Is Resilience Identified by Another Name Besides Wael El-Dahdouh?

Mohamed Abdel Majid

I feel confined entirely; the soul roams within the body like a mother cat anxiously searching for its lost kittens when I leave my house and find that my movement from home to the market requires carrying my identification papers, foremost among them the passport or national ID due to the checkpoints of the Rapid Support Forces. The route to the market doesnt pass through any border points or international airports, but the Rapid Support Forces checkpoints make it necessary!

We witness the violations committed by the Rapid Support Forces, witnessing looting operations targeting the homes and properties of civilians. It happens before our eyes, and all we can do is whisper the word "shfshfah" (murmur) among ourselves, settling for this level of resistance!

The armys bombing does not differentiate between civilians and military targets, between homeland and no homeland, Sudan and no Sudan.

We grumble and complain upon hearing the sound of bullets, feeling that this deprives us of security and tranquility. We feel that the whole world darkens when the power is cut off. And when our mobile phones lose internet service, we feel as if we are deprived of the basic essentials of life, and life without that service has no taste, scent, or color! Without internet service, we resemble ostriches burying our heads in the sand. Often, despair overtakes us, and we appear like empty palm trees, or as if birds perch on our heads.

(9) months of war, during which we witness the collapse of a nation, headlines clash. (9) months of war, during which our institutions, facilities, bridges, and nerves crumble. (9) months of war, turning the Sudanese citizen into an internally displaced person even in his homeland, a refugee even in his own home, waiting for the generosity of nations. (9) months of war, serving as the longest night passing over the land. The sun rises every day, but no one feels it. (9) months of war, the first lesson for our children is how to use a shield, and the second lesson is how to avoid bullets. Thus, their school year passes, growing up before us to the sound of gunfire!

We taught them to coexist with the fires. They are all "friendly fires" launched by the sons of the country! Perhaps if these fires came from the enemy, they wouldnt leave us with all this sorrow. (9) months of war, we eat, drink, sleep, and laugh, but without life, without security. We realize that the "morsel" entering our mouths may die before reaching our throats. If you enter a room in your house, you dont know if you will come out alive or dead. We are walking corpses.

(9) months, and we wait for nothing. Everything is similar; we do today what we did yesterday, and its the same as what we will do tomorrow. Boredom seeps into us even though all our news is labeled "breaking news." (9) months of war, we drink tea and coffee without flavor, even when we double the sugar spoons! Things have lost their taste.

(9) months of war, and what happens to us doesnt hurt us. This pain is bearable even if we lose everything. What hurts us is to watch the pain of this nation, torn and shattered. Its destruction and ruin. There is no greater pain or sadness than watching your homeland being torn apart in front of you like the cages of chicks. A homeland torn and plucked like pigeon feathers. Omdurman has become without security, and cities have turned into military barracks, and Geneina harvests nothing but bullets.

(9) months, and we sit in front of the TV screens watching our disappointment, seeing the countrys leaders moved by personal grudges. Amid all these devastations, only a word said by one side against the other angers them. They cant bear even words while they are in their palaces, while the people of this nation endure bullets, artillery, and bombings. Schools closed, universities frozen, institutions paralyzed, and facilities dismantled, and here are the leaders of the country quarreling on social media through recorded or live video clips! They boast about destroying the Shambat bridge and bombing the Jili refinery.

I do not blame the conspiracy of some countries against us, or the cunning of the international community if the leaders of this nation have such characteristics and the spirit that exists in (Al-Bom), who is pleased only with destruction. All these wounds remain small, even becoming trivial and insignificant compared to the suffering of the Palestinian journalist Wael El-Dahdouh. We feel ashamed of our frustration and the narrowness of our chests in the face of the resilience of Wael El-Dahdouh. Does resilience have another name besides Wael El-Dahdouh?

The Israeli occupation forces deliberately targeted El-Dahdouhs father and his family systematically. His wife, son, daughter, and grandson were martyred in October 2023, and he, along with his colleague, the martyr Samer Abu Daka, was targeted in December 2023. The tragedies of El-Dahdouh did not stop at this unbearable level of pain. His journalist son, Hamza El-Dahdouh, was martyred on January 7, 2024, in an Israeli airstrike targeting Western Khan Yunis journalists. In less than three months, Wael El-Dahdouh lost five members of his family.

These are tragedies that an individual cannot endure. These tragedies are unbearable even if they happen to a scattered group of humans. We cannot bear them as global news, so how would we cope if all these tragedies happened to one person who remains resilient and steadfast, as if he is reporting an event that does not concern him, continuing his media message and his struggle.

During a live broadcast with the Qatari channel just before 8 p.m. (Palestine time), in the midst of a conversation with Al Jazeera journalist Abdel Salam Farah, he received a phone call informing him that the house where his family had taken refuge in Nuseirat camp had been subjected to an Israeli airstrike. This prompted Wael to withdraw from the broadcast and rush quickly to the scene, only to discover that the Israeli airstrike had hit the house where his family, along with another family, the Awad family, were staying. What terrible news to receive at 8 p.m.

El-Dahdouh said that at the moment his family members were martyred, he was playing his role as a journalist reporting live on air, talking about the Israeli airstrikes that hit his familys place on the evening of October 25 last year. He said, "I was removing the rubble and finding members of my family between martyrs and wounded, including my grandson who was not even months old, my 17-year-old son, my wife, and my daughter who was not even 7 years old." How difficult it is to find your family members among the rubble.

Waels personal journey has been defined by this resilience. He has been on this path since he was born (Wael Hamdan Ibrahim El-Dahdouh (Abu Hamza), born on April 30, 1970). He is a Palestinian journalist born and educated in Gaza City, spending most of his life there. He spent seven years in the merciless and inhumane prisons of the Israeli occupation. We, on the other hand, cant bear (9) months of war in our homes. What a great lesson El-Dahdouh teaches us.

The family of the Palestinian journalist was targeted on October 25, 2023, by an Israeli aerial bombardment that hit the house where they had taken refuge in Nuseirat camp, resulting in the death of his wife, son, daughter, and even his grandson. This happened after the occupation authorities had urged citizens to evacuate to the south of the Strip, claiming that the area there was safe.

When I saw El-Dahdouh holding his lifeless grandson on the Al Jazeera screens, I envied him for this resilience. His grief was immense, but his resilience was even greater. El-Dahdouh moved from covering the incidents and massacres committed by the Israeli enemy on Al Jazeera to embodying them. He carried his grandson on his chest like a fragile piece of cloth, and he did not break. He has killed a thousand Israelis with this resilience.

A person grows when he grows over his sorrows, and a person rises with his resilience and patience, and his ability to face adversity with patience and calculation.
‌Video footage showed the first moments when Wael received the news of the Israeli assassination of several members of his family, and the impact and sorrow dominated him as he said, "They revenge on us through children? Our tears are human tears, not tears of cowardice and collapse. The Israeli army should be ashamed!" The enemy was humiliated by your resilience, Abu Hamza.

The enemy and its allies could not bear the scenes of El-Dahdouhs resilience while facing all these tragedies. The U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, asked the Qatari Prime Minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, to "ease the intensity of Al Jazeeras discourse" regarding the Operation Flood of Al-Aqsa and the subsequent indiscriminate airstrikes that did not stop in the Strip. They could not bear his resilience; his steadfastness and victimhood in their cursed war.

They ask the Arab media not to show the victims of the Palestinians. The perpetrators could not bear those scenes, so what about the victims? Then they do not deny the breaking of their hearts afterward. El-Dahdouhs scene, carrying the news of his familys death with dignity, was unbearable for the enemy to watch. During her speech at the United Nations meeting, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. representative, said, "Her heart is broken for the family of Al Jazeera journalist Wael El-Dahdouh and all civilians in Gaza." We thank Linda Thomas-Greenfield for this feeling of heartbreak.

Then, after all these words and all these tragedies that descended on the heart of Wael El-Dahdouh, his son Hamza El-Dahdouh was martyred on January 7, 2024, in an Israeli airstrike targeting Western journalists in Khan Yunis. Waels tragedies, like a Mexican soap opera, do not end. Every time he loses a loved one, he loses another, without breaking his resilience or deviating from his struggle.

We are proud to belong to a profession represented by Wael El-Dahdouh. El-Dahdouh has provided us with an endless resilience, and our sorrow is greater because what is happening in Gaza is the result of the Israeli enemy, and what is happening in Sudan is happening by the hands of its sons. The Egyptian actor Tawfiq Abdel Hamid said, "Whenever I go through a crisis, I remember figures like Wael El-Dahdouh so that I can endure and tolerate, and at that moment, I feel the insignificance of what I mean and thank God."

We are ashamed because what is happening to us in Sudan is happening at the hands of the sons of the country. O Allah, do not test us and do not dismay us in our families and in our homelands.