Najlaa Attaallah (8th March 2025)

Access to the Icelandic translation her

Title: There is no peace in a world that accepts genocide

I stand before you with a great weight on my shoulders; for I carry my country on my shoulders. This is a burden I was born with – a heaviness that every Palestinian carries from childhood to adulthood. You cannot see my weight, my heavy heart… but know this: it shapes all that I am. It is part of me.

I escaped from Gaza to Iceland six years ago. I made it to safety; I survived. But I carry my country with me, always. Day after day, the weight grows heavier – and with it, the responsibility to speak for those who are being silenced. I know you have heard the cries of Palestinian mothers, pleading for their children’s lives on the news. I know you have seen images of children holding their dead siblings in their arms. And yet, the world debates whether we Palestinians have the right to live. Now the enemy and its allies are discussing how to use the little land we Palestinians have left, and yet again discussing whether we the indigenous people of Palestine do even have rights to live on our land; history is repeating itself in front of our eyes. Many in Gaza have lost faith in the world. I do not blame them. But I speak to you today, a Palestinian woman outside of Gaza, who lives in an unoccupied country, Iceland. This means I have a voice – thus I can speak for those of my people who are being silenced. I can speak for those whose pain has been ignored.

Those who come from war-torn countries know the weight to carry one´s country on one´s shoulders. But we Palestinians know it all too well. For we Palestinians have had to endure the longest ongoing genocide in history. The Arabic word qahar, which means oppression, seeps into every cell of our bodies, and lingers in every breath we Palestinians take. Us Palestinians live under regular attacks, under occupation, under tyranny. The weight gets heavier with every decade, every year, every month. And since the last attack of the Israelis against my nation, I have never felt so unbearably burdened. Not just by the loss of my people, my land, my city, my past – but by the cold reality that I can do nothing to stop the loss; do nothing to save those women, men and children, who are still trapped, brutalized, starved, tortured, and killed. And to carry such a heavy burden is to carry aching fear. I am afraid to call my family and friends in Gaza. Afraid to call and ask… “How are you?” Because that would be the silliest question. How can you ask a person amid a genocide the question: “How are you?”

Today we Palestinians are always on edge, knowing that at any moment, the ceasefire will collapse. And let me tell you this: Before or after the ceasefire… we are NOT okay. How could we be? When we don’t know what the sky holds for us next: A rocket? A so-called “humanitarian aid” drop that kills more than it saves? Or a bomb that takes an entire family to their Creator? We do not have words of encouragement left in this hypocritical world. Twenty-nine years ago, the world watched a genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina and said: “Never again.” We watched a genocide in Rwanda. Cambodia and said: “Never again.” Still, now we are watching a live genocide playing in front or eyes – again. How can this be? Is it because the world in the 21st century denies calling things by their true name? The world does not speak of Israelis genocide against the Palestinians. No, the world keeps repeating that: “There is a conflict between Israel and Palestine.” But it is NOT a conflict: it is a military occupation; it is an ethnic cleansing; a genocide! What else do you call an oppression where indigenous people are driven from their land and denied the right to return – while a group with no historical connection is given the land – purely based on its religion. What else do you call a murder of a whole nation; a constant deliberate destruction of a nation based on their ethnic background? For decades we have been murdered, raped, illegally imprisoned and tortured, poisoned, denied freedom of movement, denied basic human rights, while our homes, our sacred buildings, historical sites and natural resources are being stolen from us. You call it for what it is, a genocide.

 For over 76 years the world has been debating silently whether we Palestine have basic human rights. All the while are we are being silenced; being literally erased from this earth.  But history does not forget. We need only to look at the numbers: 1917: A Zionist state is established in Palestine by the imperialist empire Britain. 1948: The ethnic cleansing called Nakba took place, when more than 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their lands and homes, villages were destroyed, and thousands of Palestinians were massacred. Since 1948, the occupation has only tightened its grip, year by year, decade by decade. Then in the year of 2023 the ethnic cleansing of my people took on a new and more brutal form, when the Israelis killed innocent civilians, in such great numbers in such a short time, that is unseen in history of mankind and destroyed a whole city! This destruction was played out with the financial help and moral support of many nations – thus our enemy was not only allowed to kill us in front of the world, but did so with the blessing of many. Since 2023, the Israelians have killed over 50,000 Palestinians. Over 12,000 women have been killed – and even more women have become homeless, have become widows – or mothers who have lost their children. More than 15,000 Palestinian children have been murdered by the Israelis. And yet…still the world debates whether Palestinian children deserve protection – or to put it more bluntly; the world is debating whether Palestinian children deserve to live.

Some who watch this genocide with horror, say: „Has the world gone mad?“ No, I say; this is not madness – this is a well-planned evil. Genocide is never an accident played out by mad people. It is planned. It is funded. It is played out with great precision. This is a deliberate ethnic cleansing. My enemy wants the world to believe that this an uncontrollable chaos that they are trying to control; a conflict they call it. But no—the enemy is in full control. Their goal is clear: To exterminate Palestinians by removing us from our land –by killing us. We are not even given the freedom to escape to try to survive, for are locked inside a human cage called Gaza, waiting for the final blow.

I tell myself every day: “Be brave, Najlaa.” Be brave for those who cannot afford to be. But I confess… I too have pain. I too feel powerless. I too feel skeptical. But pain also pushes me to speak. Hoping that somewhere… my words will break through. That somewhere… someone will listen. As a woman from a city and a country that has been under occupation for more than 76 years, I say to you: You will never understand الخُذلان / betrayal and القهر  / oppression brought by genocide through history books – for remember, history is written by the victors. To understand such violence, you must listen to the voices of genocide survivors. Then you will hear the history of those who stand still in history; those who cannot leave the past behind – those who cannot move on. My question to you is: are you willing to listen to the lived experience of Palestinians who are amid a genocide? And if so, are you willing to honor their pain by hearing their call for your help – and act? If not so – then I question your humanity.

I carry my country on my shoulders. Today I am asking you, if you will share my burden. And in the light of Women´s International Day, I specifically call out to Icelandic women to act against the Israelian genocide against the Palestinians. Not only for the sake of Palestinians women but for the sake of humanity. We must recognize the role of women in this fight. Wars are started by men, but their greatest victims are women and children. Women carry the grief; women lead the resistance. But unfortunately, we women do not have much of a voice. But, today on International Women’s Day, we reclaim our voices. Im a Palestinian woman, say with my voice; We women of Iceland must act. Sympathy is not enough. We women know this all too well; the international women´s fight for feminism was not built on sympathy – it was built on the actions of brave women! We women must speak out and by doing so we act. We must demand change and justice, and the best way to do so is holding our Icelandic leaders accountable: By doing so we are recognizing that the fight for justice is global. War and oppression do not exist in isolation. I repeat war and oppression don’t exist in isolation. In a world where genocide is allowed to happen there is no peace, no justice, no equality. Palestine. Sudan. Congo. Ukraine. Afghanistan. They are all connected. The world can’t pick and choose whose lives deserve dignity – we must stand together, as one. Unity is the core of the international feminism – and should be used as a tool in our fight against imperialism.

As I speak these words, a Palestinian refugee woman, who was driven away from her home – to Iceland, a nation that prides itself on equality; I am sorry to say, that I am not free. For how can I be free when I was forced to leave my home; how can I be free when my nation is not? Iceland is a free nation; therefore, it has as a country the freedom of using it´s voice to the world. I ask you Iceland, and specifically women of Iceland, who for centuries had to fight for their own basic human rights; I ask you to hear my call: Use your voice to call for peace.

Free Palestine.

Free Sudan.

Free Congo.

Free Ukraine.

Free Palestine.

Free the world.

فلسطين حرة، العالم حر.