Possibly the most important and jarring event in our lifetimes is happening right now, and many of us don’t even know—or even worse—don’t even care.
The Israel-Palestine conflict, starting all the way back in 1948 after Israel’s conception with countless gruesome episodes since, has recently been put back on the world stage following the deadly attack on Oct. 7 by Hamas and Israel’s Subsequent incessant and merciless bombings of the Gaza Strip. Unfortunately, South’s plague of apathy and the well-documented “bubble” that many Grosse Pointe citizens reside in has somehow downgraded this world-altering event into an afterthought mentioned for a couple of minutes in a Social Studies class and soon forgotten afterward.
It is upsetting to witness a community with such great teachers and incredible people be so disconnected from the world around them. Of course, I still urge students to care about school, tests and their personal lives, but it is still crucial to care and learn about the reported genocide that the world is witnessing in Gaza. Obviously, I can only speak from my own experiences, but I have seen not more than a whisper about these events from the community whether it be on social media, discussed in classrooms or just talked about in general.
It is easier for people just to glaze over issues like this than to just educate themselves properly. This wave of laziness and apathy is a sickness that has spread throughout our schools and neighborhoods. Even the minimal effort has become far too difficult for us.
People seem to have the mindset that because something is occurring far away from us, it no longer matters, but this could not be farther from the truth. From a humanitarian and ethical standpoint, it remains imperative for people to empathize with the displacement and suffering of Palestinians and see the victims as human beings and not as headlines. People must realize that our world is interconnected.
If ethics don’t mean anything to you, perhaps an economic standpoint would be more appealing. Gas prices could go up by up to $5 a gallon barring a potential escalation between Israel and Palestine according to ABC News. This would cause a dramatic spike in inflation, plunging the US into a recession. If you don’t care about the millions of people suffering, hopefully, you at least care about your own life, and will try to educate yourself to be informed and up-to-date with one of the country’s most potentially disastrous economic threats since 2008.
I beg for all of us to reflect on ourselves, our actions and our values. It is so easy to educate ourselves about the conflict between Israel and Palestine. There are many reputable news outlets to look at as well as an abundance of brave men and women who are on the ground in danger zones like Gaza giving outsiders information straight from the source. It is a conscious choice of ignorance that has led this community to the position that it is in, and it will require a conscious effort for people to genuinely connect with the world around them and be more than a bystander.
