dun out here 🇮🇶

Hind Rajab's mom, Wesam, made this brilliant speech on Saturday: Ladies & gentlemen, I'll begin with no introductions. On January 29, 2024, my daughter Hind Rajab was trapped inside a car, under direct fire. Hind was a five-year-old child. At that age, children don't think about politics, & don't know the meaning of war. All they know is fear… & the hope that someone will come to save them. Hind didn't die suddenly. Hind waited. She waited for help, For her cries to have meaning. She said: "I'm scared…come get me." This isn't a literary phrase. This is the last thing a child said, who knew she might not survive. She said a sentence that tore my heart apart: "Mom, they're lying. Stay with me!" At that moment, I realized the betrayal. An ambulance was sent to her. It didn't arrive. It was bombed. This means one thing: Saving a life wasn't allowed. Today, 2 years later, I'm not standing here to tell you a sad story. I am here to speak about responsibility. I will pose a weighty question: What is the value of a human life when it is Palestinian? Because what happened to my daughter Hind, Had it happened anywhere else, would have shaken the world. But it was in Gaza. And that is why time was allowed to pass, & the crime to be forgotten. I ask you to imagine, even for a few seconds, The magnitude of pain that mothers in Gaza carry when they lose their children. Imagine the bitterness of the pain, When you cannot save your child, Or even reach them, Or know what their final moments were like. This pain lives with mothers every day, & with every breath. What happened to Hind is not just a personal story. It reveals how a child can be left to die, before the eyes of the world, without accountability. You live in countries that believe in the rule of law, that teach human rights, & sign agreements to protect children. But Hind was not protected. Nor were the paramedics. Nor was the truth protected. I don't blame the people of the world, but I do hold silence responsible. The silence that makes the crime possible, & makes its repetition easy. Your presence here today means that you have chosen not to be silent. And that is important. But what is more important, is what happens after this event. Will Hind remain just a name at an event? Or will she become a turning point? I am not asking for the impossible. I am asking for something very simple: That the life of a Palestinian child be protected… as if it were your own child's life. If the law cannot save a child, then it is a law that needs to be held accountable. And if the world only acts when the victim resembles its own children, then the world needs a new conscience. Hind is no longer here. But her story is a trust. And a trust is not preserved with words, But with actions!