with ash. Everything bad
here repeats itself... Everything bad repeats itself without stopping, except
for Abu Mazen's smile, which widens as the siege on Gaza tightens.
From a distance, Gaza looks like a painting in shades
of gray, its streets black holes with no beginning and no end, and the wind
carries the smell of gunpowder mixed with a little sea salt... a mixture
familiar to Gazans, and familiar to Israeli pilots... who return to bomb again.
Here in Gaza, words are forbidden, and food is also
forbidden... Freedom of expression for Israelis means the freedom to kill
anyone who speaks out. Israel does not talk about professional ethics, because
it knows only one profession: occupation... and killing. Israel kills
journalists because it fears what the camera reflects: the bodies of children,
the faces of mothers, and eyes that say to the world, “Look, this is genocide.”
Israel kills journalists because it knows that history will be written through
their lenses and that trials will document their images.
In the end, Anas al-Sharif was martyred and buried. It
is now a scene etched in Gaza's memory: a body covered with a white shroud,
hands quickly lifting it before the next raid begins, a silent camera
accompanying the body, its lens still open, witnessing the death of its owner
as it witnessed his life... but now it is not filming anything. No sound, no
image, but #coverage_continues, as you instructed, Anas... The truth does not
die, it moves from one lens to another, from one colleague to another, from one
martyr to another still alive... And we are all martyrs waiting for our turn on
the road to Jerusalem.
At this very moment, UN officials are arguing over the
wording of a statement of deep concern. Some will cry, others will pretend to
be moved, and then they will go back to drinking bitter coffee in their
air-conditioned offices.
Netanyahu, mired in corruption and dreams of grandeur,
knows that the image Anas conveyed is more dangerous than any missile, more
dangerous than a thousand UN statements. The camera was the last thing Anas had
against the world, something the iron dome could not stop.
He fired his camera like a fighter fires a Yassin
missile, a camera and broadcasts and images that neither David's slingshot nor
Patriot missiles could intercept. Netanyahu stood with a half-crooked smile to
declare that Israel was fighting terrorism.
The world listened in silence, as it always does. But
Anas knew that the end would come, and perhaps he also knew that the world
would smile at Israel hours after his martyrdom. He knew that after his death,
nothing would change. The siege would remain a siege, and the Palestinians
would remain alive enough to die tomorrow.
Anas with Sham and Salah
Did you know that Anas named his daughter “Sham”* to
say that Palestine knows no borders? He did so to tell the world: Palestine
cannot be reduced to a ceasefire line, a separation wall, or a map tampered
with by obsessed politicians. Palestine is against all occupation and against
all violations of the human right to be free. The homeland is bigger than Gaza,
and the Arab wound is one, in besieged Khartoum, in destroyed Beirut, in
devastated Baghdad, in Damascus, over which enemy planes fly, bomb and
return... Everywhere there was pain, there was Palestine.
No, my friend, we do not need a miracle. Miracles no
longer exist, and if they do, they are boring. We need something else,
something much less romantic and much more brutal: extra time, for example...
or perhaps the complete collapse of the world order. The truth is that the
heroes of Gaza are a miracle that surprises no one, because the world is used
to seeing them die.
We need international law to prosecute Israel and
impose sanctions on it, and we need a world that stops playing the role of
sympathizer. What we want is for the world to stop lying to itself... even if
it is only a short respite before the next lie. Is there a truce for lying?
In the end, the sea will remain, and the city will
remain, but the faces will disappear. That's how things always go. The sea
bears witness to the death of those who cannot be saved, and the city will
collapse again, and again, and again. Everything will return to the way it was,
because time in Gaza revolves and does not move forward... Time here repeats itself
mercilessly.
But it's not that mythical. Gaza's survival is not a
miracle, it's simply an uncomfortable truth. And the truth is that Gaza's
survival is a victory in itself. Gaza will prevail because there are things
that cannot be killed.
Did you hear that?
Things that cannot be killed...
There are simpler and more frustrating things: like
the truth, and like the sea, which, unlike most of the region's politicians,
understands that the next wave will inevitably be bigger than the last.
Yes, the sea of Gaza, which, despite your silence and
complicity, continues to send waves bigger than the last, as a clear sign that
this end is the beginning of Gaza and the end of you.
Translator's note
Sham: Bilad al-Sham, the “left-hand” country (seen from the Hijaz) as opposed
to Yemen, the “right-hand” country, traditionally referred to“Greater Syria,” encompassing today’s Syria,
Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan.
