Do you realize just how desperate things have become for us Palestinians? That our best realistic hope today is for an Israeli general to win the Israeli elections! A general who opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state, supports settlement expansion, has no intention of ending the war in Gaza, and has taken part in every war against Gaza since 2008! And despite all of this, I find myself hoping he wins! Not because I believe in him, or because I expect him to ever treat us justly, but because the alternative is Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir. And because I genuinely fear that if these men remain in power for another four years, there will be nothing left of Palestine or the Palestinian people except in history books. Imagine how desperate we must have become to pin our hopes on a general who took part in the wars against us, simply because we fear the alternative even more! We do not need anyone to tell us that this general does not believe in our right to a state, or that the two sides are not so different when it comes to Palestinian rights. We know this perfectly well. We know their histories and their positions, and we do not need anyone lecturing us about them. But what exactly are we supposed to do? Reject even the less terrible option while watching what remains of our land and our lives being destroyed before our eyes? This is not a choice between good and evil. The Palestinian reality is not black and white. It is like being forced to choose between leukemia and a brain tumor. Neither is a choice anyone would willingly make, and choosing one does not mean believing it is good. It simply means fearing the other even more. We are choosing between two bitter options, one simply less bitter than the other. As the Arabic proverb goes: “What is bitter can only be made bearable by something even more bitter.” And perhaps what we are hoping for is not justice, but something less unjust than the nightmare we are living through. How painful it is to have reached a point where we no longer look to elections in the hope of seeing someone who recognizes our rights come to power, but merely someone who might allow us to hold on to what little remains of them. So I will say this directly, without making any attempt to dress up this miserable reality: Everyone who has the right to vote in the Israeli elections and believes in justice for Palestinians should use that vote to remove Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir from power. Not out of love for their opponents, nor out of any belief that those opponents will bring us justice, but simply because we need to put an end to this nightmare. Because whatever comes next, surely it cannot be worse than this. Our survival in the face of their brutality may be in your hands! #SurvivalTestimony