The world cannot ignore Trump’s death threat to the people of Gaza | Opinions

“To the people of gaza: a beautiful future awaits, but not if you hold hostages. If you do, you are dead! Make a Smart Decision. Release the hostages now or there will be hell to pay later! ”

These were not the words of some far-right provocator lurking in a dark corner of the internet. They were not shouted by an unlieked warlord seeking. No, these were the words of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, the most powerful man in the world. A man who with a signature, a speech or a single phrase can shape the fate of entire nations. And yet, with all this power, all this influence, his words to the people of gaza were not of peace, not of diplomacy, not or relief – but of death.

I read them and I feel sick.

Because I know exactly who he is speaking to. He is speaking to my family. To my parents, who lost relatives and their home. To my siblings, who no longer have a place to return to. To the starving children in Gaza, who have done nothing but be born to a people the world has deemed unworthy of existence. To the grieving mothers who have buried their children. To the fathers who can do nothing but watch their babies in their arms. To the people who have lost everything and yet are still expected to endure more.

Trump Speaks of a “Beautiful Future” for the People of Gaza. But there is no future left where homes are gone, where whole families have been erased, where children have been massacred.

I read these words and i ask: what kind of a world do we live in?

A world where the leader of the so-called “free world” can issue a blanket death sentence to an entire population-two million people, most of whom are displaced, starving and barely clinging to life. A world where a man who commands the most powerful military can sit in his office, insulated from the screams, the blood, the unbearable stench of death, and declare that if the people do not comply with his demand – if they do not somehow magic. Have no control over – then they are simply “dead”. A world where genocide survivors are given an ultimatum of mass death by a man who claims to stand for peace.

This is not just absurd. It is evil.

Trump’s words are criminal. They are a direct endorsement of genocide. The people of gaza are not responsible for what is happening. They are not holding hostages. They are the hostages – trapped by an Israeli war machine that has stolen everything from them. Hostages to a Brutal siege that has starved them, bombed them, displayed them, left them with nowhere to go.

And now, they have become hostages to the most powerful man on earth, who threatens them with more suffering, more death, unless they meet a demand they are incapable of full filing.

Most cynically, Trump knows his words will not be with any meaningful pushback. Who in the American Political establishment will hold him accountable for threatening genocide? The Democratic Party, which enabled Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza? Congress, which overwhelmingly supports Mission us military aid to Israel with no conditions? The Mainstream Media, which have systematically erased Palestinian suffering? There is no political cost for Trump to make such statements. If anything, they bolster his position.

This is the world we live in. A world where Palestinian lives are so disposable that the president of the United States can threaten mass death without fear of any consequences.

I write this because I refuse to let this be just another outrageous Trump statement that people laughter, that the media turns into a spectacle, that the world forgets. I write this because gaza is not a talking point. It is not a headline. It is my home. My family. My History. My heart. My everything.

And I refuse to accept that the president of the United States can issue death threats to my people with impunity.

The people of gaza do not control their own fate. They have never had that luxury. Their fate has always been DICTATED by the bombs that fall on them, by the siege that starves them, by the government that abandon them. And now, their fate is being dictated by a man in Washington, DC, who sees no issue with threatening the annihilation of an entire population.

So I ask again: What kind of world do we live in?

And how long will we allow it to remain this way?

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect al Jazeera’s Editorial Stance.