Mazin Qumsiyeh
Direct from Gaza
It was not possible to
sleep here for two nights now. The
events and the images of death and carnage of children, of policemen, of people
that look like my mother and my son and my sister and my friends were simply too
much. Gaza has run out of stretchers and
many are now carried to hospitals (which are running out of supplies) and
morgues on commercial street signs, in blankets or simply by their limp limbs.
Three mosques were destroyed. I recalled
the Israeli attacks on the Church of Nativity which was minor compared to
this. I was watching Israel shell the
University in Gaza city including its faculty of science and a residence dorm
for female students and was thinking of my university and my lab and office at Bethlehem
University. I was then shocked into more
horrific scenes and news. In one house
five young sisters killed. In another
six family members including four children killed while eating breakfast. In a scene that haunted me where four
children were killed with their mother, I saw rescue workers try frantically to
pull the remaining surviving girl whose legs were crushed under a huge boulder
from the roof. As some of them were
calming her down and working hard, just next to them other workers pulled the
dead body of her sister (looked like 3-4 year old). They quickly covered her but I think her
sister noticed. Sometimes the dead are
envied for their suffering has ended. Her suffering is just beginnig. I thought of all the thousands of relatives
of all the victims and how they feel…..I thought of friends I lost and talks
with people in Gaza...I thought of my mother who at 76 has seen so much
suffering and still she cried at the new images of new atrocities…
My heart aches and
struggles with my scientist brain. The latter wants to focus on facts and
figures. The attack in its second day
was in the words of Israeli leaders “the beginning” and is intended “to send
Gaza back decades”. So far over 300
were killed and over 1000 injured (200 of those critically), 35% women,
children and elderly. I examine numbers of homes, police stations, civil
society building destroyed. I read the
Al Mezan Center for human
rights which rationally states that most Gaza victims are civilians [1]. But
even my rational mind refuses to deal with these things. How could it handle just that one image of
the young girl’s anguished pained look under the rubble of her house and so
tears stream down again to to try to wash the image
to no avail…..How could my mind examine rationally the statements of “leaders”
saying this carnage is not the fault of the bombers and war criminals, but of Hamas!
Protests were
organized around the world and more are being planned [2]. The demonstrations helped
vent some frustration and we hope will herald a reawakening of the heart of
humanity that has been sputtering. But
we hope it will go much farther to changing the rotted system of elites in
power ignoring people’s rights for political expediency and for profit.
In the Bethlehem
demonstration, we pounded on the permanently closed gate of the apartheid wall
with deafening sound and the soldiers in the tower started to through stun
grenades and tear gas. Injuries were
sustained for activists....Our lungs still ache but our hearts ache more for
the criminality of the apartheid regime, and the collaboration of the world
governments. The Israeli occupation army
killed two protesters with live ammunition in other parts of the West Bank [3].
Can someone asks
western media or the Wetsern governments ruled by
elite racists who keep spouting the nonsense about "Hamas"
and "rockets" (projectiles that are militarily of little use and have
no explosives, killed one person this year), why targeting civilian police
stations, mosques, homes with children, ports, fishing vessels, streets, and
more in one of the most densely populated areas on earth murdering hundreds of
civilians would be an acceptable action (I don’t say response because Israel
was killing people and massacring them for 60 years before)? And what would they expect from a starving
1.5 million people to do? Especially
when one million of those are refugees or displaced people denied their rights
to return to their homes and lands for 60 years while settlers live across the
borders on their lands in areas like “Sderot” and “Netviot”? Would they not expect some resistance from some
of those? Isn’t that codified in International law for the right of occupied
people to resist including violently? (note that I personally support civil forms of resistance).
Even if one buys the US/Israeli government propaganda, would it be acceptable
to bomb cities in Europe and the US for any perceived or actual crime of a
portion of their society or even their leaders (Bush and Blair in Iraq?)?
But again I think it
is not best for me to try and reason things through in such times of calamities
and little sleep. I got so many letters of support but please redirect your
letters and energies elsewhere. Redirect
them to challenge the injustice directly [4]. Jesus made a statement directly
relevant for us today:
"You are the
earth's salt. But if the salt should become tasteless, what can make it salt
again? It is completely useless and can only be thrown out of doors and stamped
under foot. You are the world's light - it is impossible to hide a town built
on the top of a hill. Men do not light a lamp and put it under a bucket. They
put it on a lamp-stand and it gives light for everybody in the house.”
It is thus the time
when people who claim they want peace and justice to stop talking about it and
actually work for it. Put your lamp higher. It is time for real change...It is
time for a world Intifada (uprising against
injustice). It is time to do something concrete (like throwing our shoes at
someone?)
Below are a press
release from human rights organizations in Palestine (please circulate to media
and politicians) and a letter from a friend worth reading.
Mazin Qumsiyeh,
PhD
In Bethlehem, Occupied
Palestine
http://qumsiyeh.org
Urgent Release
27 December 2008
Palestinian human
rights community calls for international action
Palestinian human
rights organizations strongly condemn the recent military attacks carried out
by the Israeli occupying forces in the Gaza Strip on 27 December 2008. The
attacks began at approximately 11:30 am and lasted for approximately three
hours. These attacks have destroyed most of the Gaza security offices including
police stations, resulting in the deaths of over 200 Palestinians. More than 350 have been injured with over 120
critically.
The number of deaths
resulting from these attacks indicates a willful
targeting of the civilian police forces in these locations and a clear
violation of the prohibition against willful killings. Willful killings
are a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention under Article 147 and
therefore, a War Crime. Both the time and location of these attacks also
indicate a malicious intent to inflict as many casualties as possible with many
of the police stations located in civilian population centres and the time of
the attacks coinciding with the end of the school day resulting in the deaths
of numerous children.
The ongoing siege of
the Gaza Strip has left medical facilities in the Strip incapable of meeting
the needs of the hundreds more who have been injured which will likely lead to
an increase in the number of deaths. According to Israeli officials, these attacks
are only the beginning of an open military campaign in Gaza. It is therefore
imperative that the international community not stand in silence while Israel
moves forward with impunity.
Despite repeated calls
from the Palestinian human rights community with regard to Gaza, the
international community has failed to act.
We are now on the brink of an explosion of violence as result of this
failure and are pushed once again to call for action.
In light of the above,
Palestinian human rights organizations urge:
* The UN Security Council to call an
emergency session and adopt concrete measures, including the imposition of
sanctions, in order to ensure Israel’s fulfilment of its obligations under
international humanitarian law.
* The High Contracting Parties to the
Geneva Conventions to fulfil their obligation under common Article 1 to ensure
respect for the provisions of the Conventions, taking appropriate measures to
compel Israel to abide by its obligations under international humanitarian law,
in particular placing pivotal importance on the respect and protection of
civilians from the effects of the hostilities.
* The High Contracting Parties to fulfil
their legal obligation under Article 146 of the Fourth Geneva Convention to
prosecute those responsible for grave breaches of the Convention.
* EU institutions and member states to make
effective use of the European Union Guidelines on promoting compliance with
international humanitarian law (2005/C 327/04) to ensure Israel complies with
international humanitarian law under paragraph 16 (b), (c) and (d) of these
guidelines, including the adoption of immediate restrictive measures and
sanctions, as well as cessation of all upgrade dialogue with Israel.
Al-Haq
Addameer Prisoners' Support
& Human Rights Association
Ad-Dameer
Association for Human Rights
Al-Mezan
Center for Human Rights
Defence for Children
International
Ensan Center
for Democracy & Human Rights
Independent Commission
for Human Rights (ICHR)
Jerusalem Legal Aid
& Human Rights Center (JLAC)
Palestinian Centre for
Human Rights (PCHR)
Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal
Profession - Musawa
Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between
People (PCR)
Ramallah Center
for Human Rights Studies (RCHRS)
Women's Center for Legal Aid and Counseling
(WCLAC)
Women's Studies Center
The Palestinian
Non-Governmental Organizations' Network - PNGO
======================
Letter From Jenka (US citizen married to a Palestinian who was
paralyzed by an Israeli bullet in the back but continues to have hope and work
for peace -- and also for our International Middle East Media Center) 12/27/08
I sit in front of the
computer, editing the article, trying, as always, to maintain objectivity,
"Israeli airstrikes kill 205 Palestinians in
Gaza".....my eyes begin to blur .....images of
bodies, of wailing mamas screaming for their sons, of children missing limbs,
hospital crews running, rushing....bodies everywhere......I can no longer see
the computer screen through the tears. I
think of our friends in Gaza -"Are they ok?" .....I try to think of
an appropriate response: a protest at the Israeli consulate? A petition? A boycott campaign?
They all seem so trivial, so ineffective.
Send ANOTHER letter to my congressman, only to be rebuffed again with a
form letter stating that the Congressman is in full support of Israel and their
War on Terror?
I'm thinking about an
article I read yesterday, about Muntadhar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at George
Bush just last week. The article was by Ramzy Baroud, who said that the
reality of the world outside the Green Zone had finally broken into the
carefully-scripted press conferences of Bush lies and al-Maliki
smiles....
"What also
confused the script is that al-Zaidi was not
al-Qaeda, or an al-Qaeda sympathizer, not a foreign fighter, not a member of
the dissolved Ba’ath Party, nor was he affiliated
with it in any way, and not even an Iraqi Sunni, for any such affiliation would
fit perfectly in the political and media scripts that would demonize the man as
an enemy of the Iraqi people, stability, democracy, freedom, and the rest of
the redundant clichés. Al-Zaidi is simply an Iraqi
man who has, as a journalist, highlighted the suffering of his people as
politely, ‘objectively’ and ‘professionally’ as he could, and when he could no
longer tolerate the lies told in the Green Zone’s ever malicious drama, he
scrapped the script altogether, chucking his shoes at the main actor: This is a
farewell kiss, you dog! This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were
killed in Iraq.” His words, although uttered for the first time in the Green
Zone theater, echoed the
voices of millions of Iraqis outside, who have chanted these words, for six
long, tragic years."
He was fed up! He tried to be objective, kept reporting the
daily toll of deaths, the daily violence of the occupation, the never ending
river of blood and bodies.....and finally, after nothing he reported changed
anything, he risked his career, and his life, to break the script at the press
conference and express the rage and fury of the millions of Iraqis suffering
and dying in the daily brutality of Bush's war.
He has been tortured and beaten senseless for his deed, by Iraqi
security, who, Baroud says, "must’ve tried to
impress their American security ‘counterparts’ by teaching the poor al-Zaidi a lesson in good manners, Abu Ghraib-style".
here's that article: http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14527
As I look again at the
toll of today's Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, my eyes
glance across a headline in one of the Israeli papers: "White House blames
Hamas" .....and the
fury and grief flow through me again. Israel drops 60 bombs on the Gaza Strip,
killing hundreds of civilians, wounding and maiming many more, and the first
thing the White House has to say is that it is Hamas'
fault! For what? For having been elected as the Palestinian
government in uncontested and fair elections?
For taking the unprecedented step of engaging in a unilateral ceasefire
against Israel for the last six months, which was never reciprocated or even
recognized by the occupying Israeli army?
For begging Israel for a ceasefire this last week, but
being rebuffed at every turn? The
truth is, it doesn't matter what Hamas does, it is their very existence that Israel is trying to
eradicate, with full US support. The
fact that there is an Islamic movement that stands in resistance to the Israeli
occupation is something that Israel cannot stand, and it's clear from their
targets in today's airstrikes: Hamas
government buildings, police stations, municipal headquarters, offices of the
bureaucrats of an elected government. And
they struck during rush hour, when the streets were full, in one of the most
crowded places on earth, so as to maximize casualties.
And the US blames Hamas.
What eventually
becomes clear, to any Palestinian, or any Iraqi for that matter, is that their
occupier can do anything they want, with impunity, and no matter what, they,
the occupied, will be blamed.
And the other thing
that becomes clear, after day after day of this violence, month after month,
year after year, is that the world, or at least those with
the power to change anything, do not care.
It's like Ward
Churchill said in his post-9/11 speech that got him fired from the University
of Colorado despite his tenure: if you are a person in the Arab world and you
see Madeline Albright up there on 60 Minutes saying, "Yes, we know that
500,000 Iraqi children have died from the sanctions, but we think the price is
worth it", well, what are you SUPPOSED to think??? There's no other conclusion that you can
reach except that the piles and piles of corpses, the thousands of innocent
children, do not matter to Madeline Albright, or to the American people! The American people DO NOT CARE!
And no amount of
objective journalism on the subject can make people care.
And what now - Barack Obama is supposed to be
some kind of savior and change everything? I don't think so. My email after his election was mainly just
surprise that there was not another Supreme Court-decided debacle. But he's not going to change US policy toward
Israel. He's
never said that he
would. I think maybe people just hoped
that he would, with no evidence in his record that he would - just because
people want someone to save them. But
his appointment of Rahm Emmanuel as his Chief of
Staff, as his FIRST cabinet appointment, set the tone for what the Palestinians
can expect from Barack Obama. Emmanuel's dad told an Israeli paper,
"Of course my son will have a big influence on Obama
regarding Israel - what, do you think he's going to be sweeping the floors of
the White House? He's not an Arab!"
This is the kind of
outright racism that Obama's dear friend Rahm Israel Emmanuel was raised with.
There's no chance
whatsoever that he'll change US policy toward Israel. He's said so himself, many times.
What can we do?
Every day I edit
articles coming out of the occupied Palestinian Territories, on the website
http://www.imemc.org .....will that really change
anything? I don't know.
But at least it's a
record, documenting the daily Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.
Every week the
Palestinian Center for Human Rights publishes a
detailed record documenting the Israeli crimes for that week.
http://www.imemc.org/newswire?search_text=pchr&x=0&y=0
The record of Israeli
crimes is all there, verifiable and well-documented. But the US government does not, and will not,
care. As far as I can tell, the State
Dept. bureaucrat directing policy
toward Israel is: Director
of the Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs Thomas Goldberger 202-647-3672
Maybe the least we can
do is to flood his office with calls, demanding that the US stop supporting an
illegal occupation that engages in daily violations of international human
rights law and completely disregards the internationally-recognized rights of
the Palestinian people.
Right now, though, I
kind of feel like throwing my shoes.
================
[1]
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10063.shtml
[2]
http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=1773)
[3] see
example here
http://www.bilin-ffj.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=109&Itemid=1 )
[4] Gaza Massacre must
spur us to action (See article written even before three families were targeted
killing 10 children)
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10055.shtml
[5] Videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk5ZTy7sERY
http://www.aljazeera.net/Channel/KServices/SupportPages/ShowMedia/showMedia.aspx?fileURL=/mritems/streams/2008/12/28/1_881090_1_12.wmv