Alquds radio, a Palestinian station broadcasts from Gaza city, is counting the names of those victims killed today by the Israeli bombardment. The number keeps increasing and I keep following. It started with 4 then jumped to 6. The radio is naming the martyrs. My son, Tarek, aged 7, asks me: are those the same killed yesterday? Briefly, I said no. They are new victims. It is time to go school.
While walking with him, Tarek kept raising different questions and I kept replying with short answers. And before getting into school he asked: will you be angry mom if I get eight out of ten at my spelling test? It was not expected question and I said no, just do your best. I gave him a hug and walked back home.
When I reached home I found that the number of the dead reached 7. Then in few hours it rose to 12. Among them were five children, three from the same family aged 7, 8, 11, 12 and 15. Needless to mention the infant Mohammed Nasser Al Bura'i, aged five months, killed last night in an Israeli strike on Gaza town. Overall, 25 victims has been murdered over the past 36 hours. Meanwhile, I keep flicking the web sites and world channels. From Aljazeera, I move to the BBC then to the breaking news of the Alquds paper then back again to alquds and Alaqsa local radios.
I look to the telephone next to the laptop: shall I ring Gaza or shall I not? I want to talk to my family. I want to talk to my mom. I want to talk to my friends and neighbors. I want to hear any voice from Gaza and ask for more news. But I already know the news. What more can they tell me about situation? I will only increase the status of worry they live as they would definitely feel my worries. Therefore, I decided not to call.
Again, I return to the laptop to search for more news. The reports from Tokyo speak about Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State, concerns over the Israeli attacks against Palestinian citizens in the Gaza Strip that are in retaliation to Palestinian rockets against Sederot. In the article, there was no mentioning to any numbers or names or identity of those murdered today or yesterday or the reasons for what Rice and the world called rockets, their kinds or the causalities they caused at the other side. The main concern was that Palestinian attacks against Israel must stop, saying, "The issue is that the rocket attacks need to stop. We have to remember that the Hamas activities there are responsible for what has happened in Gaza. It is very clear where this started."
No single word was mentioned about the state aggression against a whole population numbered over 1.5 million. For Rice, the blockade of Gaza, the boycott, the closure of borders, the daily attacks and human loss, and the rest of human violations don’t count or perhaps don’t matter. No one reminded the Secretary of the State that such horror lived by Gazans is not a result of the rockets or any other kind of resistance activities over the past 8 months or the past two years or even the past decade.
The situation in Gaza is and has always been horrific. There is no doubt that it worsens from time to time but the overall situation has always been the same. No fundamental change has ever occurred since I opened my eyes in this life. If Rice memory is short, then the logical question that should be posed at this juncture: is the world memory the same?
Moreover, there is no change for better is expected to occur in Gaza or for Palestinian Gazans as far as the Israeli occupation remains in control of Gaza outlets, space, movements and water. That occupation is the source for yesterday, today and tomorrow’s misery. The story of peace process is a big lie. The story of Gaza withdrawal is big joke. The story of Palestinian rockets is a false justification for more aggresion and invasions.
When I finished reading Rice words, I said to myself of course I won’t get angry today if Tarek gets 8 out of ten in his spelling test.
Thursday 28 February 2008
Wednesday 27 February 2008
Monday 25 February 2008
Friday 22 February 2008
Saturday 16 February 2008
The Story of Fawziya Abd Alfatah: Another Crime against Humanity
It was supposed to be only a short time journey from Fawziya’s home to Tulkarem hospital in the Occupied West Bank. Yet this was not the case with the poor, sick and old woman who has suffered of lungs problems.
When her health conditions deteriorated, Fawziya’s husband, Mohammed, aged 71, decided to take her to the hospital in order to be seen by the doctors who treated her few days ago. At Jbara checkpoint near Dier Al Ghsoun village, their car as many other hundreds of cars, had to be stopped by Israeli soldiers and fawziya as other several hundred people had to wait till a further notice.
After long time waiting, Mohammed headed towards the soldiers and explained the situation of his wife. In an attempt to convince them, the old man kissed the cheek of one of the soldiers telling him that his wife is dying and needs urgently to reach the hospital. The soldier had no practical response but to say that he is acting according to military orders issued by his offcier to block the road. Moahmmed has no other choice but to turn back to his village in search for a docotor.
When they reached the village, Fawziya could not wait longer. She passed away.
In the report published by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights Fawziya story reads as follow,
"At approximately 17:00 on Thursday, 13 February, Fawzia Abd al-Fattah al-Darak (59) from Deir al-Ghosoun north of Tulkarm died when IOF prevented an ambulance from taking her to a hospital in Tulkarm. Mohammad al-Darak, her husband, informed PCHR's fieldworker that his wife started to experience severe chest pain. They called the emergency department of the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Tulkarm in order to transport her to a hospital. However, the IOF troops stationed at the checkpoint to the south of Deir al-Ghosoun prevented the ambulance from entering the village. The woman's family put her in a private taxi and tried to take her to the ambulance. However, IOF troops prevented the vehicle from passing through the checkpoint despite being informed of the woman's condition. The ambulance was waiting on the other side of the checkpoint but the troops did not allow it to pass. The family took the woman back to a private physician in the village. However, she died of a heart attack."
Fawziya was another number that will be added to the statistics and reports of Israeli violations against Palestinian civilian population but not the last victim. So far, there have been hundreds of people whom lost their lives at the Israeli military checkpoints. When such crimes will have an end, is a question raised by many Palestinians. It is no coincidence that an answer to that question has been consistently neglected.
For more details please see the Palestinian Center for human rights report published by the EI
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9316.shtml
Facts:
There are over 100 permanent checkpoints in the Occupied West Bank and around 500 temporary ones.
These checkpoints separate Palestinian areas from other Palestinian areas hindering the movement of people, goods, agricultural products and humanitarian aid.
The bleak overall situation of Palestinians and the deterioration of the social and economic situations are a direct result of the oppressive closure policies imposed by the Israeli occupation authorities in the Palestinian Occupied land.
Such policies have confined around 2.8 million Palestinians living in West Bank and 1.5 million living in Gaza for over 40 years.
Nowadays, freedom of movement even for basic needs has been denied and West Bank has become a prison like the one in Gaza -- but it is a slightly bigger.
When her health conditions deteriorated, Fawziya’s husband, Mohammed, aged 71, decided to take her to the hospital in order to be seen by the doctors who treated her few days ago. At Jbara checkpoint near Dier Al Ghsoun village, their car as many other hundreds of cars, had to be stopped by Israeli soldiers and fawziya as other several hundred people had to wait till a further notice.
After long time waiting, Mohammed headed towards the soldiers and explained the situation of his wife. In an attempt to convince them, the old man kissed the cheek of one of the soldiers telling him that his wife is dying and needs urgently to reach the hospital. The soldier had no practical response but to say that he is acting according to military orders issued by his offcier to block the road. Moahmmed has no other choice but to turn back to his village in search for a docotor.
When they reached the village, Fawziya could not wait longer. She passed away.
In the report published by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights Fawziya story reads as follow,
"At approximately 17:00 on Thursday, 13 February, Fawzia Abd al-Fattah al-Darak (59) from Deir al-Ghosoun north of Tulkarm died when IOF prevented an ambulance from taking her to a hospital in Tulkarm. Mohammad al-Darak, her husband, informed PCHR's fieldworker that his wife started to experience severe chest pain. They called the emergency department of the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Tulkarm in order to transport her to a hospital. However, the IOF troops stationed at the checkpoint to the south of Deir al-Ghosoun prevented the ambulance from entering the village. The woman's family put her in a private taxi and tried to take her to the ambulance. However, IOF troops prevented the vehicle from passing through the checkpoint despite being informed of the woman's condition. The ambulance was waiting on the other side of the checkpoint but the troops did not allow it to pass. The family took the woman back to a private physician in the village. However, she died of a heart attack."
Fawziya was another number that will be added to the statistics and reports of Israeli violations against Palestinian civilian population but not the last victim. So far, there have been hundreds of people whom lost their lives at the Israeli military checkpoints. When such crimes will have an end, is a question raised by many Palestinians. It is no coincidence that an answer to that question has been consistently neglected.
For more details please see the Palestinian Center for human rights report published by the EI
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9316.shtml
Facts:
There are over 100 permanent checkpoints in the Occupied West Bank and around 500 temporary ones.
These checkpoints separate Palestinian areas from other Palestinian areas hindering the movement of people, goods, agricultural products and humanitarian aid.
The bleak overall situation of Palestinians and the deterioration of the social and economic situations are a direct result of the oppressive closure policies imposed by the Israeli occupation authorities in the Palestinian Occupied land.
Such policies have confined around 2.8 million Palestinians living in West Bank and 1.5 million living in Gaza for over 40 years.
Nowadays, freedom of movement even for basic needs has been denied and West Bank has become a prison like the one in Gaza -- but it is a slightly bigger.
Tuesday 12 February 2008
Everything Possible and Impossible, Thinkable and Unthinkable Has Been Done: What Else Can the Israeli Government Do to Break the Will of a Nation?
One has to be very surprised at the long list of tools of collective punishment that the Israeli government has devised over the past six decades to prolong the oppression and the dispossession of the Palestinian people. In particular, one might be really amazed at the list they've come up with over the past few months. With every new measure, I as many people wonder: what else is Israel hiding up its sleeve to silence the voice of people?
They cut electricity, gas and fuel, paralyzing life and depriving ordinary people of their basic human rights, returning them to the lifestyle of hundreds of years ago. They targeted all sectors of the Palestinian community, from children through elderly people, civilians through freedom fighters, be they men or women. The death toll is clear evidence of this policy. Over the past three months alone, more than 200 people were murdered by Israel's strikes and invasions.
Israeli F16 planes and Apache helicopters targeted the infrastructure built by Palestinian hands and funded with EU, Scandinavian and Arab money, including bridges, power units, roads, schools and buildings, an action that is considered a crime under the laws of war. They assassinated political and civil leaders, claiming that they headed terrorist organizations. And apart from a few, shy voices of condemnation, the so-called international community has proven completely receptive to these crimes. They kidnapped and jailed members of the Palestinian parliament, both men and women, appointed through free and fair elections, with the sole aim of foiling Palestinian governance and foiling the choice of nation.
These policy options have, over previous years, been discussed and endorsed by Israeli politicians, generals and courts. In the past few days, however, the Israeli government has come up with yet more options, promising more crimes to come.During the February 10 cabinet meeting, the Israeli Interior Minister Shimon Sheetrit called for the execution of Ismail Haniyeh, the elected Palestinian prime minister. In the course of the same meeting, Tzahi Hanegbi, Chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, argued that there was no difference between “those wearing a suicide bomber's suit and a diplomat's suit."
As is well known, Israel has a long record of executing Palestinian leaders both in the Occupied Territories and in exile. Yet targeting the democratically-elected members of its government and debating this openly in the cabinet, as a policy option, is nothing short of astonishing. A declared policy of assassinating the elected leaders of Hamas along with the legitimacy they represent, adopted by Israel's cabinet and parliament members, in fact means disaster that would ultimately lead to disastrous consequences. More important, the total lack of any reaction to this criminal debate in the international press and the absence of any condemnation of it by world leaders is deeply shocking. The world is treating the measures discussed and declared by Israel as if they were totally legal and acceptable.
Imagine the British cabinet convening to discuss, not to mention adopting, a policy of assassinating members of the French or Dutch government . Under what category of state should such a government be classified? And under what category of crimes would such policy options be listed? Furthermore, on what justification could these murders be accounted for? Would the same pretext of “self defense” be used this case as well? And if so, how would world leaders react? Could they condemn the crime and resume business as usual? And then what?
The recent debate and resolution in Israel's cabinet expose just how hypocritical the western world is when it comes to the rights and lives of the powerless. It demonstrates how useless laws are when it comes to weak nations. And, more important, it underlines the total impunity granted to those who hold power.
The Israeli cabinet debate and resolutions, as well as the world's indifference deliver a bitter message to Palestinians. Given the lack of options forced upon the Palestinian people, the world needs to be urgently reminded of its own responsibility for any upcoming directions and lines of action that the Palestinian struggle may take.
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Palestinian refugees sit at Khan Younis refugee camp
