"Precious Catch"

Link to the Arabic original text»

Photo: Joana Mollà, Balambi Studio

Writer’s Note

This is my testimony. It is not written from a distance, but from lived experience — from being raided in Cairo, silenced in Germany, and witnessing genocide in Gaza from afar. These words are my voice of anger, resistance, and an expression of my complete belonging and alignment with Palestine. They are a manifesto against complicity and a reminder that silence is not an option! Resistance is the only solution!

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The words “precious catch” has echoed in my mind ever since June 17th. They were uttered over a radio by an Egyptian intelligence officer, speaking triumphantly to a colleague. From the tone of his voice when he found us, you would have thought that he had liberated Palestine itself!

I was there to participate in the Global March to Break the Siege of Gaza.That day, more than thirty plain clothed agents stormed the hotel in Cairo where we were staying. They moved to seize us like criminals, preparing to escort us by force to the airport for deportation.

The march, thwarted by Egypt’s collaboration with “Israel”, was unable to reach Rafah and break the blockade. Yet for an entire week it rattled Sisi’s regime, exposing it as complicit in the starvation and extermination of Gaza. Determined to prove his loyalty to the Zionist entity, Sisi unleashed every possible method to suppress the march: propaganda that branded participants as saboteurs, intimidation of Egyptians to deter them from joining (not a single Egyptian dared take part, fearing for their lives), forced deportations, invasive searches of activists’ belongings and phones, and interrogations behind closed doors.

When we attempted to head toward Ismailia as a step closer to Rafah, the regime dispatched Bedouin mercenaries to block us. Led by Ibrahim Al-‘Arjani, these groups have become the regime’s dirty enforcers, exploiting Gaza’s agony by charging up to $10,000 per person to leave the Strip — profiting from blood, hunger, and siege.

Egypt’s submission did not stop there. Even in the midst of ongoing genocide against the people of Gaza, Cairo signed the largest gas deal in its history — a $35 billion purchase from “Israel”, gas stolen from the Palestinian people. This staggering figure nearly equaled half of “Israel’s” economic losses from its war on Gaza.

As an Arab citizen, I was not surprised by the betrayal of the Egyptian regime — or of any Arab regime normalized with the occupation state. But living it, seeing it firsthand, was different. To experience the repression and brutality inflicted in defense of the Zionist entity, was a shocking and painful reality.

Most Arab regimes today are complicit in the annihilation of Gaza — through silence, inaction, or direct support. This should not surprise us. The Zionist entity is not an isolated project; it is an organic extension of Western imperialism, led by the United States. Arab ruling systems exist largely to serve Western interests in the Middle East. From such regimes, we cannot expect salvation. The hope rests instead with Arab peoples and intellectuals — to rise to the scale of the crime being committed against Gaza and Palestine.

The imperial project assumes that the peoples of this region will surrender their lands quietly. And if anyone resists, they are branded “terrorists.” This is why occupation and its allies — in the Middle East and in Europe — fear resistance in all its forms, armed or popular, and why they constantly seek to demonize it.

We have all witnessed the Israeli propaganda campaign against Gaza’s armed resistance, echoed uncritically by much of the European and global media. By branding resistance as “terrorism,” they strip it of humanity, giving the Zionist entity the license to exterminate not only resistance fighters but every civilian near them. Consider, for example, the words of Germany’s former foreign minister Annalena Baerbock: “Israel has the right to strike any Hamas target, even if civilians are nearby.”

Since October 8, 2023, Germany has openly declared war not only on Palestinians but on Arabs and anyone who stands in solidarity with Palestine. Berlin was among the first to announce unconditional support for “Israel” — the occupying, apartheid, settler-colonial state — and even declared that “Israel’s” security is part of Germany’s national security.

German weapons are killing children in Gaza today. Germany is the second-largest arms supplier to “Israel”, after the United States. And German media is equally complicit, parroting the Israeli narratives without scrutiny and helping to strip Palestinians of their humanity in order to justify their slaughter.

Within Germany itself, the authorities have legalized the persecution of Palestinians: stripping them of asylum, citizenship, residency, work. Peaceful protesters are beaten and silenced. Palestinian voices are censored on social media. Homes are raided at night. People lose their jobs under political pressure. In every way possible, Germany is “killing Palestinians” — physically, socially, and psychologically.

In the eyes of Germany, too, the Palestinian has become “a precious catch.”

I have lived in Germany for more than nine years, yet I have never been able to adapt to this cold country — cold geologically, politically, and socially. Since October 7th, life here has felt like drowning, struggling to keep my head above water. Germany suffocates because of its hostility to everything related to Palestine. And in truth, there is no escape: this genocide is with us every single day, wherever we are.

The war on Gaza has changed everything. It has reshaped our goals, filtered our friendships, and divided the world into two camps: the camp of imperial genocide, and the camp of resistance. Our refusal to submit will not remain merely with words. Across Europe, demonstrators chant, “We are the resistance.” They support Palestine by every means available. The world is increasingly aware: occupation can only be defeated through resistance.

Imagine if these masses were to organize themselves. Imagine the threat they could pose to Western and Arab regimes complicit in genocide.

That is the true “precious catch” — not activists silenced in Cairo, nor Palestinians harassed in Europe, but the awakening of peoples who will one day rise against their rulers and hold them accountable for their role in the genocide of Palestine.

The Palestinian people — steadfast, dignified, unyielding — have taught the entire world the meaning of humanity and freedom.

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