I believe the best way to begin would be by giving a nod to the inspiration of this article’s title. It’s a song by an artist called Saint Levant, who is a Palestinian. On the surface, the song just seems like an amalgamation of a good beat and a sensual flow of French rap with his vocals. But after repeated listening and the inevitable analysis that comes with it, I figured out the message within it—and that can be summarized in one line,

“If they had it their way, we would never go back,”

The multiple layers of insinuation in this single line are enough to describe the situation in Gaza, the capital of Palestine, a predominantly Islamic settlement. But that intrinsic fact about the country has been altered to the point of no recognition as the land that—ironically—birthed Jesus gets colonized due to a mere dispute over who came first. 

There are different phrases to describe what is happening in Gaza—colonization, genocide, a repeat of the Holocaust, the erasure of a race and even more horrific terms. The reality of it is that innocents are killed every day for something they are not responsible for. Yet Palestinians have shown nothing but resilience, and have given nothing but love to this world. Their charity is what has landed them in this situation. 

But all love bestowed in this universe returns tenfold to the giver, and Palestine will breathe in the fresh air of independence. In the meantime, it is our duty as global citizens to listen to the voices of Gaza and offer our help, or at the very least hear out what they have to say. Because they always say it with love. 

The other reason that motivated me to write about this situation is a statistic I read about the toll that this war has taken on the nation. It is said that, if we are to attend the funerals of the children who died in the ongoing genocide in the count of one in a day, it will take 24 years to finish attending all the funerals. Twenty-four. Let that sink in, and let the voices from Gaza, with love, be heard and aided.