Make Palestinians Human Again

It has been 22 months since the start of the genocide in Palestine, and both The Netherlands and Sint Maarten are complicit.

The Dutch government plays a key role: no arms embargo, no economic sanctions, no political consequences for Israel. A new report even shows that among all European countries, The Netherlands is Israel’s biggest economic partner. This is not neutrality. This is active support.

When the Dutch Parliament finally cut their vacation short to hold a so-called “urgent debate” about Gaza, it wasn’t compassion that brought them back, it was optics. With elections around the corner, they couldn’t afford the bad press. So they returned, a few days early, to debate mass starvation, the erasure of an entire population, and the bombing of children, only to do absolutely nothing.

No policy changes.

No end to trade.

No real action.

What more does it take?

Food convoys are blocked, children are starving, hospitals are bombed, teachers, doctors, and journalists are deliberately targeted, and a record number of children have had limbs amputated.

And still, debate.

And what about Sint Maarten?

22 months of silence.

Not even words of solidarity.

Not a single official statement expressing compassion for Palestinian lives.

Some say: “We’re too small. We can’t do anything.”

But The Netherlands says the same thing: “We’re waiting for Europe.”

A genocide is happening, and everyone is passing the buck.

Where are the educators? The medical professionals? The journalists?

Their colleagues are being murdered, and there’s not even a whisper of outrage.

The West , especially the Netherlands, is always quick to speak out when journalists are targeted in countries they see as enemies - defending all kinds of freedoms they claim to support.

But since October 7th, 2023, more than 178 journalists have been killed in Gaza, the most ever in a single conflict in modern history.

And now? They are silent.

Journalists like Anas Al-Sharif (killed today!), whose work gave voice to Gaza when the world refused to listen, were deliberately targeted and killed.

He was a young father, and he understood his task: to report the truth to the world.

And Israel killed him, to silence him.

And they succeeded.

It begs the question: Did The Netherlands strip Palestinians of their humanity? Has Sint Maarten joined them in this erasure?

Because the politicians don’t care, not in The Hague, and not here.

Because speaking up against genocide apparently isn’t worth the trouble.

Palestine isn’t just a tragedy of lost lives, it’s a reflection of our collective moral failure.

The complete disregard for Palestinian life is also the erasure of our own humanity.

But this article is not only for the politicians.

They know.

They’ve seen the images.

They’ve read the reports.

And they choose not to care.

This is a message for every single person in Sint Maarten:

Speak up.

Talk about Palestine.

Talk to your children, about justice, about accountability, about what kind of people we want to be.

Because it’s not about whether we succeed in stopping the genocide, it’s about whether we even try.

We are not required to win, but we are at least required to act.

If I can’t speak out against genocide, then what kind of person am I?

If you can’t, then what kind of person are you?

Make Palestinians human again, and remember what it means to be human yourself.

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