As anyone who has watched the hugely popular Hunger Games series of movies can testify, the dystopian, totalitarian nation of Panem it depicts is eerily similar to the world we live in today. Where a small elite enjoys unimaginable wealth and luxury while the rest of the population toils in misery, degraded and dispensable.
In ‘Mockingjay Part 1’, the third part of the series, as the people revolt against their masters, a brutal bombing campaign by the Capitol’s forces reduces the rebellious District 12 to complete rubble. This includes a deliberate targeting of a hospital full of wounded children, women and the elderly – scenes shockingly similar to what is being witnessed in Gaza today.
The movie however offers hope as Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence, gives up her ticket to luxury and celebrity status to instead lead the fight against the powerful forces of Panem. In one powerful scene, after shooting down a marauding hovercraft of the regime with her flaming arrow she proclaims, “Fire is catching! And if we burn, you burn with us!”.
This should also be the slogan of the Global Intifada against the apartheid Israeli regime’s genocidal war on ‘District Gaza’ and the Palestinian people. What they should be saying to the Zionists and the Empire of the Super Rich backing them is the same, “If we burn, you burn with us!”.
Satya Sagar is a journalist and public health worker who can be reached at [email protected]
