Dear Editor,

More than a hundred years after the Polish-British author Joseph Conrad wrote “Heart of Darkness,” a haunting description of the genocidal horror of colonialism and imperialism in Africa, the world continues to witness a similar erasure of the thin line that divides humanity from savagery.

Civilisation, Conrad noted, is a fragile veneer that masks a propensity for violence that percolates in the human psyche. And when that veneer is ripped off in countries like Sudan, Haiti, Ukraine and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, we are most certainly going to catch a glimpse of what Conrad described in “Heart of Darkness.”

Make no doubt, what we are seeing on our television screens is a sanitized version of terror compounded by human misery. The staggering statistics tell only a small part of the cruelty that is now leading to an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.

Over 31,000 Palestinians have been murdered in five months and somehow, in some sick twisted way, they might be the lucky ones. Thousands of children have been left orphaned, on the brink of starvation, shivering in Gaza’s winter, with no shelter and no parents or grandparents to comfort them.

A three-story whitewashed apartment complex built to host visitors at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Doha, Qatar is now home to 1,500 children who have had one or more of their limbs amputated due to Israel’s massive bombing campaign in Gaza. Countless more children are trapped in Gaza and the West Bank without medical assistance. The long-term health and mental impact will sting them for the rest of their short lives.

The United Nations says 1.9 million Palestinians, more than double the entire population of Guyana, have been uprooted and are internally displaced in Gaza. Many have been forced to flee from one area to another repeatedly over the last five months. A million are now jammed into Rafah, a tiny sliver of land on the border with Egypt, and Israel’s deadly firepower threatens to rain even more hell down on them.

Finding something, anything, to eat is an ordeal of immense magnitude. Famine looms large and international relief agencies are in a panic. In the first 17 days of this month an average of 159 aid trucks per day crossed into Gaza, well below the target of 500.

If Palestinians don’t die from starvation, observers say, they will most certainly die from one of many diseases oozing out from the rubble. The World Bank estimates that 45% of all residential buildings in Gaza have been leveled by Israeli bombs since October 2023. Nutrition screenings conducted by UNICEF show that rates of acute malnutrition among children in northern Gaza and Rafah have nearly doubled in just over a month.

With more than 155 thousand vulnerable and at-risk pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza, add another 73 thousand in the West Bank, and factor in 690 thousand menstruating women and girls in Gaza with no access to clean water and hygiene supplies, you begin to see why the international community believes this is a watershed moment.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) who has seen their staff targeted and killed by Israel’s occupation forces – 168 and counting – says only 8 of its 24 health-care facilities are currently operational. Access to clean water could alleviate the rising malnutrition rates and fend off starvation, but UNRWA says it is only able to salvage water from seven pre-existing wells.

Before Israel’s campaign of destruction in Gaza it supplied the Palestinian population with 18 billion liters of potable water a year – nine percent of the occupied territory’s annual use. Gaza itself produced about 200 million cubic meters – 79 percent – of its water per year. That water was pumped from an aquifer underneath Gaza, but due to years of occupation it has been contaminated with seawater. In other words, high levels of salinity in the water means it has to be purified at one of six water treatment facilities in Gaza. And because Israel cut off the electricity and fuel needed to operate backup generators; water was no longer available.

As this humanitarian crisis deepens with each passing day, grassroot organisations in every country of the world continue to raise their voices in protest to demand a permanent ceasefire and the immediate recognition of an independent Palestinian state. These organisations, once disconnected, are now rapidly coalescing into a global mass movement.

A few days ago, the entire Bueren stairs in Liege, Belgium – 374 steps at a 30% incline and considered to be one of the top 10 memorable stairs in the world – was repainted with the flag of Palestine.

And here at home, “Guyana for Palestine,” an independent grassroots organisation made up of a diverse group of students and young professionals, has raised more than GY$7M in just a few days in aid for Gaza. The organisation says it plans on raising more funds in the coming days and weeks.

Regards,
Nazim Baksh