I’m posting two personal accounts of devastation in Gaza, written by Adham Kahlil (in his own words), a good friend of mine from the Gaza Strip, Jabalia refugee camp. I’ve worked with him periodically over the past two years thru the American Friends Service Committee’s youth program (he’s about 24), and slept overnight in his home in the refugee camp, meeting his entire loving family. He maintains two blogs (neither of which I could access today) and on January 4 wrote his list and me the following account of recent suffering in Gaza.
Two Stories from the Israeli Holocaust to Palestinians
Hassan Abu Safi
Two weeks ago , Hassan Abu Safi , aged 20 , one of my relatives visited my house to invite us to his wedding party . I asked him to have a drink , he replied :” I am busy , I have to invite other people” . I went with my Family to his party and it was wonderful in which he was so happy , dancing with people . One week later of his Party , Israeli occupation army had invaded the eastern Part of Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip where Hassan lives with his family . His neighbors’ house had been bombed earlier that day, and Hassan had been shuttling the neighbors to the nearest medical care. When Hassan returned home, he went to his bedroom and was talking on the mobile phone on the balcony when an Israeli soldier aimed and shot him in the head. The ambulance faced difficulties to take him from the house.
Even the Israeli tanks surrounded the house , Hassan’s mother with her sons put themselves in danger and went to the hospital , they found Hassan in Death freezer.
Hassan’s family cannot bury him, because they were sequestered in one room in their house. The Israeli army has taken over the rest of the house to use as a sniper base.
Finally Hassan’s father called his wife and sons : ” wait until tomorrow afternoon , If I cannot come , go and burry him ” . What a pity , the Israeli still took over the house and they couldn’t participate in his funeral . Hassan was buried and his wife , Father were still sequestered in one room.
Mohammed Al Borie
Mohammed Al Borie , 5 months , he was born after 5 years of his parents got married . He was killed when Israeli aircraft shelled the area where he was with his parents , their house is a simple one that cannot carry out the fragments of Israeli rockets . Mohammed , the alone son was killed in Israeli Holocaust .
Hassan and Mohammed are two of 118 were killed , One third of the victims were children , 320 were injured in this militant operation .
Adham Khalil
Social worker
Gaza strip _ Palestine
mobile : 00972599527179
E blog : http://nagyelali.blogspot.com/
A blog http://adhamkhalil.blogspot.com/
The cartoons are from a set another Gazan friend, Ibrahem, sent me recently, drawn by the Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff. They give some indication of worldwide feeling about the attacks in Gaza.
Finally I commend to you the article “The Gaza Bombshell” by David Rose in the April 2008 issue of Vanity Fair.
After failing to anticipate Hamas’s victory over Fatah in the 2006 Palestinian election, the White House cooked up yet another scandalously covert and self-defeating Middle East debacle: part Iran-contra, part Bay of Pigs. With confidential documents, corroborated by outraged former and current U.S. officials, David Rose reveals how President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Deputy National-Security Adviser Elliott Abrams backed an armed force under Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan, touching off a bloody civil war in Gaza and leaving Hamas stronger than ever.
Well, let’s see. Hamas is the elected government of Gaza and chooses to launch rocket and other attacks against Israelis. A Hamas supporter enters a Jewish religious school and murders eight rabbinical students. Hamas launches rockets from within civilian areas inviting and probably welcoming an Israeli military response, hoping for Palestinian casualities, or at least not trying to avoid them. It seems that your perspective on the world is a bit slanted, definitely dangerous and certain to promote more deaths and suffering on both sides. If Hamas continues to launch attacks from the Gaza Strip then it bears the moral and legal responsibilities for whatever befalls the Palestinians who continue to be the hapless pawns of their own corrupt and inept leadership.
Dear Dennis L,
Thanks for your comment. I appreciate you taking the time to post your version of the story. Here’s mine:
Your account, well spoken and apt, leaves out one half of the story. Namely, how Palestinians tend to view their reality. If I could presume to try to suggest this voice they might say,
Well, let’s see, in 1948 Israel controlled much of the entire historic Palestinian region, destroying Arab villages and forcing many of us into Gaza. Some 80% of the 1.5 million of us are registered with the UN as refugees. In addition, Israel controls our borders, seacoast, and air, and recently tightened this siege to prohibit most medicines, building materials, tools, much food, and the materials we need to repair our decaying infrastructure. They also allow very few of us out, including those certified to enter outside hospitals.
We elected Hamas in a free, open, fair, well monitored election. Some of us chose them because of their position about Israel; many did not and chose because Fatah has proven corrupt and ineffective in ending the occupation. The result: first Israel, followed by the US and then the EU and much of the world, declared a boycott on international aid, including money collected by Israel meant by law for the Palestinians.
Some of us choose violent means to resist. As does Israel with its state and settler forces well-armed and often using weapons against unarmed innocents. Fewer of us support violent attacks by Palestinians on Israel civilians. Some of us have died trying to prevent these attacks. Yet Israel responds with disproportionate force, most recently killing over 120 people in less than one week, at least half of them unarmed with no direct connection with Hamas. This is collective punishment, prohibited by international accords. According to B’Tselem, the Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, in 2007, 2 Israelis died from homemade rocket fire from Gaza, and less than 40 have been injured. Compare that with 290 gazans killed and thousands injured.
We feel some form of resistance is required and international law gives us the right to defend ourselves as it does Israel to defend itself. Violence will abate in direct correspondence with lowered violence from Israel. Indeed, our government is proposing a cease fire, which I heard recently is being negotiated. Perhaps this will help bring peace, but we can expect a full peace only after the occupation ends and our human rights are fully restored.