Btw Israel let Palestinians celebrate not one (1) holiday in peace. They didn’t grant Christian Palestinians access to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, they actively attacked families who were already starving at Iftar during Ramadan, and now there are several reports of families being killed on Eid al-Fitr—a sacred multi-day holiday practiced by lots of Arabs. It breaks my heart imagining the Palestinian families in Gaza right now, most of whom are spending Eid mourning loved ones who were taken by Israeli strikes. Most of us will never understand the sheer magnitude of that pain.
“I have carried you, Sea, upon my forehead / You that carry no name, the journey to the unseen / through you and in you, the whole / universe is reduced to the circles of the water.”
— Mona Sa’udi, from Women of the Fertile Crescent: An Anthology of Modern Poetry by Arab Women (ed. & trans Kamal Boullata)
anyways αὐτόχειρ is such an incredible word. being killed by a kindred hand is lexically indistinguishable from dying by your own. you cannot kill your brother in a way that does not also kill you