Home for many of us is more than just a place, a building, a bed, a place to eat, and watch tv. For those of us who work every day, who give up our time and energy (mental, emotional and physical), Home is a safehaven, a place to go to find comfort, something that is ours, something that is of us and for us.
For those who cannot work and are not given employment by the exploitative bosses and corporations, Home is like Heaven, a far away world of safety and peace that many don't get to know, especially as folks do not have or struggle to keep stable housing, as a growing trend almost all around the world.
Home is a blessing to those of us who have one, as those who do not can attest to.
But, what is it like to not have a Home?
What is it like to go day in, and day out without a place to call Home?
We must recognize that over the world, some billions (2-3) go without stable housing, food, employment, drinkable water, medicine, medical care, education- they are left to labor, struggle, suffer and die by the world around us, including those of us who recognize this but do not act on their behalf. Many are fleeing wars, poverty, persecution, and genocide by being forced out, by way of violence. They are forced to gather what they can carry, if they are so lucky to know ahead of time . Many of them escaping in the night, underground, with help from those able to, through safehouses, or, there some are forced into having to walk miles out in the open under bombardment and constant attack like the Palestinians from Nothern Gaza. They flee, but in fact, have to leave Home behind.
The Indigenous people of Palestine are like those of the Americas, Africa, and broader Asia, colonially subjugated to the rule of another; under constant threat of violence, poverty, arrest or death; given no political, social, or other power of any significant sort; the world is lied to about their history and their current struggles; and, they have survived genocidal attempts to wipe them from the Earth, against all odds.
But what good is survival of that if these people do not have homes, institutions, hospitals, roads, waterways, buildings, water treatment plants, schools, or anything even resembling a society?
As the "Israeli Armed Forces" - tools and creations of the British and US empires - rain down bombs on the innocent children, women, elderly and disabled, destroying everything they have built for centuries, generations...we must ask, can a ceasefire save them? No. Enfetically no.
A ceasefire, while a pause in brutalization, is nothing but a chance for the Imperialists to reorganize, an opportunity for them to count their numbers, readjust and go back in.
We do not need a "ceasefire" we need a cease of occupation, a cease of Zionist colonialism, a end to "State of Israel", by whatever means they (Israel) deem necessary, by their continued onslaught of the Palestinians, going into Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Egypt, and Syria, as well.
We are aware that occupation persists, injustice persists, violence persists, amidst so called "Peace".
One may need only look to the trail of broken treaties that has been left in the way of the Colonialists coming onto the shores and leaving in pools of blood, with ships full of slaves from indigenous land, to see the level by which "Peace" is manipulated and warped into instead normalizing war, concentration camps, poverty, slavery, and Genocide.
A ceasefire grants protection to the soldiers who for over 75 years have massacred Palestinian children, raped Palestinian women, tortured and maimed men (soldiers or not) and hung the very culture of the Palestinian people from the Imperialist rafters. This treatment is in effect a hanging of Palestinians as decoration for "Israel's own home" - this is an example which Israel on behalf of the Imperialists worldwide is making of Falistine.
---- Homes, whether they be in Sudan, the DRC, Nicaragua, Guam, Hawai'i, anywhere- are precious, sacred, safe spaces for family, friends, neighbors, comrades, and others to gather, share, live, rest, play, laugh, smile, feel sadness, mourn, grieve, cuddle, and take care of oneself.
How would you feel if your home was bombed, everything in it, including your family and friends?
How would you feel if you were forced to trek miles to a place where you don't even know if you'll be let to live or die?
How would you feel if the whole world was telling you, the only way to stop your suffering is to find peace with your oppressor?
How would you feel if the one way to get someone out of your home, self-defense, was not granted to you?
How would you feel, if you didn't have a home to sleep in tonight?
How would you feel?
So, fight.
Because you never know who is next.