“I’ve lived ache in all its particulars and I’ve tasted ache and loss repeatedly. Regardless of this, I’ve by no means hesitated to convey the reality as it’s, with out distortion or falsification. Could God be a witness in opposition to those that remained silent and accepted our killing, and in opposition to those that choked our breath and whose hearts weren’t moved by the scattered stays of our kids and ladies, and who did nothing to cease the bloodbath our individuals have confronted for greater than a yr and a half.”
That is what Anas al-Sharif wrote in his “will” ready 4 months earlier than his martyrdom. It was posted on his social media account a number of hours after an Israeli strike killed him and journalists Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa at a media tent close to al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza Metropolis.
Anas al-Sharif was one in every of Gaza’s heroes. He was – indubitably – the journalist closest to all our hearts.
Individuals right here in Gaza typically hate the media. They see journalists both exaggerate and painting us as superhumans, capable of face up to relentless bombing, the deprivation of meals and water, and the lack of family members; or demonise us as “terrorists”, justifying the killing of our households and the destruction of our properties.
Anas was completely different; he didn’t distort the reality. He was one in every of us: raised in our refugee camps, struggling with us beneath bombs and amid hunger, mourning his family members, refusing to depart his group. He stayed behind in Gaza, steadfast like an olive tree, a residing instance of a real Palestinian.
Anas began reporting for Al Jazeera initially of the genocide, however he shortly grew to become a well-known face. He and Ismail al-Ghoul didn’t cease broadcasting from northern Gaza even once they confronted fixed threats. Their heat friendship, and the humorous and unhappy moments they shared, made us really feel nearer to them.
After the martyrdom of Ismail final yr – could God have mercy on him – we felt we had misplaced a pricey brother, and have been left solely with Anas.
Final month, when Anas broke down on digicam whereas reporting on the hunger, individuals instructed him: “Preserve going, Anas, don’t cease, you might be our voice.”
And certainly, he was our voice. We frequently imagined that when the tip of the genocide comes, we’ll hear it introduced by Anas al-Sharif’s voice. There was no journalist on the planet extra deserving of declaring that second than Anas.
For me, Anas was greater than only a reporter. He was an inspiration. He was the rationale I picked up my pen each time I misplaced hope that something would change due to what I write. I noticed Anas reporting tirelessly – hungry or full, in summer season or winter, threatened with loss of life or surrounded by cameras.
His persistence satisfied me I used to be mistaken to imagine that documenting the genocide was not transferring anybody outdoors. Anas made me imagine our story can attain the place we can not, crossing seas and oceans to each a part of the world. And his resilience, working daily, each hour, pressured me to hope … hope that if we saved talking, somebody would possibly pay attention.
Anas is now gone, and I really feel I used to be mistaken to hope, mistaken to imagine within the justice of this world, watching him attraction – with eyes overflowing with tears – to a worldwide conscience that proved to be low and selective.
They didn’t deserve your tears, Anas! They didn’t deserve your self-sacrifice so they’d know our story. They don’t hear as a result of they refuse to.
You raised your voice, Anas, however you have been calling out to these with out conscience.
I needed the conflict had ended earlier than you have been martyred so I might go discover you in Gaza and inform you that our voices had succeeded, that they had reached to the surface world and pushed change. I might have instructed you that you just have been my position mannequin and your work saved me going. And if at that second, you had smiled and known as me your colleague, I might have cried with pleasure.
Your protection ended, Anas, however the genocidal conflict didn’t. Immediately, we glance helplessly on the vile occupation boasting about focusing on you earlier than the complete world – the identical world you pleaded with till your final breath. International locations around the globe stay silent; for them, financial offers and political pursuits are value greater than human lives.
But, the occupation won’t silence us, Anas. It desires us to die with no voice as a result of our voice, whereas we groan in ache and cry from loss, disturbs it, interferes with its genocidal drive.
Gaza won’t give delivery to a different such as you, Anas, nor somebody like author and poet Refaat Alareer, nor like hospital director Marwan al-Sultan. The occupation is focusing on one of the best and brightest, those that have raised their voices and proven the world what Palestinians of dignity and integrity can do.
However we won’t keep silent after these violent murders. Even when we all know the world won’t pay attention, we’ll hold talking – as a result of it’s our destiny and obligation. We, the residing Palestinians who survived this genocide, have to hold the legacy of our martyrs.
For me, meaning talking, writing, and exposing the crimes of this bloody and brutal occupation … till the day you dreamed of, Anas – the day this genocide, essentially the most horrific in trendy historical past, ends. The day you come to your ancestral dwelling in al-Majdal and I return to my village, Yibna.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.