Top Tweets for #Dehumanisation

«یک‌تمدن امشب نابود خواهد شد» شبی که این حرفو زد، من نخوابیدم. این حرف‌ها وحشیانه بود. رییس‌جمهور یه کشور، کشوری که می‌دونیم بمب اتم داره و سابقه استفاده ازش رو هم داره، در مورد ۹۰ میلیون آدم این حرفو زد. تصور کن چه شبی بود. برای پدر و مادرهای ایرانی که می‌خواستن از بچه‌هاشون محافظت کنن… ولی چطور؟ اگر بمب اتم بزنه چی؟ کجا بریم؟ بچه رو چکار کنیم؟ کدوم شهر رو می‌زنه؟ همه شهرها رو یا فقط تهران رو؟ تصور کن مسن‌ترها، مریض‌ها و اقشار ضعیف چه حالی داشتن اون شب. ۹۰ میلیون نفر… در سراسر جهان نتونستن بخوابن. ⸻ یه روز باید آمریکا بابت این بلایی که سر ما آورد جواب پس بده. ما یه ترومای وحشتناک رو پشت سر گذاشتیم. نابودی ایران، یک تمدن، با تمام نشانه‌ها و فرهنگی که ازش به ارث رسیده، رو تصور کردیم. برای رها شدن از این تروما باید ازش حرف بزنیم. اونقدر بگیم و بگیم تا زهرش آروم‌آروم بیرون بیاد. ⸻ اون شب من نخوابیدم. بیدار شدم و خواب آروم بچه‌هامو نگاه کردم… بچه‌هایی که قرار بود از من هیچ میراثی بهشون نرسه. بچه‌هایی که زادگاه منو هرگز ندیدن. و من، باید به نمایندگی از دنیایی که دیگه وجود نداشت، بی‌ریشه و بی‌مدرک، از تمدنی که از دست رفته بود، روی زمینی که انگار جا برای اون تاریخ و هزاران سال داستان نداشت. رنج «باقی‌مونده بودن» رو تا ابد به دوش می‌کشیدم… و توانش رو در خودم نمی‌ دیدم. #داستان_جنگ #نه_به_جنگ #تروما

It was Tuesday, October 21, when I managed to reach a member of the Abu Sha‘baan family in Gaza. His sister, Randa, had been killed along with her husband and four children in an Israeli airstrike on October 17. That same strike also claimed the lives of other relatives from the Sha‘baan family, including three more children. I contacted the family for two reasons: to obtain photos of the children to share on my social media, as I have done for other victims, and to ask whether the bodies had been recovered and buried. It was strange because I have not seen any photos of the kids on social media or in newspapers online. Mohammad, the uncle of the Abu Sha‘baan family, told me that he had previously been contacted by The New York Timesoffice in Jerusalem. He said that although he provided the reporter with all the necessary details for the article, he never received a link to it after its publication on October 18. When I finally read the New York Times piece myself, I was deeply shocked. The article did not mention the names of a single victim, not Randa Abu Sha‘baan (the mother and Mohammad’s sister), her husband Ihab, or their children Nasser (13), Jumana (10), Ibrahim (6), Mohammad (5). It also omitted the names of their relatives who were traveling with them in the same minibus: Samar (mother), Sufyan (father), and their children Nasma (12), Karam (10), and Anas (8). Mohammad told me he had shared with the reporter photos and videos of the children as well as images showing their mutilated remains. When I sent Mohammad the link to the article, he felt a shock run through his body upon reading its headline. Instead of calling the atrocity by its name, the headline repeated the Israeli military’s justification for the attack. It read: “Israeli Military Fires on Vehicle, Saying It Crossed Gaza Cease-Fire Line.” “Gaza’s rescue service said at least nine people, including several children, were killed in the strike in northern Gaza on Friday, underscoring the fragility of the week-old cease-fire.” “How the hell was the family supposed to know where the line was?” Mohammad cried over the phone. “They were just returning to their destroyed homes. And even if they crossed a line, would that justify missiles? Why didn’t the soldiers warn them long before they came close to or crossed the line?” The NYT article fail to include not only the names, photos, or acknowledgment of the humanity that was lost but also two critical details Mohammad had shared: 1. Israeli forces did not permit first responders or family members to reach the victims until 22 hours after the strike. 2. When first responders finally arrived, Israeli forces forced them to leave within minutes. To this day, the family has been unable to recover the bodies of two of the children. It is feared that stray animals may have consumed what was left of their small remains. Yet The New York Times article largely echoed the Israeli narrative, framing the killing of these children and their parents not as a war crime, but merely as a sign of the “fragility” of the cease-fire. Is the killing of the Abu Sha‘baan family truly just an indicator of political tensions, or a crime that demands investigation and accountability? If the victims had not been Palestinian children, would their deaths still be treated as a mere data point in a geopolitical analysis rather than a tragedy deserving outrage and justice? Why were the voices of the Abu Sha‘baan and Sha‘baan children erased from the New York Times article? Why were their pictures absent, their names, their ages, their dreams, their stories? Why, instead, was the voice of the perpetrator granted prominence in the headline itself? On October 23, the Abu Sha‘baan family released a statement condemning The New York Times for taking an editorial stance that echoed the silence imposed by the two artillery shells that ended their loved ones’ lives.