The Middle East Eye reports of desperate screams as Muhammad Bhar, a 24-year old Palestinian man with down syndrome was attacked by Israelil military dogs. The IDF soldiers watched on as the animals mauled the helpless Muhammad. He was then left to die from his wounds. Those close to Muhammad said that he was mentally “one years of age.” To those who set their dogs onto him, he was just a Palestinian.
Muhammad another victim of the Israel government as it executes its 21st century settler colonialism. Dogs mauling the innocent as their handlers watch on is not new, in fact it’s ancient. It occurred to the Aboriginal Australians and Native Americans as their conquerors “civilised” the land by spilling native blood. We bear witness through our screens the modern incarnation of such conquest
“They Will Get Over It. The Japanese Did.” – Corey Comperartore from his X account in regards to the Palestinians of Gaza.
The bystander who was murdered during the attempted assassination of Donald Trump has been named. The fifty-year old retired fire chief died while shielding his young daughter and wife during the shooting. A church goer and family man who loved and gave to is community with courage as a firefighter. Corey Comperatore is the man who was killed. It is likely that Corey would have rescued Muhammad from mauling dogs, he would have carried him from a blazing fire never once concerned where the young man had been born. In such moments, to a man of action, the fact that Muhammad was a Palestinian would not matter.
Politics, especially from a distance is putrid thing. It relegates individual humans into camps and demographics. A father and husband, fire fighter killed is celebrated with “good riddance” by those who despise Trump and MAGA politics. Corey did died at the Trump rally, therefore through the prism of partisan politics is an enemy to some. While a young man like Muhammad is dismissed as a human being, his horrible death shrugged away, his family told that, “they will get over it.”
Collectivism is frightening. It turns entire groups into an enemy, so pariah that dogs mauling a young man with down syndrome is tolerated. Dismissed as the reality of war or the consequences of policy. On a human level, few ask what ones religion or political ideology is when they shake hands as strangers or buy goods in a market. It’s when coercive funding and war mentality arises, especially when separated through screens that an insane sociopathic normality arises. Where men of good actions, heroic conduct and who love and have saved lives could look at images on a screen and dismiss thousands of mostly children so callously. Including Muhammad who would die to dog attack. “They Will Get Over it…”
Or for those so caught up in partisan politics that they would celebrate, “One Less Trumper,” over the corpse of a dead father. Nietzsche argued that one should be wary of those who would try and shame others. Then perhaps be wary of my words, because if shame does not reach ones heart and conscience then there is a delusion that is so perverse it seems to be normal. Accepted. History shall go on, a bullet takes a man’s life and dogs kill a younger one, for what? Policy, manifest destiny, democracy, politics, ideology, religion? All of it, or none of it.
Life is complicated. A man can have an active politic presence on social media, expressing views that come across as simplistic and terrible. A troll if you will. Though in the real world, where flesh and blood are not pixelated, he was a good man. For Muhammad, what did he do to deserve his death? What abhorrent exceptionalism sees him as an enemy? I can only ask questions, those who worship government and the religions of imperial violence, demand others yield to their politics or ideologies through threat of violence or by bullet or from the mouth of war dogs. I don’t expect an answer. Two lay dead, thousands more to follow. Rest in peace.
July, 2024
