Beware the Narrative
"Don't get sucked into the Narrative" is the tagline of Redshirts, John Scalzi's novel named for the Star Trek side characters, identifiable by shirt color and doomed to die for the sake of drama, sacrificed to the storyline.
As someone who grew up hearing the narrative about Israel as the heroic victim, and then, before the horrors we are now facing, talking to Palestinian friends exhausted from the pressure of living trapped as symbols for generations, this resonated strongly with me.
Now, with the horrific daily killings, bombings and needless suffering being perpetrated by the Netanyahu government the need to center real humans is paramount.
Can we simply be human, first, before being part of any story? Diverse, opinionated, sad, angry, joyful, hopeful, grieving humans who want to live, first and foremost, with dignity and safety. Humans with fundamental rights to not be harmed for some story in someone's head.