I do not write from comfort. I write from the salt of grief. From the agony of watching the world orchestrate its distractions while an entire people are burned, buried, and erased.
The world has failed the Palestinian people. Utterly and entirely.
This is not a political crisis—it is a moral apocalypse.
Since October 2023, more than 64,000 Palestinians—the vast majority women and children—have been killed in Gaza. That figure, cited by the Watson Institute, only scratches the surface. A 2024 Lancet study estimated that up to 186,000 deaths may be attributable to the ongoing conflict—caused not only by direct violence but by famine, trauma, disease, and a shattered healthcare system. At that time, Ralph Nader placed the number closer to 200,000.
These are not numbers. These are obliterated lineages. Neighborhoods razed. Babies recovered from beneath rubble in what were meant to be shelters—not graves. Hospitals bombed. Schools incinerated. Families starved. Children turned to ash inside classrooms. Elders murdered in wards they once trusted as safe.
And how has the world responded? With silence. With vague “regrets.” With weapons shipments.
Where is the United Nations and its so-called peacekeeping mandate? Where is the Arab League? Where are the global faith leaders who quote “Thou shalt not kill” from the pulpit—but seem deaf to the cries from Gaza?
“Thou shalt not kill.” Inscribed in the Bible, Qur’an, Torah, Gita—yes. But also enshrined in international law, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the charters of the United Nations. It is sacred. It is legal. It is universal. And it has been violated. Repeatedly. Brazenly. Unforgivably.
Those who sponsor this genocide sleep beside holy texts while investing in weapons and war stocks. They pray with one hand and push missile buttons with the other.
Yet those sponsoring this genocide sleep beside these holy texts while investing in war stocks and boasting defense profits. They pray with one hand and press missile buttons with the other.
This is not just genocide—it is infanticide, ecocide, scholacide, culturecide, and medicide.
Let us name it fully:
- Infanticide: Babies buried under bombed maternity wards.
- Scholacide: Teachers and students turned to ash inside classrooms.
- Ecocide: Farmland poisoned, aquifers drained, trees reduced to cinders.
- Medicide: The annihilation of healthcare, as ambulances are shelled and doctors are slaughtered in their scrubs.
These are not metaphors. They are facts. And the so-called international community is not watching helplessly—it is watching profitably.
Let us not be deceived: silence is not neutrality. Silence is a moral alignment with power.
A carpenter does not build chairs to store under the bed. A tailor does not sew garments just to hide them away. And the arms industry does not make weapons for decoration. These machines of death must be sold. And sold they are—through wars.
The children of Gaza were not accidental casualties. They were sacrificed at the altar of empire, profit, and political cowardice.
So I ask:
To the architects of this violence: What crime did the Palestinian children commit? What sin warranted this obliteration?
To the silent majority: When does neutrality become complicity? What will you tell your children when they read of this— —or will even that history be erased?
This is not only about Gaza. It is about all of us. About what we become when we no longer act. About the future we construct through our indifference.
I offer this piece not just as protest, but as lament. Not just as lament, but as sacred indictment.
In the name of every holy book used to bless bombs, In memory of every mother whose child was stolen by missiles, In the name of all prophets who warned us against such evil: Let it be known— The world has failed the Palestinians.
We are called not only to pray but to protest. Not only to mourn but to move. Not only to witness, but to refuse— Refuse to accept that this is the world we inherit or pass down.
But we, the people of conscience, will not be silent.
And to my fellow activists, faith leaders, citizens of truth and resistance, I say this:
The silence of the world is not passive. It is participation. And it will be remembered that the entire world stood by while Palestinians were genocided—generation after generation.
The post “Thou Shalt Not Kill”: The World’s Silence Is Complicity first appeared on Dissident Voice.