GAZA, November 7— I am a freelance photographer in Gaza. I want to tell you how it feels to be living in the middle of the genocide.
The Israeli Defense Force has the GPS location of all the water tanks installed on rooftops. They are systematically dropping bombs on these tanks to deprive water to the population. They also have the GPS location of every solar panel installed in Gaza, the bakeries, and flour mills. Now they have bombed all these structures. Thousands of dead bodies are under the rubble. The stench from the rotting is spreading everywhere.
Add to this the breakdown of the sanitation and sewer system. We are reduced to about two liters of salty water, and dry bread every other day. Masses of people are herded into hospitals that are constantly bombarded. The screaming of the injured people is unbearable, and the wailing of those relatives after they find their loved ones are dead, children in shock, separated from their parents. Horror after horror.
So why am I writing to you now? First, I want to say that this may be the last time I might be alive. I want to thank you for the Red Flag you have been sending for about three years. It was very nice to keep in communication about communism. I have shared your literature with some friends in Gaza, Egypt, and Jordan.
You were asking me to organize for a communist revolution by making a small collective. I thought a lot about it. I consider myself a secular Muslim. I know from my personal experience and talking to many others that Hamas is no friend of the working class. In the north of Gaza, they have built ultra-luxury homes on the oceanside for the super-rich functionaries of Hamas and other rich people. It was a $500 million project financed by the capitalists in Egypt and United Arab Emirates. There was a fight between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority for territorial control of the prime real estate properties.
The idea of communism sounded very appealing to me when I thought that not a single ultra-billionaire who controls the oil wealth in the Muslim countries has done anything to stop this genocide. The monarchs in the Middle East are like vultures. Then I thought of many Jewish common people who have come to Gaza and helped us over the years. They were telling us many stories of the Jewish soldiers unwilling to fight. We have heard of many Zionists who joined the Israeli Defense Forces but when they saw that they were just occupying people in the West Bank, brutalizing them, they started rebelling against the Israeli government.
I have also heard of many demonstrations against the Gaza genocide all around the world. The masses of these workers are disgusted with genocide. My message is to unite the workers, not the capitalists. It is this fight among the capitalists that is causing genocide.
I am also thinking about how I can ask people to fight for communism when they are injured, bombed, their houses destroyed, no food, no water, and they have no hope. Communism is hope. It is based on reality. Out of 2.5 million people in Gaza, some will survive. So, I am sending all my friends in Gaza my stories of how I am becoming a communist. I have friends in Gaza in my camp who like the idea of communism. Between hunger and thirst, I will struggle to form a collective of our party.
I urge you to do the same. Spread the word of communism everywhere in the world! Today’s children of Gaza will carry on the fight for communism. If this is the last time you hear from me, my message is: Fight for communism.
— “Hamza”