Political Poetry #2: “Bystander,” and the Girl Who is Not One: Hind Khoudary.

Meet Hind Khoudary

Hind is a 29 year young Palestinian journalist based in Gaza. Choosing to stay in her homeland to report on the human rights abuses being committed there by Israel, she has risked her life many times in the effort to record and publish the truth. Below are her words:

From an Instagram post @hindkhoudary on November 20th, 2023,

“Dear World,
This is Hind Khoudary, a 28-year-old Palestinian journalist from the heart-wrenching Gaza Strip. I am a daughter, a sister to eight brothers, and a wife.
Choosing to stay here is a choice to witness and report on the unbearable reality my city endures. Forced from my home, alongside countless Palestinians, we strive for the basics – clean food and water – without transportation or electricity.
I am not a superhero; I am shattered from the inside. The loss of relatives, friends, and colleagues weighs heavy on my soul. Israeli forces ravaged my city, reducing homes to rubble. Over 3,000 civilians still lie beneath the remnants.
My heart is aching, and my spirit is fragile. Since Oct. 7, journalists have been targets; Israel seeks to stifle our voices.
I miss my family.
But surrender is not an option. I will continue to report, to breathe life into the stories of my people until my last breath. Please, do not let the world forget Palestine. We are weary, and your voice is our strength.
Remember our voices, remember our faces.

With heavy hearts,
Hind Khoudary”

In the midst of violence and oppression, one of the most heartbreaking feelings is not only the physical loss of loved ones, homes, sanctuaries, and other vital aspects of human life, but also the loss of respect for those who remained bystanders to suffering.

As an American living in the United Kingdom, I see this with many people in my daily life. Palestinians, however, don’t have the option to be bystanders, and despite Hind stating she has always wished to be a reporter, this is certainly not the trauma or heartbreak one should have to go through. We, in the West, need to do our part to speak out against the abuse and atrocities that heroes such as Hind risk her live to report to us. We cannot become bystanders.

As such this is another poem from my 2023/2024 book Where the Spirit Meets the Bone titled “Bystander,” written with inspiration from the reporters in Gaza.

Bystander

When your grandkids ask you what it was like, 

“the struggle, the fight.”

Will you tell them you remained silent? 

That it was deafening? 

Will you tell them all about it?

The letters you never sent? 

The protests you never attend? 

The words you never spoke, 

or the ones you never meant?

History will always remember complicity.

Your silence will echo in many memories. 

It’s not your fault you were made a bystander,

but it’s up to us now to hold each other

to a higher standard.