Stand up!

I’m mindlessly scrolling through my Instagram stories when is see the statement results of the United Nations. Another poll about the war between Israel and Palestine. My first reaction is to quickly scrolling past that story. That’s the reaction I always have when I see people talk about the conflict. You could say  “head in the sand” reaction. A reaction I usually have when I see the news about war, climate change, murder or the Dutch national politics results. Most of the time I just think, making myself upset won’t fix the problem. And I’m not capable of changing anything anyway. But that mindset changed when I visited Dachau.

Two months ago I went on a school trip to the concentration camp. I followed a guided tour through the concentration camp. The guide told us about the people living in the city. They didn’t stand up, they didn’t riot. I was flabbergasted. I was even angry. How was it possible that they didn’t stand up for the people in the camp. I expressed the shock I felt in the guidance group. People tried to explain to me that it was not that easy for the civilians of Dachau. I didn’t want to listen my mind kept thinking: ‘’how could they.’’

And now whenever I open my phone I will see all the posts about Palestine. My complete Instagram is pro Palestine. They’re asking for people to stand up. Stand up for the right of the Palestinians. They talk about genocide and how the Palestinian population will extinct. But when I leave my building in the south of Munich, I will see a complete different point of view. Newspapers and news channels will be more on the side of Israel and at Marienplatz waves the Israeli flag. People speak about the Israeli victims and terrorism of Hamas. Both sides speak about the conflict as if they have seen it with their own eyes.

I don’t know any more. I thought it was easy, in a war one side is ‘’the good side’’ and the other side is  ‘’the bad side’’. But in this conflict that is going on for so long, with so much misinformation I am lost. I don’t know what to think, what to believe or what to feel. The only thing I know is that there are innocent civilians dying. On both sides. That has to stop.

With all this thoughts running in the back of my mind I decide to check the UN statement. ‘’Protection of civilians and upholding legal and humanitarian obligations’’ 153 countries agree, 10 disagree and 23 didn’t vote. 10 countries disagreed to protect civilians and uphold humanitarian obligations. One of the countries disagreeing is Israel. Needles to say they might be biased. Germany and the Netherlands are notable for their absence. They couldn’t vote yes when asked if they thought that civilians should be protected.

The statement in itself is already insane. You can vote for changing the price of the train but not about literal human rights. But most of all the fact that the Netherlands didn’t vote again, makes that I lose trust in humanity.

It is impossible to know exactly what is happening in Gaza, but we know that we can’t let innocent civilians die. Even though I started to understand the people in Dachau, we need to stand up!