Silent No Longer

Dear friends,

I am constantly besieged by the feeling that I am not doing enough. A genocide is unfolding before our eyes. I feel the guilt with every mother holding a starving child, with every doctor killed, with every journalist murdered, with every child shot trying to get food. Last week I sat in the bathroom and cried for half an hour, overwhelmed with grief.

If this were a tragedy caused by a natural disaster - a flood or an earthquake perhaps - it would be bad enough. But this is an intentional, cruel and calculated attempt to destroy a people that are viewed as less than human, less than animals even. If I were to treat my dog the way that the Israeli Government treats the Palestinians I would be in prison.

It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that there is nothing we can do. That is what they want us to think. It’s true, one person on their own will not have a large impact. But all of us together will.

We can’t all attend protests or donate money. But we can all speak out. We can write to our elected representatives. We can talk to our friends and family. And we can write blog posts. And it is very possible that it will make a difference. We have the potential to change public opinion. And the politicians will always follow the public opinion, even if they are sometimes slow.

For those of us that hold positions of power or influence, there is an opportunity to make a bigger impact. At the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many companies and organisations publicly expressed support for Ukraine, including, for example displaying the Ukrainian flag on their website. The same has not yet happened in support of Palestine, with a few notable exceptions including Arabic Wikipedia.

And it is for this reason that I want to write a special note to the Mwmbl community. Mwmbl is an open source search engine that I’ve been working on for a few years. You have been amazing in supporting the work we’re doing. I would love it if we could express support for Palestine on the Mwmbl home page, stand against the genocide, and display the Palestinian flag.

Mwmbl has always stood for the freedom of access to information, for open source software, and for the truth. For me, this is an extension of that. Standing up for what is right. But I don’t want to take this step without the support of the community. So I’m asking you. Please stand with me.

With love and solidarity,

Daoud

Acknowledgements

I first want to thank my teachers from Palestine, to whom I owe an enormous debt. Secondly, my parents, who met each other there, and made it my spiritual home.

Finally, I’m so grateful to those in the independent media that are standing up for truth and for teaching me that we can make a difference.