🛑 In Defense of the Men of Gaza :: Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud
We grieve the children and women, as we should. But we must also grieve the men — all of them. Because the world acts like they are disposable. As if Palestinian manhood is a crime. It’s not.
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I want to tell you the truth. Even if it hurts.
Even I — someone who loves Gaza with my whole soul — have often found myself saying things like:
“Over 70% of those killed are women and children.”
And it’s true. That number is real. That pain is real.
But each time I say it, something in me aches.
Because I know what it implies.
That somehow, if the dead were mostly men, it wouldn’t be as bad. Or that their deaths count less. I don’t believe that, of course, but when we even omit the men from our tallies it’s a form of erasure that they don’t deserve.
It implies that their deaths are more justifiable. More expected. Less mourned.
That they were probably fighters. Probably radicals. Probably guilty of something.
And I need to say now, as clearly as I can:
That is a lie. A dangerous, dehumanizing lie.
The men of Gaza are not disposable.
They are not the “acceptable casualties.”
They are not guilty by default.
They are not less sacred.
They are not less grievable.
These men are my own friends.
They are the brothers, fathers, sons, uncles, teachers, doctors, barbers, mechanics, imams, and neighbors of the people I know and love.
They are the men who stayed behind in crumbling cities to pull strangers from the rubble.
They are the men who walked hours on foot to find food for their families.
They are the men who buried their children with bare hands — and then went looking for bread.
They are the men who cried in silence, who never stopped praying, who shielded others with their own bodies.
And yes — some of them resisted with their hands.
Some of them stood against genocide with whatever they had.
Because what else are you supposed to do when your family is being erased?
Let me ask you something:
What rights do men have during a genocide?
Because everywhere in the world, men are expected — even legally obligated — to defend their people.
In Islam, it’s a duty.
In every constitution, it’s assumed.
In every moral code, it’s respected.
But somehow, for Palestinian men, the right to resist has been erased.
Even their right to grieve. Even their right to exist.
The world treats Palestinian men as if they are all suspects.
If they fight, they are terrorists.
If they run, they are cowards.
If they stay, they are threats.
If they die, the world barely blinks.
The numbers come in:
300 men killed.
500 men killed.
1,000 men killed.
And the news reports skip right over it — because the assumption is:
They were probably militants anyway.
This is what genocide does.
It dehumanizes by category.
It kills the body and the story.
We are watching a generation of Palestinian manhood be wiped out — and the world calls it “security.”
But I know better.
You know better.
These are men. Real men. Good men. Flawed men. Strong men. Grieving men. Faithful men.
Human men.
And they deserve our full-throated, unapologetic defense.
Not just the poets.
Not just the fathers.
Not just the medics.
All of them. Even the fighters. Dare I say, particularly the fighters.
So this is my defense — not just of their lives, but their right to exist.
I defend the man holding his bleeding wife.
I defend the man digging through the rubble for his brother.
I defend the man holding a weapon, asking only to live.
I defend the man crying beside a tent.
I defend the man who stayed. The man who fought. The man who didn’t get to.
And I ask you…
What would you do if your children were starving?
What would you do if your mother was crushed under rubble?
What would you do if soldiers called your very existence a threat?
Would you lie down?
Would you die quietly?
Or would you do what every man is told to do in times of crisis?
Stand. Protect. Defend.
And if that’s true for you — why not for them?
May Allah have mercy on every man martyred in Gaza.
The gentle ones.
The angry ones.
The ones who prayed.
The ones who fought.
The ones who couldn’t save their families.
The ones who died trying.
We see you. We remember you.
And we will not let your deaths be framed as necessary.
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The men of Gaza are not only heroes, they are humans. They matter.
I grieve for the men women and children equally