Earlier this week the Israeli military demolished the home of my closest friend. To stand in the rubble of the home that witnessed the best days of my childhood is devastating. In her home I learned the meaning of love, care, and true friendship. It is all gone now.
As with my parents and grandparents homes in Israel, we are left now with only the memories. A decade ago when I went to Hebrew classes in Israel to build a better future I would not have believed that Israel would still be occupying Gaza in 2004. I do not understand how Israel thinks it will strengthen voices for peace like mine when it demolishes Innocent people homes at the very moment it is telling the world it plans to exit Gaza. My stomach turns at the thought that Sharon needs to demolish my friend’s home in order to look sufficiently tough to "sell" this plan to the Israeli public.
The Israeli army is advancing fast and our turn is coming. I visited this area a week ago and my friend's home was still standing. My own family home is five rows far from her home. We moved to Gaza over half a century ago after being forced out of Israel.Now, we may be forced to flee in the dead of night once again.
By the meager means available to me, I have reported to the world this tragedy of home demolitions many times before. But it is substantially different when you report about the home demolition of someone you don't know and then report about homes you know very well.
I now better understand the magic connection and the flash of my grandmother's eyes when she speaks about her demolished home and village in Bait Daras from which she was spit out 56 years ago.
Do Democrats and Republicans not understand that when they speak of the "Jewish state of Israel" they are talking about the ethnic cleansing of my grandmother? What has become of the "fair play" of the American people that they now justify such state terror? Are justice and compassion no longer of concern to the American people and their leaders?
My grandmother did not forget. I asked her once to forgive so that my daughter Ghaida and I could live happily. Now Ghaida and I will be unable to forget or forgive these daily atrocities. What is transpiring in Beit Hanoun, Rafah, and Khan Younis is more savage than an eye for an eye.
Every time the Israeli occupation forces demolish homes they expand the wire further, swallowing more and more of what little land remains to us. It's as if they are determined to strip us of the final dreams and possessions that we hold. Psychologically they appear intent on depriving us even of the hope that next year they will have left all of Gaza, albeit leaving us confined within an enormous open-air prison, Â newly dubbed by Amir Oren as an occupation by remote control.
The same razing of homes taking place in Khan Yunis is going on in Rafah and Beit Hanoun. The policy is the equivalent of Guatemala's scorched earth policy against the indigenous people there. At this rate, we will have no infrastructure, no land or space, notrees or agriculture. Already Israelis are consuming a disproportionate amount of our water resources.
To leave your neighbor with nothing but despair, bitterness, and anger does not bode well for the future of either Palestinians or Israelis. Our situation will be extraordinarily difficult if we are left with nothing more than a pulverized desert strip of land.
Sharon himself seems to be acting more out of anger and revenge than from a considered and rational policy. His approach to getting out of Gaza is extremely unsettling. He seems hell-bent on making this place either ungovernable or a fiery place of unquenchable rage that is controlled by isolated pockets of armed young men running for their lives but unable to think the coherent thoughts necessary to build our future.
These young men are determined to protect us and some of them will make fine leaders in years to come, but they are ill-equipped to govern today. Sharon knows this. And he knows that chaos in Gaza strengthens his grip on the West Bank and East Jerusalem which are his true goals.
As a girl and young woman I used to find my own strength in my grandmother's eyes. Now, this woman who has seen so much has only sadness and a dead, haunted look. I, myself, am afraid to look to my daughter's eyes. There is no guarantee I can provideher beyond my own love. I certainly cannot guarantee her physical and mental security.
Last week I left Ghaida with my extended family in Khan Yunis when I had to be in Gaza City. I was shocked to learn that my precious child was upstairs sweeping the floor while gunfire raged nearby. When I talked to her about this and how dangerous it is she told me that she misses her relatives who have been killed. She said that if she got shot andKilled she would go to see them. She spoke of her love for them. The open discussion of the possibility of being killed, from a child so young, is terrifying. How will she turn out, living amidst such uncertainty and trauma?
Haters of Palestinians say that we saturate our children in a culture of death. But how do we insulate them from the gunfire of an ostensibly withdrawing army that is laying waste to our refugee camp?
The world has gone deaf and blind to our struggle. Fifty-six years after our national catastrophe at the hands of the United Nations, where is Kofi Anan? Why does he not speak out for us more vigorously? The nations of the world should remember well that there once were Palestinians willing to reconcile. But when Israel's parting gift is to threaten the home of my memories this becomes well-nigh impossible.
To the people of Israel: You claim to be leaving Gaza next year. Why then demolish my neighbor's home, and perhaps my own, on the way out? You leave us no choice but to remember our old dreams -- not to return to our homes in Khan Younis refugee camp but to the homes and land you stole from us 56 years ago. Ironically, you have returned to me my memory and my grandmother’s memory of the future. There is madness to the policy you pursue today. And if you are wise, it will end without delay.
Finally, Mr. Bush: Whatever happened to "riding herd" on the both of us? Instead, you have abandoned us to the gentle mercies of Ariel Sharon who says one thing to the world about disengagement while at the same time marauding through the neighborhoods of my youth, devastating lives and landscape alike, with not a thought to the reality that we are destined to live as neighbors.
As with my parents and grandparents homes in Israel, we are left now with only the memories. A decade ago when I went to Hebrew classes in Israel to build a better future I would not have believed that Israel would still be occupying Gaza in 2004. I do not understand how Israel thinks it will strengthen voices for peace like mine when it demolishes Innocent people homes at the very moment it is telling the world it plans to exit Gaza. My stomach turns at the thought that Sharon needs to demolish my friend’s home in order to look sufficiently tough to "sell" this plan to the Israeli public.
The Israeli army is advancing fast and our turn is coming. I visited this area a week ago and my friend's home was still standing. My own family home is five rows far from her home. We moved to Gaza over half a century ago after being forced out of Israel.Now, we may be forced to flee in the dead of night once again.
By the meager means available to me, I have reported to the world this tragedy of home demolitions many times before. But it is substantially different when you report about the home demolition of someone you don't know and then report about homes you know very well.
I now better understand the magic connection and the flash of my grandmother's eyes when she speaks about her demolished home and village in Bait Daras from which she was spit out 56 years ago.
Do Democrats and Republicans not understand that when they speak of the "Jewish state of Israel" they are talking about the ethnic cleansing of my grandmother? What has become of the "fair play" of the American people that they now justify such state terror? Are justice and compassion no longer of concern to the American people and their leaders?
My grandmother did not forget. I asked her once to forgive so that my daughter Ghaida and I could live happily. Now Ghaida and I will be unable to forget or forgive these daily atrocities. What is transpiring in Beit Hanoun, Rafah, and Khan Younis is more savage than an eye for an eye.
Every time the Israeli occupation forces demolish homes they expand the wire further, swallowing more and more of what little land remains to us. It's as if they are determined to strip us of the final dreams and possessions that we hold. Psychologically they appear intent on depriving us even of the hope that next year they will have left all of Gaza, albeit leaving us confined within an enormous open-air prison, Â newly dubbed by Amir Oren as an occupation by remote control.
The same razing of homes taking place in Khan Yunis is going on in Rafah and Beit Hanoun. The policy is the equivalent of Guatemala's scorched earth policy against the indigenous people there. At this rate, we will have no infrastructure, no land or space, notrees or agriculture. Already Israelis are consuming a disproportionate amount of our water resources.
To leave your neighbor with nothing but despair, bitterness, and anger does not bode well for the future of either Palestinians or Israelis. Our situation will be extraordinarily difficult if we are left with nothing more than a pulverized desert strip of land.
Sharon himself seems to be acting more out of anger and revenge than from a considered and rational policy. His approach to getting out of Gaza is extremely unsettling. He seems hell-bent on making this place either ungovernable or a fiery place of unquenchable rage that is controlled by isolated pockets of armed young men running for their lives but unable to think the coherent thoughts necessary to build our future.
These young men are determined to protect us and some of them will make fine leaders in years to come, but they are ill-equipped to govern today. Sharon knows this. And he knows that chaos in Gaza strengthens his grip on the West Bank and East Jerusalem which are his true goals.
As a girl and young woman I used to find my own strength in my grandmother's eyes. Now, this woman who has seen so much has only sadness and a dead, haunted look. I, myself, am afraid to look to my daughter's eyes. There is no guarantee I can provideher beyond my own love. I certainly cannot guarantee her physical and mental security.
Last week I left Ghaida with my extended family in Khan Yunis when I had to be in Gaza City. I was shocked to learn that my precious child was upstairs sweeping the floor while gunfire raged nearby. When I talked to her about this and how dangerous it is she told me that she misses her relatives who have been killed. She said that if she got shot andKilled she would go to see them. She spoke of her love for them. The open discussion of the possibility of being killed, from a child so young, is terrifying. How will she turn out, living amidst such uncertainty and trauma?
Haters of Palestinians say that we saturate our children in a culture of death. But how do we insulate them from the gunfire of an ostensibly withdrawing army that is laying waste to our refugee camp?
The world has gone deaf and blind to our struggle. Fifty-six years after our national catastrophe at the hands of the United Nations, where is Kofi Anan? Why does he not speak out for us more vigorously? The nations of the world should remember well that there once were Palestinians willing to reconcile. But when Israel's parting gift is to threaten the home of my memories this becomes well-nigh impossible.
To the people of Israel: You claim to be leaving Gaza next year. Why then demolish my neighbor's home, and perhaps my own, on the way out? You leave us no choice but to remember our old dreams -- not to return to our homes in Khan Younis refugee camp but to the homes and land you stole from us 56 years ago. Ironically, you have returned to me my memory and my grandmother’s memory of the future. There is madness to the policy you pursue today. And if you are wise, it will end without delay.
Finally, Mr. Bush: Whatever happened to "riding herd" on the both of us? Instead, you have abandoned us to the gentle mercies of Ariel Sharon who says one thing to the world about disengagement while at the same time marauding through the neighborhoods of my youth, devastating lives and landscape alike, with not a thought to the reality that we are destined to live as neighbors.
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