I struggled with what to say in this urgent moment, which I had long craved and often seemed out of reach during these last 15 awful months.
One of the questions I grappled with was this: What could I possibly share with readers that would even remotely convey the meaning and depth of the apparent agreement to stop the mass slaughter of Palestinians?
I didn’t suffer. My home is intact. My family and I are alive and well. We are warm, together and safe.
So, the second burning dilemma I faced was: Is it even my place to write? I thought this space should be reserved for Palestinians to reflect on the horrors they have endured and what is to come.
Their voices will, of course, be heard here and elsewhere in the days and weeks ahead. My voice, in this context, is insignificant and, under these difficult circumstances, borders on irrelevance.
However, if you, especially the Palestinians, will indulge me, this is what I have to say.
I think there are four words that each, in their own way, have a certain meaning for Wednesday’s happy news that the guns are ready to fall silent.
The first and perhaps most appropriate word is “relief”.
There will be plenty of time and opportunity for the “experts” to compile their predictable scoreboards of the “winners” and “losers” and the broader short- and long-term strategic implications of Wednesday’s deal.
There will also be plenty of time and opportunity for more “experts” to consider the political ramifications of Wednesday’s deal in the Middle East, Europe and Washington, DC.
My preoccupation, and I suspect the preoccupation of most Palestinians and their loved ones in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, is that peace has finally arrived.
How long it will take is a question best asked tomorrow. Today, let us all enjoy the relief that peace brings.
Palestinian boys and girls dance with relief. After months of sadness, loss and grief, joy returned. The smiles are back. Hope has returned.
Let us enjoy it with some degree of relief, if not pleasure.
And there is relief in Israel.
The families of the surviving prisoners will soon be reunited with the brothers and sisters, daughters and sons, mothers and fathers they longed to embrace again.
They will no doubt need care and attention to heal the wounds in their minds, souls and bodies.
It will be another, very welcome peace dividend.
The next word is “gratitude”.
Those of us who, day after horrific day, have watched – grief-stricken and helpless as the ruthless apartheid state methodically reduced Gaza to dust and memory – owe our greatest gratitude to the brave, determined helpers who did their best to ease the pain and suffering of the besieged Palestinians.
We owe our eternal gratitude to the countless anonymous people, in countless places across Gaza and the West Bank, who, at great risk and at the expense of so many young, promising lives, put the well-being of their Palestinian brothers and sisters before their own.
We must be grateful to them for their selflessness and courage. They did their duty. They were in danger. They didn’t back down. They stood firm. They held on. They rejected the bringers of death and destruction who tried to erase their pride and dignity.
They reminded the world that humanity will prevail despite the occupier’s efforts to destroy it.
The third word is “acknowledge”.
The world must recognize the steadfast resistance of the Palestinians.
The aim of the occupiers was to break the will and spirit of the Palestinians. This was the intention of the occupiers in the past 75 years.
The occupier has failed again.
Palestinians are tireless. They, like their brethren in Ireland and South Africa, are immobile.
They refuse to be expelled from their country because they are bound to it by faith and history. Their roots are too deep and indestructible.
The Palestinians will decide their own destiny – not marauding armies led by racists and war criminals who cling to the outdated idea that might is right.
It will take a little more time and patience, but the sovereignty and salvation that the Palestinians have earned in blood and pain, I am convinced, is not far over the horizon.
The last word is “shame”.
There are politicians and governments who will forever bear the shame of allowing Israel to commit genocide against the people of Palestine.
These politicians and governments will deny it. The evidence of their crimes is clear. We can see it in the pictures of the apocalyptic landscape of Gaza. We will record every name of the more than 46,000 Palestinian victims of their complicity.
That will be their dilapidated legacy.
Instead of stopping the mass killing of innocents, they enabled it. Instead of preventing starvation and disease from taking the lives of babies and children, they encouraged it. Instead of locking up the weapon, they delivered it. Instead of shouting “enough”, they encouraged the killing to go on and on.
We will remember. We won’t let them forget.
That is our responsibility: to see that they never escape the shame that will follow each of them like a long, disfigured shadow in the late sun.
Shame on them. Shame on them all.
The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.
