With the death toll in Gaza rising each day and a tragedy unfolding of previously-unimaginable proportions, every leaders who has any influence has an obligation to do what's within his/her reach to end this, no matter how politically damaging and unpopular it may be. This conflict has shown us once again that human life, even those of civilians, has little value.
When setting expectations for our own leaders, sometimes it's helpful to look to the leaders of the past. The leader I have in mind is a leader who followed his conscience without fear of political backlash. His policies lifted a war-torn nation out of poverty, but he will always be remembered for a simple and single act of decency, an act that touched everyone's heart:
Willy Brandt. Chancellor of West Germany from 1969 to 1974. In 1970, during a visit to Poland, Brandt was taken to a monument honoring those fallen during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in World War II. After laying a wreath, to the surprise of journalists, politicians and the masses around him, Brandt dropped to his knees and stayed in that position for a short while. When later asked what prompted him to do this, he replied, “Under the weight of recent history, and carrying the burden of the millions who were murdered, I did what people do when words fail them.”
What he did was not initially popular at home. But in time, this small but meaningful act, came to symbolize his policy toward achieving normalized relations with Eastern Europe (referred to Ostpolitik). In 1972, due to his successful domestic policy reforms and the now widely-held view that his foreign policy was mending fences and opening doors, he was re-elected chancellor with a major landslide. In 1971 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Warsaw Ghetto Memorial is visited by thousands of individuals each year. One would hope that every visitor sees what Brandt saw, on that day, as he looked across at the juxtaposed dark images of fallen heroes: that human life is infinitely precious and has value beyond measure.
Mustafa Oktem is the author of The Lion of Kabul
