COMMENTARY: By Youssef Sammour
Millions of people asking the same question: How is this still happening?
For three years, we have watched the destruction of Gaza. Homes, hospitals, schools and churches. Entire families erased. Children killed, maimed, orphaned and left to starve. Premature babies intentionally left to die in their incubators.
The videos. The images. The screams.
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What we have witnessed is worse than any horror film I’ve ever seen—and these are real people. Our people.
And our history did not begin on October 7th.
For 78 years, Palestinians have been fighting for their freedom, dignity and the right to live in our own land.
What is happening to Palestine is the tip of the spear of so much that is wrong with our world: hypocrisy, double standards, selective accountability, and political agendas placed above human lives.
And it has spread to Sudan, Yemen, Congo, Haiti, Lebanon, Syria, Iran.
Dystopian world
We live in a dystopian world. A world where the Epstein class get away with pedophilia and human trafficking and worse, while those speaking up against the murder of children are deemed problematic and extremists.
A world where wealth buys access, power buys protection, and accountability depends on who you are.
And that is why we are so frustrated.
We have presented the evidence. We have marched. We have petitioned. We have appealed to our governments and international institutions.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.
A UN commission concluded that Israel had committed genocide, and later reported the deliberate targeting of Palestinian children.
Journalists have documented it. Doctors have testified. Palestinians have shown the world their own suffering, day after day.
And still, it goes on.
Biggest atrocity of our time
What more do our leaders need? How many more reports? How many more testimonies? How many more children?
Governments lecture us about human rights, international law and so-called “Western values” — then turn a blind eye to the biggest atrocity of our time.
Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly in New York last month despite an ICC arrest warrant.
And in the West Bank, Palestinians have faced killings, displacement and the destruction of their communities.
We are exhausted by the distance between what our leaders say and what they are prepared to do.
We are done with statements of concern without consequences. Of accountability that reaches the powerless but stops at the powerful.
Palestinian lives cannot remain the price of somebody else’s profit.
Independent access denied
Now, one year into a so-called “ceasefire”, Israel continues to deny international journalists independent access to Gaza, while Palestinian journalists continue to risk their lives to show us what is happening.
Palestinian voices suppressed online. Artists face consequences for speaking out. Prominent figures pressured into silence.
Yet our stories continue to reach people.
They have killed our journalists, but they have not buried the truth.
And despite every effort to silence us, look around you. Across the world, people are listening, organising and marching beside us.
They cannot make the world unsee what it has seen.
Demonstrators gathered at Parliament Lawn in Wellington, New Zealand, on Saturday for the Hikoi for Palestine / Global March for Palestine, marching to Te Ngakau Civic Square. https://t.co/5iOylRtBqv
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) October 11, 2026
There is no going back. But awareness alone will not free Palestine.
We hold them accountable
Now we hold them accountable. Our politicians. Our representatives. Our leaders.
They talk about “fixing the basics”, but where is their action against the deliberate killing of children?
Start with the basics of humanity. From this October until the next, we escalate our peaceful pressure.
We demand sanctions. We boycott Israeli products. We demand the expulsion of Israel’s ambassador and the cutting of political and economic ties with Israel. We demand visa restrictions on those responsible for atrocities.
We are done asking for accountability. We demand it as our right. We demand commitments, deadlines and action.
Hardest year in life
On a personal note, this year has been without a doubt the hardest year of my life. This year we lost Roger Fowler to cancer, one of our most just leaders and advocates for humanity in here in Aotearoa.
During the last moments I had with him, he was still pushing for us to continue the fight for people in Palestine.
My father, who was born in the Nakba on May 15, 1948, is currently continuing his 2 year battle with cancer, leaving me with the ever-growing pressure to uproot my life here and move to Australia to be with him and my mother, both of whom can only be described as angels on earth and I count my blessings everyday that I was lucky enough to have them as my parents.
This year we also lost my grandmother Elena at the age of 96. One of the last things she told me was how much she wished she could go back to her home in Palestine. The place where she played with her friends, where she grew up, where she got married.
We should not have had to wait 78 years. We cannot let another generation inherit this same abandonment.
This year I also witnessed and experienced a cancer of a different kind, a cancer within our movement both locally and internationally. Where bullying, personal agendas and censorship were allowed to thrive while our shared values of transparency equality and fair treatment were cast aside.
How can we push and demand accountability externally when we cannot practise that internally? I understand it’s because we are all frustrated, but there’s no room for that here.
Collective power
Let us turn our collective frustration into collective power. Stand up against bullying against personal agendas and saviour mentalities. We’re all in this together, and silence is the ultimate killer.
I do not want to live in a world where a child’s life is negotiable. And I know I am not alone.
We are the closest we’ve ever been to a better world. Even if it doesn’t feel like it.
Let us take our world back — and make it a world where every child can live in freedom and safety.
Free Palestine.
Youssef Sammour is a Palestinian Christian and a construction project manager who has been on board three Gaza Freedom Flotilla humanitarian aid missions for the besieged Palestinian enclave. This article is adapted from a speech he made at the Global March for Palestine last Saturday and is republished with permission.
THE LARGEST GLOBAL MOVEMENT IN THE WORLD…
Today marks the 37th national pro-Palestinian protest in London, joining more than 250 demonstrations across 60 countries worldwide.UNPRECEDENTED.
Over the past three years, at least 51,000 pro-Palestinian protests have been documented across the world.— Earth Hippy
(@hippyygoat) October 10, 2026
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
APR editor | Radio Free (2026-10-12T05:11:49+00:00) What is happening to Palestine is the tip of the spear of so much that is wrong with our world. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2026/10/12/what-is-happening-to-palestine-is-the-tip-of-the-spear-of-so-much-that-is-wrong-with-our-world/
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