Amid political arguments over Gaza, individual lives can disappear from view. Compassion should not depend on nationality, religion or allegiance, nor should suffering have to earn our recognition or empathy.

The noise surrounding Gaza has become a relentless machine of distraction. We’re fed a constant to-ing and fro-ing of political debates, arguments over immigration, borders and the rhetoric of governments. On our screens, headlines clash with one another, creating a war of opinions that can smother the actual human reality.

There’s something deeply uncomfortable about the way we’ve learned to live with Gaza and perhaps even more uncomfortable about the way we’ve learned to talk about it. Somewhere between the images and statistics, the people themselves disappear.

We hear about children being killed, families displaced, homes destroyed and people reduced to finding food, water and somewhere safe to sleep.

Suffering begins to feel ordinary, almost inevitable, as though this is simply what happens there to those people and therefore sits outside the boundaries of the life we’re living here.

Imagine, for a moment, a child you love. You already have a face in your mind, a particular voice, a way of laughing, perhaps a favourite food or small habit that makes you smile. You wouldn’t think of that child as a statistic, but as one irreplaceable little person whose absence would tear something permanent from your life.

Now place that child in Gaza, not as an exercise........

© Pearls and Irritations