“Why Must Palestinians Audition for Your Empathy?” Please watch this short piece by Hala Alyan. Full Transcript: Have you ever felt like you had to audition for empathy? Like you had to prove that you or your community deserve compassion? In the last few weeks, I’ve watched Palestinians from all walks of life try to prove they deserve humanity. I’ve watched them beg for fair news coverage, get interrupted or silenced on air. I’ve watched them create infographics, summarize history, organize teach-ins to try to earn solidarity for thousands and thousands of dead, innocent civilians. As of this morning, over 10,000. Over 4,000 children killed. An estimated 1,000 more under rubble. I’ve watched the very number of their dead be questioned. I don’t hesitate for a second to condemn the killing of any innocent life, any civilian. This, of course, includes Jewish life. This, of course, includes October 7. It includes every day before that, it includes every day since. Condemning innocent killings is the easiest ask in the world. And that’s exactly why I say: condemn brutal acts, condemn murder, condemn oppression, condemn violence, condemn war crimes, condemn human rights violations, and notice if it feels harder to condemn these things when they happen to certain people, certain lives, certain communities. The reality is we are all brought up within narratives about the world and our place in it. None of us are immune to that. Our responsibility is to hold those narratives up to the light, to interrogate them, to see where we might be often unintentionally, often subconsciously, engaging in the dehumanization of other people. What do you believe about who deserves to be protected? Who deserves to be mourned? Who deserves to be believed? Whose deaths, whose loses, whose griefs are framed in passive language spoken of as inevitable, seen as necessary or permissible? The task of radical empathy is to sit with these questions both for ourselves and for people with less power and agency than us. It’s difficult work for all of us but more necessary than ever.
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