From our series on Israel and Palestine since the bloodshed began on Oct 7th, 2023.

The state of Israel called the attack by Hamas its 9/11 — and has used it to justify overwhelming retaliatory violence in Gaza. And this is before the ground invasion begins. Even our President asked Israel to consider the “mistakes” the U.S. made after 9/11.

Here’s what I wrote about our nation’s response to 9/11:

“Before Americans even had time to process our shock and count our dead after 9/11, our energies had been redirected for war. On the very night of the attacks, President Bush declared a ‘war against terrorism’ and divided the world into us and them: You are either with us or against us. Grieving is a process that takes time and stillness and presence. It is impossible to grieve and prepare to kill at the same time. So, despite all the performances of national mourning, we as a nation has little time and space to be present to our pain and all that it had teach us. Unresolved grief inside a person is tragic; unresolved grief inside a nation is catastrophic: It releases enormous aggression.

In the name of the dead… the U.S. war on terror that began in Afghanistan would come to span at least two decades, three presidencies, and seventy-six countries; cost more than $5.6 trillion; and kill more than one million people.

It did not have to be this way… The mass killing of three thousand people and the trauma of a world that watched could have sustained a kind of public grieving that expanded our sense of who counts as ‘us’ beyond what anyone has previously imagined.”

– Chapter 2, See No Stranger

We can put these lessons into practice:
We invite you to visit our learning hub on the impact of 9/11 on people of color in the U.S. Explore the hub at 911learninghub.org