Behind the Eyes of Every Child, There is a Story that we are Currently Writing

"They tell me that Syria is not my country and that I should not ask about it. They ask me why I choose to wear a Syria bracelet along with my Palestinian one. My simple answer is 'because Syrian lives matter.' As days pass by, and it's almost been four years since the start of the Syrian revolution; Syria seems to become the topic of discussion and foreign policy while Syrian lives are forgotten. They are portrayed and plastered through out the media as mere numbers and statistics. It's as if it's a competition of who can report the biggest number. The Syrian people are more than just a number or a product of conflict as countless media reports make it seem, and regardless of what the political stance you stand on, Syrians are being caught in the crossfire. According to the United Nations, Syria is the "biggest humanitarian crisis of our time." So why are we turning a blind eye to it? With over 3 million refugees and counting, living in dire conditions, we as humans owe it to one another to raise awareness for each other. As a Palestinian who does not know when the next time she will be able to enter her home is, or if she will be able to return, I acknowledge that what is happening in Syria is a nakba (a catastrophe). Syrians are going through their very own catastrophe just as Palestinians have gone through theirs. If we do not open up our hearts and remember that the daily numbers coming out of Syria are more than just numbers, they are names and lives, we are failing to remember that there is a generation of Syrian children who will grow up to never forgive us, and rightfully so. I will not remind you of Palestinians in Yarmouk refugee camp besieged by regime forces in order for you to have sympathy for the Syrian people, because there is no difference between Palestinians or Syrians or Iraqis; our blood is one and we are all humans. The borders created long ago, drawn by a crayon in different colors do not define the empathy I have for my Syrian brothers and sisters. I refuse to deny them of their liberation, and I see them in me, and me in them. As I sleep peacefully at night, Aleppo is a different story and that, I cannot get past. There are Palestinian and Syrian parents wishing for a safer future for their children and we cannot just be reactionary. Our action must not be when news is only current, rather always. We are the politics and we must own up to our own narrative but for the millions of Palestinian and Syrian refugees, for the over 160,000+ Syrians killed, for the thousands of Palestinian and Syrian prisoners in regime and Israeli dungeons, let us for once put our humanity before our geopolitics and although this was not a story please remember that behind the eyes of every child, there is a story they are going to tell that we are currently writing...." -Anonymous