What we are not stopping

© 2023 FdR / YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT
Premature babies taken from the Gaza Strip to Egypt after more than a month of Israeli shelling. Our relationship with images of war is a private, intimate affair. Collective is the realisation of what we are capable of when we are left free to do so. Without anyone stopping us.
There are those who argue that Israel's war against Hamas can only pose casualties among civilians used as human shields.
There are those who call on Israel to respect international humanitarian law by sparing civilians.
Instead, Faccia da Reporter argues that if we accept war (any war) these are the images and these are the victims, mostly civilians, who will enter our homes and our lives.
The rest is hypocrisy.
There is only one solution: to demand, given the History and the context in which this is happening, that Israel stop and that Hamas stop: not to 'allow a humanitarian pause', but forever.
Anne Boyer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, essayist and journalist, resigned today from her position with the New York Times Magazine, for which she edited the poetry section.
She did so - I quote from her letter - because in the face of what is happening in Gaza, 'I can't write poetry amidst the “reasonable” tones of those who aim to acclimatize us to this unreasonable suffering. No more ghoulish euphemisms. No more verbally sanitised hellscapes. No more warmongering lies'.
What good are images that show war?
Nothing if they do not lead to an individually radical decision, like this one.
Will Anne Boyer's resignation stop the war? No, she will be replaced.
Her decision, however, saved her.
She is a free-thinking person.
(gianluca grossi)