My deepest condolences go out to the Iranian people, whose hearts are torn from so many directions. Many want freedom and dignity, yet they remain wary of the long history of Western imperialist interference around the world, including in their own country.
The Iranian people who have taken to the streets in recent years have not called for one type of dominance to be replaced by another. They sought an end to all forms of oppression, not the beginning of a new era under the Western thumb. Nor did they want change at any cost.
At every step, history teaches us – these promises of freedom given by the West are never fulfilled.
The reason is simple. The freedom of others is not on the Western agenda, regardless of its public rhetoric. This type of imperialism does not want freedom; It wants control, dominance, power and profit.
On March 4, as bombs were falling all around him in Tehran, Mohammad Maljoo, an Iranian dissident, was finally able to connect to the Internet. He wrote on his Telegram channel: “Those who claim that Iran can be showered with fire on bodies in the name of attacking the Islamic Republic, while imagining that people will remain unharmed, either do not understand the reality of war or deliberately choose to ignore it. Bombs do not discriminate. Destruction does not operate selectively.”
The truth of his warning echoes from Palestine to Iran: “Life does not thrive in the shadow of tyranny. Nor does it thrive under the debris of bombs.”
As a Palestinian, I feel the pain and determination in these words. I can’t help but feel solidarity.
We, the Palestinians, know the horrors of war in our own flesh. We understand the shivers caused by another explosion, the tears of orphans and the despair of sleepless nights as fires erupt everywhere. From the Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948 to the current Ibadat (destruction), we have felt the pain of genocide for many generations. We see echoes of our experience in the plight of others.
The US-Israel war over Iran started with something we all know about: an attack on a school.
According to UNICEF, an average of a classroom full of children died every day for two years in Gaza; 432 of the Strip’s 564 schools Continuous “Direct hit” from Israeli forces.
Shajareh Tayebeh, a girls’ primary school in the city of Minab in southern Iran, was also a “direct hit”. On February 28, two high-precision US-made Tomahawk missiles killed approximately 170 young girls between the ages of six and 12 and staff.
After the initial strike, teachers rushed to protect students. Paramedics reached the spot to save the injured. Then the second bomb fell.
It was a double-tap attack – the horrors of modern warfare that the people of Gaza know well. It is designed to kill its target and then kill those who come to its rescue.
Like Gaza, the attack on girls’ school in Minab too was not an exception. Over the past three weeks, Israel and the United States have rained death and destruction on public spaces throughout Iran. Schools, hospitals, sports halls, stadiums, shops, cafes, markets and historical sites have been attacked. More than 5,000 residential units have been affected, and more than 1,900 civilians have been killed.
As in Gaza, the cumulative goal is not only physical destruction, but also the spread of fear and terror. Targeting civilian locations thus serves as a form of psychological warfare – an attack on the idea of security and normality.
Targeting civilian infrastructure is against international law. Yet the US and Israel view international legal norms through the lens of US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has repeatedly expressed his disdain for the rules of engagement and called them “stupid”.
So far, it is clear that Gaza has served as Israel’s laboratory, a testing ground, for the approach it wants to implement across the region.
Just days earlier, Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had issued a dire warning: “Dahiyah (in south Beirut) will look like Khan Younis.”
The destruction of Khan Yunis – my hometown – has become a new model for destruction to be repeated elsewhere. In Lebanon, over a period of 20 days, this model has resulted in the massacre of approximately 1,100 people, including 120 children – an entire classroom every three days.
What we see in Gaza spreads to Lebanon and then to Iran.
What is the ultimate goal? Strengthening Israeli hegemony in the region. This strategy is not necessarily about completely overthrowing the Iranian regime, but rather about dismantling the Iranian state itself and significantly reducing its ability to project power. A weakened or broken Iran will no longer be an obstacle to Israeli regional hegemony.
All this is happening with the full support of America. Just last month, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee expressed his approval for Israel’s expansion into “Greater Israel”.
Other Western powers have also agreed, supporting an illegal war on Iran, although refusing to commit their own troops, ships and aircraft.
Mahmoud Darwish writes in his poem “The Earth Is Closing on Us”:
“Where should we go after the last frontier?
Where should the birds fly after the last sky?
Where should plants sleep after their last breath of air?”
Soon, this could become a reality for the entire region. Under Israel’s complete and unchecked dominance, we will all feel as if we have nowhere left to go. What would life look like under this reality?
If Gaza is a laboratory, we can imagine that the region will continue to burn in flames for years to come. Israel will “mow the lawn” whenever it wants, to impose its will on any government and to suppress any rebellion of the people of the region.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.
