Have you taken a side yet?

Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camp. Beirut. Lebanon. 2000. Phot by Steve Merrick

Governments globally have mostly chosen a side for their citizens in this latest battle of a long standing war, between Israel and the Gaza strip, but like every other recent war it is the civilian populations that pay for it. It is a picture that never changes, civilian suffering is by default the face of all modern wars and in all likelihood, historical ones. Pick any of the recent ones from Iraq-Ukraine-Afghanistan, violence has overflowed into the everyday world of market places, schools, shopping centres and hospitals, so frequently that you could mistake it for a requirement of wars. The optics of it are often hidden behind moral rhetoric and public disbelief. Terms like laser accuracy hide the truth of a 500 pound bomb which even when accurate will devastate a block of flats without much effort. Accuracy aside what is my point, when everyone knows civilians get hurt and killed at a higher ratio than soldiers and military do. Looking to Gaza, well, we all know what is coming, we have all seen it before to a larger or smaller scale, so why ask what side you are on? Why bother with that question? Because one lesson we should’ve learned is there are not that many good guys left in this world.

Children playing football on top of a mass grave, dug after the 1982 massacre Sabra and Shatila refugee camp. Beirut. Lebanon. 2000. Photo by Steve Merrick

We even have memes for it all, one of them is that. “Violence never works.” Well tell that to the Taliban, or any military and watch them shrug knowingly. Violence does work terrifyingly well for the record, in the West we may deplore it but look at the number of regimes worldwide employing it daily. Then look to our own recent track record in bombing things and people. It gets even worse elsewhere and that is pretty evident from what is happening in the Gaza strip and Israel right now, or the Ukraine. Violence. Both Hamas and the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) are very good at violence, but neither really recognises the civilians caught up in their battles. Hamas rampages and kills over 1400 civilians whilst the IDF death toll in Gaza could be topping over 8000 last time I looked. Yet the main argument is can you trust the figures Hamas/Gaza medics are releasing. Casting doubt on casualty figures hides a depressing reality, when bombs are falling left right and centre, continuously, then the casualty figures seem very light to me. If a building collapses in London and in spite of Government cut backs on emergency services we would be able to rescue those underneath it, and tell you who has been killed and injured. Gaza is not London though, the rescuers would be under fire and probably unable to do as much as they would want to, how many unknown are there under all that rubble as entire built up areas are destroyed. I don’t know and nor do you.

Deception is historically another major factor of any warfare, therefore any statements released have to be thoroughly researched before reported, by any side, not because they are all a pack of liars, but because no-one ever tells their opponent what they are doing. A transparent war would be insane. Any journalist taking any statement on face value is in for a bad surprise on a good day, in wartime? Yet it is all being taken on face value, rhetorical justifications and good old secrecy obscure a very hard truth. Civilians are dying and being injured at an alarming rate, on both sides of the immediate fighting. However lets obscure it all even further, because it is not just a two sided coin. There are many other players involved in this whole humanitarian shit storm. America has stated which side it supports, even arresting American Jewish anti war protesters to reinforce the point, plus reinforcing Israels boundaries with aircraft carriers. Russia too has made a point of calling for a ceasefire, yet lurking in the dark is Iran. Listen, if I view Israel and Iran on paper they are both militarised religious states with oppressed minorities. Iranian fashion police killed a teenage school kid recently on a train. She was a civilian. Iran has backed Hamas. Sent them money and weaponry, designs for weapons. This battlefield is not just one sided, even the god Vishnu with all his arms could not juggle all of the moving parts of it. Yet neither side is protecting their own civilians or the civilians of their purported enemies. Rockets fired from Gaza and bombs fired from Israel prove this point.

Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camp. Beirut. Lebanon. 2000. Photo by Steve Merrick

However as Irans intelligence service leaks like a rusty ship, and Hamas knows that, they bided their time and kept quiet. Using intelligence terminology, (stolen from anime.) Hamas went autistic, silent and planned an operation. Maybe the Mossad were lulled into sleepwalking prior to their attack, relying on hacking tools and fences for their defence, possibly even over estimating the Iranians control of Hamas, and not picking up on other real signals, but when the attack came it was merciless, it was murder, it was terrorism, and it was aimed at civilians. The response was almost immediate, and it too whether by design or flawed use targeted civilians. Lets face it, you cannot attack the most densely populated place on Earth, without killing civilians, children, women, men and hostages. It’s not even possible as bombs blow up scattering buildings and shrapnel in there wake. Yet even there knowing that that is a truth, the attack went ahead. Even the UN have been kicked out of this battle, for having the audacity to point out that none of this is happening in a vacuum.

Israels nightmare has been continuous, yet very self inflicted as well, action begs reaction, Israel told American officials in 2008 that they planned to keep Gaza’s economy on the brink of collapse. Controlling everything from water, food to healthcare became the name of the game, the boundaries of Gaza were already controlled. The UN at one point estimated that Gaza would become unliveable in by 2020, (I am going from memory there, so may have the year wrong,) but without the foreign aid Gaza has always been doomed. Irregular wars, atrocities and violence alongside massive levels of unemployment, and of course Hamas, who equally seem to want this status quo to continue as it justifies their existence, the same way the IDF do. Throw into the mix successive right wing Governments in Israel, almost psychotic trigger happy settlers, and add the real fanatics in the strip, and what chance does a Gaza Palestinian civilian have at success and happiness?

Sabra and Shatila. Palestinian refugee camp. Beirut. Lebanon. 2000. Photo by Steve Merrick

All human beings are created free and equal in dignity and rights. That is the opening of article one of the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, it’s this atheist writers bible for the record, that is something I have chosen to believe in and strive for. Full stop. It does not have exclusions. If anyone in the opposing forces reads these words it does not exclude Israelis or Palestinians. To my own Government in Britain, it does not exclude refugees and immigrants. We are all human beings. When both sides have lost sight of humanity, can anyone really choose a side? When besieging a trap like Gaza where people have been corralled and imprisoned by planned action, for decades and the embargo can result in malnutrition and diseases, where is the claimed moral high ground? Cholera is a water borne disease that doesn’t care about the nationality, yet without enough aid reaching them, the civilians will start to drop like flies. When Hamas was attacking raping and gunning down civilians it considered that righteous, when the IDF bomb knowing full well it will be carnage and claim righteousness, can anyone stop what is happening?

Since neither side can see the humanity in the other, then this war will probably have to be fought out until both sides have exhausted themselves. Clearly a new category of civilian has been born, it was probably always there, but Ci-Villains can be ignored and killed. Ci-Villains can be targeted. Child Ci-Villains. Women Ci-Villains and Men Ci-Villains. That is what all of the mutually confirming propaganda is creating. Labelling. Justifying. There is another name for them and that is victims. Within all of this are multiple human faces. Heartbeats stopped prematurely, limbs lost, eyesight, hearing and voices demolished. The psychological impacts will be extreme to. The mutual paranoia is going to be hard to recover from. At a future point this war will end but at what cost to the entire region and the world? When the deepening rifts between human tribes create only pain what is the point? When mutual distrust turns to weaponised mutual racism what is the point, but then that has already been the point for decades.

Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camp. Beirut. Lebanon. 2000. Photo by Steve Merrick

Somewhere in this dance of speeding metals and chemistry, there has to be a need for neutrality, when the rhetoric dies and the realisation hits there will be a need for neutrality. If it saves one life from suffering then we will need the medics, the doctors, the engineers, and human beings. I can see how this may sound to you, but I will not choose a side here because in truth both are wrong, and those that are demanding you choose by political, racial, cultural or religious preference about this war are wrong. I am simply on the side of all the civilians caught up in the violence. All of them.

For the record that includes you, whichever side you are on.

Steve Merrick

Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camp. Beirut. Lebanon. 2000. Photo by Steve Merrick