We Remember
In the future, the 7th October 2023, and the events that followed, will hold a place of particular significance. 

For many in Israel and other places around the world, 7th October will be remembered because of the loss of 1,200 lives, the brutality of the Hamas attack and the fate of 251 hostages.  

For Palestinians, and those who have watched the events of the last year unfold, 7th October will be remembered for the destruction and hatred unleashed on Gaza that has left 40,000 dead, 10,000 missing, 100,000 injured, 2 million displaced and so much destruction.

For those in Lebanon as the precursor to another assault and another invasion.

For historians and social commentators, it will be remembered:

• as the first genocide watched in real time on TV and social media
• for the waning power of Western governments and their lack of political influence — with red lines drawn as quickly as they could be rubbed out and a refusal to hold Israel to account
• as the conflict when the words “the right to defend itself” became so associated with each new act of Israeli aggression and justification for each new shipment of arms that it lost all meaning
• as being the end game for the UN’s credibility and for systematic attacks against its legitimacy
• for a return to a time when starvation was used as an instrument of war and when international aid was refused to a starving population 
• for legitimising attacks on hospitals, medical facilities, schools and journalists
• for one person’s absolute desire to hold on to power 
• as the time when people across the world no longer saw the pursuit of Palestinian rights as a minority activity but as the norm for anyone who cared about humanity. 

And for you and I, what will we remember? 

• the friends that lost family members, and their despair at being so far from those they loved? 
• the waves of destruction and millions sheltering in tents — displaced again and again and again?  
• the land grabs, home demolitions and settler violence on the West Bank?
• the lack of courage and duplicity of our governments and those who should have known far better?
• each month being worse than the one before?

Or will we choose to remember:

• those who spoke with such eloquence and anger while their hearts broke 
• the dignity and courage of so many in the face of such appalling circumstances
• those who walked the streets of London and a thousand cities around the world
• our friends and partners who fed thousands, who refused to allow their disability to prevent them from distributing food aid, who ran medical clinics in portacabins and carried out surgeries in conditions that Florence Nightingale might have recognised. 

And if we do remember them, then maybe we can make this world spin on a very different axis.