Marwa Osman : Children in Gaza are flying paper kites
Israel has apparently given the so-called “Board of Peace” three days to stop the paper kites coming out of Gaza or else it will unleash a massive air aggression on the Strip.
And honestly, what more is there to say?
You don’t need a 20-post thread for this one. The headline is the entire dystopian joke.
A nuclear-armed entity, armed to the teeth and claiming regional military supremacy, terrorizing, bombing multiple states, genociding the population of one state while ethnically cleansing the population of another state, is threatening another devastating attack because children in Gaza are flying paper kites.
Children living amid rubble.
Children with barely any electricity, food, water or normal childhood left.
And somehow, the paper kite is the threat that requires an ultimatum.
Let that sink in. Not a missile. Not a fighter jet. Not an army.
A piece of paper. A string. And a child.
If this does not capture the sheer absurdity of the reality Palestinians are being forced to live through, I don not know what does.
Background about the publication in the Guardian which has caused a kerfuffle.
The Guardian has published an open letter to Iran’s political prisoners, signed by Angela Davis, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Rashid Khalidi, Robin DG Kelley, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Judith Butler, Walden Bello, among others.
These are not people to be dismissed lightly. Several have given… pic.twitter.com/JWNcByIdMy
— Carlos (@agent_of_change) August 21, 2026
Marwa Osman says:
You know me by now. I could not care less whether someone supports our region’s cause of resistance or not. I gave up on the idea of Western goodwill and frankly Western moral sanity, a long time ago, when I watched children burn alive in Gaza. When I watched children in Lebanon torn apart until there was barely anything left to bury after American/Israeli airstrikes. And when I watched children in Minab, Iran, effectively disappear when top-tier weaponry was unleashed against their school.
So no, I did not comment on the open letter attacking Iran. I had no interest in policing anyone’s politics or demanding that anyone share mine.
But then I noticed the retractions.
And I have to admit, there was something almost perversely funny about the explanation.
If you are going to remove your name from an unprincipled political letter and explain it away with ‘I didn’t see the final draft”, then you have some explaining to do.
Not because you owe me agreement with Iran. Again, I could not care less what YOU think. But because you owe the public clarity and accountability.
At the very least:
1. State your political position on Iran. What do you actually believe? What do you support, what do you oppose and which specific parts of the letter crossed the line for you?
2. Tell the public who initiated the letter. Who conceived it, who drafted it, who circulated it and who approached the signatories?
3. Show us the version you actually agreed to. What exactly did you think you were putting your name behind?🙂 gotcha🙂
4. Tell us what changed. If the final version was materially different, go ahead and identify the differences. Do not leave the public with a convenient fog of “I didn’t see it”.
5. Explain the timeline. When did you discover the final wording? When did you decide to withdraw? And why?
6. Own the politics, you ignorant coward, not just the paperwork. Signing a political open letter is not clicking “accept” on some unread terms-and-conditions page. Your name becomes part of its political message the moment it goes public.
And please, spare us the procedural gymnastics. Wallahi it is revolting to read for those of us living/dieing here by bombs paid for by your tax money, when you never dared to pen an open letter about your genocidal regimes, at least asking them not to do it in your name.
If you changed your mind, say you changed your mind.
If you were misled, tell us who misled you.
If you discovered that the letter said something you fundamentally disagreed with, tell us what it was.
If you never approved the final text, tell us who did.
But “I didn’t see the final draft” is not an explanation. It is only the opening sentence of one.
As for me? I am not offended that anyone refuses to support the resistance.
After everything I have watched happen to children across Gaza, the West Bank and Iran, and everything I lived through/still living through in Lebanon, Western approval is very far down my list of things I’m waiting for. Actually, it does not even make the list.
What caught my attention was the retreat, because you see, the most interesting part of a political statement is not who signed it, but who suddenly decided they no longer wanted their name attached to it.
What an obituary for the western so-called “anti-imperialist left’ lot.