I’m against the Israeli government, I’m against the governments of the US, UK, Iran and the governments of Western Europe. I’m against the leaders of every single Arab state. I’m against the IDF, Hamas, and Hezbollah. I’m against all these governments, organisations and individuals because not one of them wants a free Palestine or a Palestinian State. They’re as scared of a free Palestine as they were about the Arab Spring. A free Palestine represents a state they can’t control - a chimera for the unfree citizens of the Middle East and Europe - a crazy idea in this time of religious, political and capitalist fundamentalism. A crazy idea supported by many ordinary people throughout the world. Ordinary people who protest, who march and understand that peace and a free Palestine is part of a sensible desire for consistent and noble governance which values humanity and is tolerant, respectful and ethical. As Gary Indiana wrote about Anna Politkovskaya’s reportage of the brutal war in Chechnya, and which could equally apply to the Israeli Government’s war crimes and genocide in the Middle East, “It is all too bad if we pretend that a happy end will come anybody’s way if one person’s happy end is another person’s catastrophe”. And as the people supporting a ceasefire and a free Palestine understand, what the Israeli government have done sends a message to governments the world over who run on the fumes of populism, religion or pretend they are for the people but in actuality are for big business and its boosters: you can get away with murder, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, genocide, with anything you damn well please. Which leaves me with the question, what can you do? Go on marches? As one friend said the other day, I’ve been on five marches now and nothing has changed. Follow the suggestions the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (aka BDS) has made? Yes. Cultural boycotts? Yes. Although I don’t understand why anyone would have played concerts or gigs in Israel twenty or thirty years ago let alone today. I’m not alone in that I treat Israel like I treated South Africa during apartheid. And yet here we are. The murder and war crimes continue and re a recent UN report 70% of those being killed in Gaza are women and children. It must be obvious to the nearly 13 million Palestinians living in Israel, the Middle East and the rest of the world, their deaths don’t matter and yet they are a people who continue to fight and resist, because as Isabella Hammad states in her recent book, “They cannot kill us all.” Meanwhile the gap widens to worrying degrees between governors and governed, rich and poor and developing and developed worlds. The Palestinians worth nothing to the world’s super powers. Just another portion of the world’s populace measured for their political and economic worth and found wanting. There’s a lesson there for us all.