The Rats of Gaza and the
Opportunists among Us
Savage Minds - Jun 04,
2026
A Palestinian man holds
up an empty cooking pot at a protest against a decision by World
Central Kitchen to cut its meal distribution in Gaza by half. Jinan
displacement camp, Khan Younis, southern Gaza. 18 May 2026. Photo
credit: Abdel Qader Sabbah.
It all started with a
call to my family in a displacement camp in northern Gaza.
Since internet lines
rarely stay connected, I managed to send a message to the widow of my
cousin—who was killed along with all of his sons during the ongoing
Gaza genocide. I asked her a simple question: what do Gazans want?
My purpose was to gather
raw testimonies from her neighbors to weave into a letter to a
European official whose country is active in pursuing justice for
Palestinians. I chose this approach to bypass clichéd political
discourse and avoid the pitfall of speaking on behalf of those
enduring genocide and famine. Palestinians in Gaza are entirely
capable of speaking for themselves.
The responses, however,
reframed my entire approach. While I am deeply tied to my community
in Gaza, I had anticipated a direct focus on macro-political
language—on statehood, rights, and global justice. Instead, I was
met with the visceral reality of immediate physical survival.
"We want a life... we
want a dignified life," she said. "A dignified life with food,
water, and even the ability to breathe. One feels so suffocated. We
need so many things... so, so many things. We need psychological
support, financial support, and moral support."
Another neighbor said: "They (Israel) fight us with everything, absolutely everything;
even when we are sleeping in our beds .. the mosquitoes drain us.
Insects and rats are all around us, fleas, and the heat is killing
us. There are no fans and there is no electricity."
Yes, many spoke about
Karameh (dignity), hurriye (freedom), and Haq al-Awda (the Right of
Return), but these broad political and social rights were almost
always tied directly to the everyday struggle for education, for
water, for basic medical care, and—against rats.
The rats. This is the
recurring
nightmare in the minds of Gazan parents who find themselves
unable to protect their children even from rodents. Nearly two
million Palestinians remain
displaced in horrific conditions, trapped in barely 40 percent of an
already tiny, besieged Strip.
I spent the day trying to
process the pain, grief, and humble expectations of these proud
people.
Yet later that evening, a
seemingly separate matter came to my attention. I learned of two
characters—Aziz Abu Sarah, a Palestinian from the 1948 areas, and
Maoz Inon, an Israeli—who have been touring for months, promoting
what they call their "The Future Is Peace" tour.
These two individuals
have achieved global celebrity status, sitting down with the likes of
famed US comedian Jon Stewart on The Daily Show and ultimately
meeting with Pope Francis himself.
To the unexamined eye,
the two are peddling a message of "peace" and "forgiveness," routinely staging a display where they forgive each other at the end
of their talks. All of this serves as a promotional springboard for
their week-long "peace tour" inside Israel, sold commercially at
the competitive price of $4,200 per person, air tickets excluded.
The sad truth is that
this corporate approach to "peacebuilding" is not unique; it is a
symptom of a broader trend exploiting Palestine. Even more
tragically, many individual Palestinians have capitalized on the
well-intentioned but often misunderstood concept of "centering
Palestinian voices" to accumulate personal wealth, status, and
prestige, while their own brethren cannot find drinkable water and
teeter on the brink of starvation.
The Arabic maxim, famous
in Palestine for generations, has long contended that "the
revolution is a tree watered by the blood of the martyrs, and its
fruits are plucked by the opportunists and the cowards."
Shouldn’t mass
extermination be a moral threshold that stops opportunists from
feeding their pathological greed?
Desperate for solidarity,
Palestinians in Gaza continue to hope that global efforts will
eventually aid their raw struggle for freedom, dignity, clean water,
and relief from the rats. And millions worldwide are indeed
well-meaning; they care about Gaza in ways that no social media post
can ever capture.
The crisis is that the
balance between genuine solidarity and outright exploitation at times
risks tipping in favor of the exploiters. We are witnessing the rise
of a lucrative cult of personality, built on high speaker fees and
business-class tickets, circumnavigating the globe under the guise of
advocacy. There are those who have experienced a literal "rags to
riches" transformation since 7 October, becoming overnight
celebrities and acting like heroic figures surrounded by adoring
fans, simply for doing their basic jobs or taking a public moral
position.
There are organizations
amassing massive budgets, hosting events costing up to $200,000 over
a single weekend, simply to regurgitate the same old stances without
strategy, slogans without action plans, and claims of stupendous "victories" while Gazans die of thirst and hunger.
On the other hand,
Palestinian officials and those who tout the official line continue
to turn their backs on the reality of Gaza while reaping the immense
benefits of global solidarity: the prestige of diplomatic
recognition, the red carpets rolled out for bureaucrats, and the
standing ovations at international conferences.
The circle of
exploitation grows wider, while the actual messages filtering out
from the displacement camps grow more tragic by the day:
I want my family
back—the family Israel took from me.
I want to bury my
children who are still under the rubble.
I want my father
released from prison. We have no one else but him.
The rats, the rats,
brother. They are eating the flesh of our children.
As I reflected on the
horror of those parents helpless to protect their children, the word "rats" took on a heavier meaning.
The struggle for
Palestinian freedom must remain anchored in the soil of Gaza. The
global solidarity movement must not be permitted to mutate into a
careerist industry for self-seeking individuals masquerading as
saviors.
This creeping opportunism
must be fought with the exact same urgency as the literal rats of
Gaza.
★
