In the Light, Palestine-Israel: On the Israel side of the Gaza wall—Netiv Ha’asara & Sderot, part 2

Qassam rocket, fired by militants from Gaza, on display in Gaza passport control office

American Friends Service Committee office in Gaza

Sderot

From Netiv Ha’asara side of Gaza wall

Both communities are within 1 km of Gaza and often heavily attacked by rockets and mortars fired by Gazan militants. Nomika Zion lives in Sderot, Roni Keidar and her daughter, Inbal Yahav, live in Netiv Ha-asara even closer to Gaza.

…Not in my name and not for me did you go into this war. The bloodbath in Gaza is not in my name nor for my security. Houses destroyed, schools blown up, thousands of new refugees – they are not in my name or for my security. In Gaza, there is no time for funerals; the dead are put in refrigerators two by two in the mortuary for lack of room. The bodies of policemen and children are laid out and the eager journalists jump between the tactics of pro -Israel advocacy and “the pictures that speak for themselves”. Tell me, what is there to explain? What is there to explain?…

—Nomika Zion, “War Diary from Sderot”

Sderot

Most recent photos

Older photos

Excerpts from my journal as I explore the situation in Palestine and Israel

Nomika Zion’s house

April 22, 2013, Monday, Sderot, Israel

I enjoy Nomika tremendously. She is of my heart and soul. There is a profound linkage, part of it verging on romance, a physical and attitudinal connection that motivates me to return to Sderot. I must confess I feel something of this for Eric Yellin (now temporarily in California with his family) as well and miss him. He is more sedate, composed, but equally committed. To reach Eric and Nomika I must endure the notorious Erez crossing point between Gaza and Israel. Relatively easy this time, partly because I know the routine better and partly maybe because Israel has smoothed out the procedure. I rode on a golf cart-like vehicle, rather than walked. I did not need to drag my heavy luggage. No more insistent men who would argue with me, demand I allow them to carry my luggage, charge me exorbitantly. I’m not sure who arranged this, Israel, Hamas, the two of them?

From Gaza thru Erez to Israel

However transit required a long time to get thru, more than one hour. As we waited for the luggage inspection we were suddenly cleared from the area for a few minutes. I observed security people scurrying about and then all returned to normal: a bomb scare? Many were with me which may have slowed the process. We watched personnel search thru luggage. I’m not sure how thoroughly they checked my major bags. Not the usual mess after inspection. I seem to have lost nothing of value, in particular my photos and text files, nor do I believe they were opened and looked at. Oddly enough I did lose my olive oil of all items. I think I observed an agent looking thru a small bag and then throwing it into trash. May have been my oil. Why this? I have no idea. I did not question it because Roni Keidar was awaiting me.

During the long wait I noticed various verbal altercations between staff and those of us transiting. One young man in particular constantly argued with staff (he’d help me thru the turnstile with my luggage). All in Hebrew or Arabic so I had no idea of the content. Maybe about what he brought thru. A large man in army uniform than joined the conversation. I noticed how attentive and respectful he was to the young Palestinian. He cocked his head with an attentive expression on his face. He seemed to listen.

Israel side of Erez crossing

The usual questions to me from passport control—doing what with whom in Gaza, plans in Israel, how long, who, why, how did you meet, have a plane ticket? Minor hassle. I am experienced at this now and have many Israeli friends thruout the country. When I mentioned Sderot the agent seems to soften.

April 23, 2013, Tuesday, Bethlehem, Occupied Palestine 

At Nomika Zion’s another intense conversation, this time during lunch in the group building where I bumped into the guy who’d attended one of my shows in Berkeley California (in a home, sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace) which Eric from Sderot Israel also attended. Turns out he lives in the same urban kibbutz as does Eric, Migvan. Nomika, in her usual, super abundant, extremely spirited manner—which I so love about her but wonder how that energy might feel close up—was stunned about the connection. Later we discussed the Jewish and especially the Israeli Jewish propensity to interrupt, be loud, push, and feel the center of the universe individually and as a people. She might exemplify this, another reason I love her. She is so Jewish (also part Austrian I learned, something she agreed we shared).

Eric Yellin speaking with a friend of Skip Schiel’s in Gaza

Netiv Ha’asra

Unlike the previous 2 visits, on this one she has been generous with her time. Always serving me, making sure I’m content, and never pulling away from a conversation. Our best ever. I made the panorama of the wall near Netiv Ha’asara that I’d promised her and emailed it. She opened it immediately and exclaimed, where is this? I’ve never seen this! I described its location. She said, we take our delegations to a different part of the barrier, a fence, and seemed to suggest she might change the itinerary. My small contribution to news from Sderot. Nomika tours the West Bank every 4 months or so, last time to Nablus where she bought expensive olive oil. She asked me to remove her photo that I’d made in 2009 from my website, thanked me for removing it from my blog last year and gently chided me for forgetting or neglecting the second removal. I accomplished this in a flash and sent her the link. Too bad—such a handsome person. She explained, never photograph a woman in the morning.

Nomika introduced me to Roni Keidar and said of her, she is one of the “best and most active members of Other Voice.” Eric Yellin and Nomika cofounded Other Voice, residents of Israeli communities bordering Gaza who oppose many Israeli policies regarding the Palestinians. Nomika  published an article about life during Operation Cast Lead, the brutal air and ground assault on Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009 which killed some 1,500 Gazans, some two-thirds of them children, and then another assault from the air in November 2012. It’s titled “War Diary from Sderot” (linked below).

I regret not writing more about Kirin, the young Israeli film student from the Galilee, now studying in Sderot. We met in  Netiv Ha’asara when I rode with her and her filmmaker colleague, Ose Oyamendanm, in Roni’s car. They are making a movie about Netiv Ha’asara, Sderot, and Gaza. Kirin is not representative of young Israelis. Much more aware of injustice to Palestinians, she lives near Palestinians so this might explain part of her story. Thanks to this filmmaking team I photographed Roni’s daughter, Inbal Yahav, as she told about the death of her good friend, Dana Galkowicz, in 2005, hit directly by a mortar fired from Gaza and killed instantly. Dana was 22 years old, soon to marry.

(Courtesy of Ose Oyamendanm)

I phoned for a taxi to meet me at 2 pm which gave me time to explore Nomika’s neighborhood. On an hour-long walk I met Sharon Ben Abu who with her husband makes sculptures (Haviv Art). I’d been photographing a metal drummer in a traffic circle, the drummer’s head  swarming with what might have been snakes. She called to me, hey, what are you doing, why are you photographing this? I ambled over to her, put on my gentle smile, and said, because I admire this sculpture, find it lovely, wish to show it to others. She suddenly warmed. Oh, she said, go right ahead, my husband and I made it.

This led to a long halting conversation (because her English was rough). I learned all the metal came from rockets and mortars that had fallen on Sderot. Thus the screaming swarming hair. When I revealed I knew Nomika and was staying with her, Sharon launched into a long criticism of something related to Nomika and the urban kibbutz Nomika lives in. Something about the people being privileged, living better than most Sderotians, and about the program that hires mentally disabled adults. She claimed they were cheated of their proper pay. She would not grant me permission to photograph her. Later when I told Nomika about the meeting I omitted the criticism.

Sharon asked if I am Jewish. I told her the Schiel-Sage-Zagy-mother story [that my sister wonders if we are Jewish because of how Jewish our mother acted and looked], which seemed to partially authenticate me. I said nothing about my mission. She didn’t inquire. On that same walk I photographed young kids playing outside their school, bomb shelters very conspicuous. I worked fast and only later, at another site, did a security woman stop me. No pictures! Nomika explained that a law prohibits photographing children’s faces without the permission of parents. When I asked Nomika why, she could not fully answer, something about pornography maybe. I felt I performed a possibly useful service by showing the ubiquitous bomb and rocket shelters in Sderot (also the walls in Netiv Ha’asara that protect residents from mortars and personal incursions).

I could easily reside in Sderot longer—if Nomika would host me and if I could find a project. I do love it there, purely Mediterranean and very western. Too bad most Sderotians support their government fully, as far as I’m aware, and Nomika, Roni, and Eric are such exceptions. I mostly fit, nearly as well as I fit into Gaza. With one key exception: the level of suffering and fear is much greater in Gaza. When asked, why do you go to Gaza? I answer, I am impelled to go where there is suffering, try to show it, end it. And my peers would be aghast at my choice of residence and allegiance. I doubt many would contribute financially to my project in Sderot.

April 26, 2013, Friday, Bethlehem, Occupied Palestine 

I posted the Sderot-Netiv Ha’asara photos set after checking with Roni and her daughter about her daughter’s photos and my possible later writing. All 3 gave approval. I’ve yet to make a decent portrait of Nomika, or at least one she approves. This is an ongoing quest, one of many of mine.

Haviv Art Multidisciplinary Artist Studio lives in Sderot, near the border of Gaza City. His works combine musical elements, East and West, a musical bridge of peace between peoples and different cultures. He likes the dialogue through art, because art has the power to grow a new generation of peace and brotherhood. He says it is recommended for all people, despite the conflict in his area, because his art expresses the need, even in difficult times, of peace, sanity, color and imagination.

—Isabel del Rio, Yareah Magazine

LINKS

Haviv Art on Facebook

Ose Oyamendanm’s ”Bridges over Blood,” a movie in production about Israelis and Palestinians working for peace and justice

Nomika Zion at 2009 Survivor Corps – Niarchos Prize Ceremony (video)

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In the Light, Palestine-Israel: On the Israel side of the Gaza wall—Netiv Ha’asara & Sderot, part 1

From Netiv Ha’asra, Israel, looking into Beit Hanoun, Gaza

Both communities are within 1 km of Gaza and often heavily attacked by rockets and mortars fired by Gazan militants. Nomika Zion lives in Sderot, Roni Keidar and her daughter, Inbal Yahav, live in Netiv Ha-asara even closer to Gaza.

This wasn’t my war, Bibi, and neither was the previous cursed war: not in my name, and not in the cause of my security. Neither were the boastful, theatrical assassinations of Hamas military chief Ahmed al-Jabari in November, and Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi in 2004, and Hamas founder Sheikh Yassin, and Al-Kaysi, and Shahada and Ayash—wicked as they were—these were done neither on my behalf nor for my security…. —Nomika Zion

Photos

Older photos

Excerpts from my journal as I explore the situation in Palestine and Israel

April 22, 2013, Monday, Sderot, Israel, with Nomika Zion

A full day yesterday with Roni Keidar of Netiv Ha’asara, probably one of the Israeli communities nearest Gaza, and 2 filmmakers, one from Nigeria and the USA, Ose Oyamendan, and a young woman from the Galilee studying film making in Sderot, Kirin. Roni hosted the 3 of us and guided us to several walls, the main wall for “infiltrators” as she named them, i.e., escapees from Gaza perhaps intend on damaging Israeli Jews, and a barrier to prevent sniper fire. There is around-the-clock army presence to prevent tunneling and several chain link fences to control access to agricultural fields. The village (Netiv Ha’asara, meaning path, path to something) is a moshav, a cooperative farming community.

Roni Keidar’s house and yard

She explained to us that all families, comprising some 750 people, have about 10 acres of fields each, and some 70% actively farm them. She and her dour, stern-looking husband, an agricultural engineer working for a seed company, grow tomatoes and other plants for seeds. Many of these fields squat between the Gaza wall and Netiv. She showed us the several walls, including one with a ceramic and calligraphic installation made by a resident. It’s called Netiv Shalom, Path to Peace, and invites visitors to add shells to fill out the lettering. For some reason we did not participate.

Netiv L’Shalom – Path to Peace

Ose and his hired assistant, Kirin, are making a movie comparing life in Gaza with life in the surrounding Israeli communities, an obviously good idea. I wonder if anyone has tried it before. In a minor way that is the theme of my various visits to Sderot. They filmed an interview with Roni’s daughter, Inbal Yahav. With tears in her eyes Inbal told us about the death of a close friend of hers, Dana Galkowicz, who at the age of 22, ready to marry someone from the moshav, while fleeing a rocket attack in 2005, tried to race into her house shortly after speaking with her fiancé. The rocket landed on or near her, a piece of it struck her head, probably an instant death. Death is a close neighbor in Netiv Ha’asara. Inbal named her daughter after Dana. Apparently severely traumatized, Dana’s former fiancé will not return to the village and has since married. Also, Dana’s father was in great pain until recently. As are or were many in the community. Less physical carnage perhaps in these Israeli communities than in Gaza and much of the West Bank, but a high degree of trauma.

Inbal Yahav

Dana Galkowicz (courtesy of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Roni told us her story about how she arrived at her twin passions: face-to-face meetings with adversaries and negotiations. She meets Gazans at the Erez crossing who are entering Israel for medical treatment and accompanies them thru the system. She is active with the organization, Other Voice, linking the 2 communities. She told us how Inbal, her daughter, at a very early age like 6 years (my granddaughter Eleanor’s current age), while living in Egypt (Roni’s husband is Jewish Egyptian, driven out or voluntarily fleeing shortly after Israeli independence), was excluded by an Egyptian mother from the daughter’s birthday party. Thru Roni’s persistence and the intervention of an understanding teacher the mother relented and included Inbal in the party. The 2 girls came to be closest friends. A case study in reconciliation—human beings transformed from enemies to friends. And she believes this can happen, should happen, on a much larger scale. I’m sure her story is online somewhere so I won’t try to retrieve details.

From Netiv Ha’asara

Roni recently returned from a 3 week speaking tour of the USA where, Nomika told me, she exuded high energy at an advanced age (I believe around 67, I’m 72, I wonder how long I can sustain energy for this project) and spread the good news of Israeli Jews who live close to Gaza and shout with Other Voice: peace with justice!

…as Israeli airstrikes shook homes throughout the crowded enclave. “Hi Roni,” [Mimi, a Gazan friend] wrote. “I hope you and your family are well and safe. What’s happening is really insane. Please take care and stay safe. Love, Mimi.” Keidar felt the warmth of the gesture but also the sheer weirdness of the circumstances. Rockets fired from Gaza—maybe even from Ibrahim’s neighborhood—were raining all around Keidar’s tiny farming town, Netiv Ha’asara. “Thank you for your concern,” Keidar replied. “I’m thinking of you since it all started and I hope you and your family are okay. If only our leaders would talk. Take care.” It took only a minute for Ibrahim to respond: “Our leaders don’t care about us. The situation is really bad and I expect it to get worse. I hear bombing everywhere. We are safe so far. Take care.”… —”A Brave Friendship Spans the Border Between Israel and Gaza,” by Dan Ephron and Sarah A Topol

Roni Keidar (David Blumenfeld for Newsweek)

Now Nomika who lives nearby in Sderot, herself a major story (all in a visit of less than 24 hours). First my impressions: high energy, near manic, interrupting me constantly but also able to listen, treating me with great respect, nearly every one of my needs fulfilled, passionate, dedicated to justice for the Palestinians, critical of Israel’s habitual militarized responses to threat, courageous, innovative (she claims to have founded this urban kibbutz), active, far from numbness (I asked how she avoided numbness, thinking of T—mainly my family, she told me, parents and grandparents, all very active politically, grandfather a founder of the Haganah and active with labor-derived kibbutzim), and constantly tweaking her long black curly hair. I estimate from appearance and stories she is in her 50s. She informed me about an article she’d written about Operation Pillar of Cloud/Defense that occurred in November 2012. It had been translated into English and published by the New York Review of Books. I found it on the internet and swiftly forwarded it with a personal note to my Levant list. It is titled, “It’s Not Just About Fear, Bibi, It’s About Hopelessness.” She slyly remarked, it is just a rewrite of my famous earlier article, “War Diary from Sderot”, which I wrote during Operation Cast Lead in 2009. But I find it is more—articulate and impassioned, a plea for wisdom.

Her story (I should probably take notes if I wish to be a professional journalist, but I don’t and I’m not—I’m a photographer looking for images and a human being forming relationships with a variety of people): in large part it’s about growing up on a kibbutz near a development town (people strategically resettled to claim the land). She observed racist hatred directed by her peers against those living in the town. Which motivated her to form the urban kibbutz, Kibbutz Migvan, in another development town, Sderot, then largely populated by Moroccan Jews resettling in Israel. The population of this urban kibbutz is now mixed and the site of a major NGO (that had its board meeting last night) offering social-psychological services to a wide variety of people, including mentally disabled. She showed me the many gifts and products from their production, ceramics mostly decorated by the participants.

Nomika’s home

When I asked her what Other Voice was doing to end the Gazan siege and transform the situation of conflict generally, she listed a variety of projects from Voice that brought Palestinians and Israelis together. During the conference Eric Yellin helped organize and indeed may have initiated 2 years ago (that I supported and promoted) a young Gazan man who attended gave an interview on the web which Hamas apparently saw. They tortured him, probably alleging collaboration with the enemy. He fled. But returned, was again tortured, refled and now is separated from his wife and kids and extended family—without country, perhaps barely surviving. All because of this “fraternizing” with the enemy. Nomika and I  deplore this attitude and policy. It’s as suicidal as are many of Israel’s violent policies. Nomika adamantly opposes these of her own country. She also listed the many international delegations Other Voice hosts and speaks to….

Wall separating Gaza and Israel Click here for larger image

TO BE CONTINUED

LINKS

“It’s Not Just About Fear, Bibi, It’s About Hopelessness,” by Nomika Zion, with an introduction by Avishai Margalit (in the New York Review of Books, January 10, 2013)

“War Diary from Sderot,” by Nomika Zion, January 13, 2009

“A Brave Friendship Spans the Border Between Israel and Gaza,” by Dan Ephron and Sarah A Topol

Other Voice

Ose Oyamendanm filmmaker

Netiv Shalom, Path to Peace

Dana Galkowicz killed by a rocket from Gaza

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In the Light, Palestine-Israel: Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza & Ayman Nijim

Excerpts from my journal as I explore the situation in Palestine and Israel

To all the children everywhere, whether already here or yet to born. May their lives be a little easier; may they suffer less, because they have grown up unencumbered by the shadow of trauma. May they be blessed with resilience and inner peace!   —Ayman Nijim

PHOTOS

The main event yesterday [April 6, 2013] was a visit to the Nuseirat refugee camp adjacent to the Bureij camp (Raghda’s former home) with Ayman Nijim. He is a program coordinator at the psychosocial service agency, Afaq Jadeeda Association (New Horizons). I learned about him thru Cliff who put us in touch. The program is partially sponsored by the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) and includes a theater, kindergarten, counseling service, women’s center, library, and play area, among other offerings. At first I thought this might be simply a sit and chat sort of visit without photos but I asked if there was anything happening that I might photograph. MECA installed water purification facilities in the kindergarten after a survey revealed that what children in Gaza most wish for is clean water. He and a young woman, also a program coordinator, Fatma M. Khateib, pregnant and maybe worried what her next job might be since she works on a 4 month contract (when I asked her, what qualifies you for this job? thinking education, she retorted boldly, I’m good!), toured me thru some of the program’s facilities, mainly the main office and 2 schools. I photographed freely some of my most appealing topics—kids playing, learning English, singing, etc. We set up a few scenes of kids drinking from Maia project water installations.

Ayman Nijim

Fatma M. Khateib, Project Coordinator

His self-description from his fundraising letter:

I created and manage the psychosocial program “Let them Play and Heal”, the third phase, which is for children suffering from trauma, PTSD, hyper-attention deficit disorder at Afaq Jadeeda Association  in partnership with Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA). PLUS, I consult with classes to teach women methods to help traumatized children in Gaza Strip, obtain funding through grants for diverse programs including water filtration systems, children’s trauma treatment, emergency financial relief for refugees, and scholarships for orphans, coordinate with international visitors, providing research and training sessions with local participants and write press releases and invitations for liaising organizations to expand program capacities…

I made two fundraising events, one was in cooperation with the Maia Mural Brigade to bring financial aid to the medical sector in Gaza…This was with a long-time friend, Susan Green, who is a famous American Jewish muralist and founder of the Maia Mural Brigade and the other was with Mr. Bill Salughter, President of Gaza Mental Health Foundation, Boston.

I am a mental health practitioner and board member of International Trauma Treatment Program (ITTP) in Olympia, WA.… When I was in Olympia, I took classes in mediation, negotiation, crisis management, program management and multicultural psychology.

All of these courses shaped my dream to apply for study in the States, I researched how to build peace across cultures based on my experience of living under war in Iraq and being a journalist during the toppling of Fatah Movement in 2007 and the Operation Cast Lead Israeli assault on Gaza in 2008-09.

Fortunately, I was accepted in two universities in the states; the School for International Training in the field of Conflict Transformation Across Cultures, Brattleboro, Vermont, and in Center For Justice and Peacebuilding at the University of Mennonite in West Virginia. I hope I can succeed financially to attend one of these universities.

Now, I want to achieve my supreme dream: to make something for my community and the global community. But what hinders my dream is the money. I spare no effort to find people who might be interested to pave the way to a student to enroll in SIT school.

(Anyone wishing to contribute to Ayman’s education in Vermont which begins May 26, 2013 may send checks made payable to John Van Eenwyk with a note “Ayman” to Rev. Dr. John Van Eenwyk,  P. O. Box 1961, Olympia WA 98507.) He already has many contacts Stateside, including the Corries, some others in Olympia, Washington, and generally seems well-connected with USA activists and educators. After the tour we met with Lora who had some ideas for fundraising. One was to organize a fundraiser in Gaza itself. Ayman scratched this idea, explaining to us that there is no such thing in Gaza. Unheard of. He even resisted calling a friend in Gaza associated with MECA Something about their friendship. No doubt, a culturally bound ethic that Lora and I didn’t understand.

LINKS

Afaq Jadeeda Association

Ayman’s program in the camp is sponsored by the Middle East Children’s Alliance

More information here

International Trauma Treatment Program (ITTP) 

Conflict Transformation Across Cultures, CONTACT, the program Ayman has been accepted into in Vermont

TO BE CONTINUED                      

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In the Light, Palestine-Israel: The ordinary-extraordinary life of a father and son in Gaza

Excerpts from my journal as I explore the situation in Palestine and Israel

Hesham, the son, and Taher, the father, live an ordinary life in an extraordinary setting: Gaza. What is normal here in Gaza might be considered extraordinary elsewhere. In this account I hope to show something, maybe only minor details, of their relationship. My audience is not Gazans, but people in my own country, the United States of America. To see father and son in some of their daily life—fitting a suit for a wedding, later a party of males celebrating the upcoming wedding—is ordinary for many. However, because of where Taher and Hesham live, Gaza, which is under siege, frequently attacked by Israel, suffers high rates of poverty, unemployment, medical problems, and with most of the world oblivious to life here, the ordinary can become the extraordinary. That is my hope. Sumoud!

All we want is to be ordinary. —Mahmoud Darwish

PHOTOS

April 1, 2013, Monday, Gaza City, Rimal neighborhood, El Shawwa Building, my home

Another improvised, spontaneous day yesterday [March 31.2013], Easter (for many worldwide, maybe for a tiny sliver here in Gaza where I observed no sign of it anywhere). Hesham phoned to ask where I was, whether I was free, whether we could meet. Two years have passed since we last saw each other: Gaza, the photo workshop he enrolled in. Despite his studies last fall in NYC we were unable to meet in my homeland. Yesterday we greeted each other with big hugs and the customary Arabic cheek kissing. So happy to see each other. Nearly like brothers. Or more accurately because of the age difference, uncle and favorite nephew. We strolled downtown, he treated me to a special concoction of ice cream and something like flavored ice. We strolled further, we might have had coffee, he phoned his father, asked me if I’d like to meet him. I said sure, and that began not only a foray into his family as a slice of Gazan life, but also a possible photographic project in Gaza—the ordinary-extraordinary life of son and father. After my recent Skype discussion with S when she encouraged me to photograph ordinary Palestinian life I considered who might be my subjects. Maybe Islam and Ban and their infant son. Which raised problems—the hijab or head covering (as Hesham instructed me, even if instead of me  a woman photographed Ban at home with her hair uncovered, etiquette dictates that those photos not be shown outside the family.) Then Hesham and his father walked onto the stage and might become the principal actors in my project.

Taher Mhanna (Taher in Arabic means pure and I believe fits him well) bought me chicken kabob and afterwards we visited his tailor to be fitted for new suits for him and Hesham. Before leaving the restaurant I tried a few portraits of Taher thinking, this will be the screen test, I will learn what sort of chemistry exists between us, how he photographs. The new clothing is for impending marriages. Hesham’s brother and cousin will both marry—separately—in the coming weeks, and I’m invited to some of the festivities including a bachelor’s party. Joking with Hesham I asked, do you know what bachelor’s parties in the USA sometimes entail? He nodded, but he may have thought simply alcohol when I meant paid sex, either a show or participation.

Not a particularly savory western influence. I doubt anytime soon Gazan betrothed males will partake in either the booze or the sex. I learned that the tailor’s business has diminished because of the siege Israel intensified after Hamas came to power thru an election in 2006. The business is now reduced by about 70%. Formerly they’d exported to Israel who would add a label, Made in Israel. All employees were male; 4 or 5 brothers, sons of the founder, run the business. When the founder died he was making a suit by hand. The suit now hangs on the wall and I dumbly forgot to include it in the copious set of photos I made yesterday.

When I photographed the line of workers at their sewing machines I wondered, what has been their education? How many have university degrees? What were their previous jobs? Why are they here? I could imagine a series just about this, portraits of some workers, with biographies or statements from them.

The owners and I joked about future clothing technology after one had told me that his father sewed everything by hand. I said, yesterday by hand, today by machine, tomorrow perhaps by computer. And following that perhaps a new clothing technology: not actually wearable clothing but virtual clothing—with a push of the button a new skin, one for cold, one for hot, one for dry, one for wet. Hesham added, the Japanese have invented an air-conditioned suit. No surprise, I added, from the inventors of the bread machine, the hybrid automobile, the digital camera, and the high-speed bullet train. The Japanese are very clever people. Photographically I played with the mirror that father and son used to see themselves in their new, overly loose at this point, garments. I played with the various personnel that helped in the fitting, including the main tailor but also onlookers and, when focused on Hesham, his dad in the background or nearby helping, or when on father, son. I believe the set portrays something about the relationship between father and son. And this might be a main theme in this series. Parallel to the tailor’s business condition, Taher has been out of work because of the Hamas-Fatah split and the siege. He ran a construction business and hopes now for new projects. He told me finding financing is slow and he wants to make sure he can work with his new partners.

Hesham had recently been accepted for a conference in Turkey about business (his major is business administration) that was to occur in a few days, but he declined because of the family marriages. Had those marriages not been planned, he might have attended the conference. Thus I’d miss him for my assistant in the photography workshop I lead and as a primary  subject of this photo series. He told me all about his studies in the USA last fall, at New York University in NYC, a program that brought Israelis and Palestinians together for dialog and often heated argument. He loved it, but found the city too busy and fast. He much preferred the relative peace of Boston where he went twice, both times failing to meet me—once to escape Hurricane Sandy and once to visit friends in a suburb far from Boston which is perhaps why we didn’t link. Like my friendship with Ibrahim in Gaza, my friendship with Hesham is yet another reason I am attracted to Gaza and find it a good fit.

It is when we all play safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity. —Dag Hammarskjold

TO BE CONTINUED

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In the Light, Palestine-Israel: I enter Gaza

Hear the prayer of our soul. There speaks our truth and faith: To fulfill our task on earth we need Powers great from lands where spirits dwell, Strength that comes from friends who have died. —The House of Peace

Excerpts from my journal as I explore the situation in Palestine and Israel PHOTOS March 25, 2013, Monday, Gaza City, Ramal neighborhood, El Shawwa Building, my home Everything the same, everything different. That’s how I’d describe my current feeling upon arrival in Gaza yesterday [March 24, 2013]. Familiar surroundings and people in Gaza (this is my 6th visit), entirely different from the way I usually live and with whom I live and interact back home. From Jerusalem to the Erez crossing from Israel in about 90 minutes, paid for by the American Friends Service Committee with whom I work in Gaza, very smooth. The road narrowed and became more potholed the nearer as we approached Gaza. The driver was friendly but not communicative, probably the language differences. He has one young daughter, I told him about my family. He’d like to visit Gaza, but can’t because of Israeli restrictions. So much for that conversation. Entering the border crossing or checkpoint, a massive one, buildings expanded significantly since I was last here in winter 2010, a young woman (behind glass and placed higher than me) interrogated me for about 5 minutes. Her first question was are you a journalist? I slipped and said, sort of, well no, not really. (I might have been barred had I identified as a journalist.) Doing what, with whom, who is the American Friends Service Committee, what do they do, why photography, photography for what and whom, etc ? I was puzzled by these questions since I had a permit. Is honoring such a permit conditioned on giving proper answers? As I wrote my Levant list, with photos: One might ask: by what right does Israel control entrance into Gaza? The entrance hall is much larger than is probably needed. I’ve never seen more than a handful of people using it. Like a facility built for the Olympics and then the Olympics are cancelled, rendering the facility useless. I observed a family of Palestinians, 2 women, both obese, one very elderly, with a small child, going thru the turnstile—with wheeled luggage. All had problems. Had I not been under surveillance by the ubiquitous cameras I would have made photos. First the luggage, jammed thru, stuck, pushed, ejected, then the woman. The older woman held onto the turnstile as she painfully inched thru. And she could walk. What about those who can’t? A motorized cart awaited her and drove the small family the 2 or so km to the exit point. Once past the prying cameras I pulled out my own and photographed fences, corridors, more motorized carts, walkers, etc. No rubble collectors like I had spotted 2 years ago, but I observed one tent with about 4 young men and boys in it, which I photographed, and another ramshackle structure that might have been a temporary dwelling. Do people risk their lives out here or has Israel relented slightly and does not fire on them? I learned later that after the so-called Pillar of Cloud operation last November,  when Israel again assaulted Gaza, 8 days of unrelenting destruction, in a ceasefire agreement, Israel expanded the fishing area from 3 to 6 nautical miles. And then shrunk it again when militants fired rockets into southern Israel during Obama’s visit 2 weeks ago. After the group of Salafists (fundamentalist Muslims) admitted responsibility, Hamas arrested several men. Going thru Palestinian security I photographed (with permission) an exploded Qassam rocket near a Koranic inscription, proudly displayed on top of a cabinet in the inpection office. As if to state, our religion sanctions violent resistance. The luggage check was cursory. Had I brought with me some booze and stuck it near the bottom of the luggage I doubt the inspector would have found it (unlike the last time I tried that). Luckily he did not find my medicinal pill cache. How would I explain this? Not drugs sir, simply meds. Here, try one. No questions by these officials. And of course the architectural differences between Israel and Palestine are dramatic, indicating power and wealth disparities very clearly. First stop, the AFSC office where the director, Amal, greeted me and accepted a hug with cheek kisses (Only for Skip, she told a colleague). Islam greeted me with a bear hug, Mosab greeted me with hugs and cheek kisses, and I met some new staff, the taciturn Hamed, and a grim fellow stuck at his computer. My good friend Ibrahim was on his way to Tunisia with Firas for a World Social Forum, and Rana is out for 1 month after she slipped on oil and broke her leg. No sign of the ever-present cleaning woman with her insistent and incessant smile. They asked if I was glad to be back. Oh yes, very glad. When I enter the region, Palestine-Israel, I feel happy, mabsut. However, when I enter Gaza I am super happy, very mubsut. Wandering around while staff met to hire new personnel for a documentation project (that I might help with) I discovered a poster in Amal’s office showing 3 Chicago AFSC staff, Jennifer Bing, Miriam somebody, and a man I didn’t recognize. They smiled at the camera as Jennifer stood beside the photo I’d made of Amal at a Popular Achievement Program festival in Gaza in 2009. This pleases me, as I told Mosab, often much more than money. TO BE CONTINUED LINKS “Tunisia hosts World Social Forum, and reflects challenges to Arab Spring”  by Medea Benjamin on April 2, 2013 Popular Achievement Program of the American Friends Service Committee

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My upcoming trip to Palestine-Israel and Shaliach Mitzvah Gelt

Shaliach Mitzvah Gelt

An ancient Jewish tradition, Shaliach Mitzvah, claims that god will protect a person on a mission until she returns with evidence of the mission’s completion. Such as a receipt for a donation. I’m raising money to give to worthy folks I meet on my next trip to Palestine-Israel. I’ll donate your money, ask for a receipt, and hope to be protected until I give you that receipt as evidence that I’ve completed my mission as a conduit for your generosity.

My good friend and colleague in the struggle, the Jewish activist and educator, Marty Federman, taught me that a shaliach is an agent or representative. He explained:

[And] “mitzvah” is…commonly used to mean a good deed as in “helping the poor is a real mitzvah” but the word actually means a commandment [normally something commanded in the Torah] as in “observing the Sabbath is a primemitzvah.” One who is a “shaliach mitzvah” is considered to be either “an agent of a good deed” or, more relevant for the situation you’re in, “an agent of fulfilling a commandment” [in this case the mitzvah/commandment is providing for the poor/needy.] This has become, as is often the case, a popular tradition done by people who don’t fully connect it to any specific Jewish text or ruling but it actually has roots in a couple of verses from the Talmud:

 “A mitzvah protects and rescues one while s/he is engaged in it.” [Sotah 21a]

     and

“Agents of a mitzvah will not be harmed.” [Pesachim 8a]

If you’re interested in joining me on this mission you can contribute directly thru PayPal (marked “for Shaliach Mitzvah”) on my website, or by check (9 Sacramento St, Cambridge MA 02138).

I’ll be in the Mideast from March 17 until June 11, 2013 working with the American Friends Service Committee, Friends of the Earth Middle East, Palestine News Network, and the Jenin Freedom Theater, among other organizations. I’ll make photos and teach photography. You can stay tuned to my dispatches at my website and this blog.

Thanks for your concern and possible largesse.

—Skip

Moamen Qreiqea, Gaza, Palestine, 2010

LINKS:

“Wheelchair-bound photographer strives to keep shooting”

“United by Loss, Israeli & Palestinian Dads Call for a Joint Nonviolent Intifada Against Occupation” (Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan, Feb 26, 2013)

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A Dialog about “The Slaughter of the Innocents: the Sandy Hook school shooting & the Gaza Strip”—part 2

This post will consist of at least one further dialog elicited by my initial post which compared the Sandy Hook school shooting of late 2012 with the continuing Israeli assaults on the Gaza Strip. I encourage others to join the dialog.

From Thomas Laxar

Dear Skip:

First of all, the title ["The Slaughter of the Innocents: the Sandy Hook school shooting & the Gaza Strip"] of your article equates Israel with an individual who intentionally targeted and murdered children. Your defense of that title on your blog quotes a document that states, “the Israeli assault on Gaza of 2008-09 which killed more than 300 children, established Israeli’s deliberate policy of striking non-combatants.”  So it is hard to understand why you would assert now, “I do not intend to “demonize” or “delegitimize” Israel or supporters of Israel..”  What could be more demonic than a deliberate policy of killing children?  The inescapable impression is that you very clearly intended to demonize Israel.

Second, the subject of neutrality has nothing to do with my message to you. Neutrality is a word that connotes a detached and aloof position.  Being aware of the suffering and having compassion for both sides is not neutrality.  It is the starting point for waging peace.  It is part of a passionate advocacy for kindness for all the victims and on the part of all the combatants.

Third, you correlate the plight of the Palestinians to the American civil rights movement, and the struggles in South Africa and India.  All of those other situations involved a conflict between a clearly identifiable oppressor and a victim. These are very weak correlations that substantially miss the core issues of this conflict. In Palestine we have mutually aggrieved parties that have visited misery on one another for 64 years.  There is an abundance of victims on both sides. It is impossible to say who is the greater victim because there is no meter or metric for the pain, suffering, and fear that everyone there experiences. That emotionality and spiritual poverty are the core issues.

Also, since your advocacy is so strongly for justice, you should be aware that the idea of justice is inextricably entwined with the spirit of vengeance and retribution. In fact, they are often used as synonyms. For example, the primary argument used by those who favor the death penalty is that the victim’s families deserve justice. I stopped going to peace marches some years ago because the media ignored our witness. The cameras were all focused on the advocates of justice. They were the ones wearing masks and throwing rocks at the police.

I know you have another idea of the term justice, but the common meaning of the word more often than not poisons any advocacy for justice. Anyway, there is nothing that approaches a consensus of what a just solution would be in this conflict. Hamas would probably define justice as the realization of their charter’s vision and God’s will for the establishment an Islamic caliphate that rules all of Palestine. Certain Israelis would define justice as the fulfillment of G-d’s promise to Moses by incorporating all of “Judea” and “Samaria” into Greater Israel and the “transfer” of the non-Jewish residents out of the region. Of course, there is endless variation of opinion on what justice would be between these extremes. From a pragmatic point of view, making justice the central issue is a prescription for constant argument and continued conflict. We need to remember that justice is not about reconciliation. In its best sense, it is about litigation, assigning blame, and judgment.

On the other hand, everyone knows what peace is. We are called by Jesus Christ to bring love to others, not judgment upon others.

The only real solution for this region’s agony is a spiritual transformation. One way we can help make that happen by bringing as many people as possible from both parties together in mutual efforts to build better living conditions for everyone. There is no end of possibilities for this. It could be planning better use of the precious aquifers, joint fire departments,  youth activities, etc.  Some of this is happening. It’s about engaging in actions that build trust, cooperation, a sense of common purpose, and companionship. This is the news we need to hear. These are the kinds of efforts we need to support.

Lastly, I believe your assertion that the plight of the Palestinians is under reported is simply factually incorrect.  The media is mesmerized by their suffering. The truth is that the violence is over reported and peace efforts are virtually ignored by mainstream media.

By the way, you can feel free to post this dialogue on your blog.  It is not necessary to hide my name.

However, please do not include my email address, especially as for some reason, my work email was unintentionally attached to my message.

May we travel by Christ’s light

Thomas Laxar

From me:

I believe the crux of our discussion—and my work in the region—is precisely as you state: “Being aware of the suffering and having compassion for both sides is … the starting point for waging peace.  It is part of a passionate advocacy for kindness for all the victims and on the part of all the combatants.” I would merely add the concept of justice: compassion as the starting point for waging peace and seeking justice. What’s the scriptural quote: He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8, English Standard Version)

“Non-combatants” doesn’t necessarily imply children. I do not claim Israel deliberately targets children, I do claim that at least in the case of Operation Cast Lead, they deliberately targeted civilians, which would include children. (See the UN report on this, incorrectly titled the “Goldstone Report.”)

I’m not sure I follow your logic that this claim necessarily implies I intend to “demonize” Israel (Whatever “demonize” now means, used so often by supporters of Israel to attack those who criticize the state’s policies, as is “delegitimize,” equivalent in frequency of use to “anti-Semitic” and “self hating Jew,” two other overused and perhaps largely meaningless terms). I intend to hold the Israeli government and its leaders responsible for reprehensible behavior, possibly war crimes and crimes against humanity. One may respect the murder’s humanity while holding the person accountable.

I stand by my references to the struggles in the United States against racism and in South Africa against apartheid and India against colonialism, 3 monumental freedom struggles. Israel is clearly the aggressor, Palestine the victim in a struggle for its basic human rights. That to me is key and incontestable.

One point of comparison is proportionality. Certainly, Israelis suffer from the Israel-Palestine conflict, as do Palestinians, and finding a metric for suffering may be impossible, but quantity is a rough measure. Approximately 1 Israeli Jew dead for every 4 Palestinians since 2000, the beginning of the Second Intifada. Another is economic condition. Clearly the Palestinians—especially those in Gaza—are in a much worse position due to the conflict than are the Israelis. And the all important ideal of freedom. When did you last hear of an Israeli unable to leave the region because of Palestinian restrictions, or Gazans able to freely leave and reenter their homeland?

Some may seek vengeance and retribution when they advocate for justice, but I do not and from my experiences with Palestinians most also do not. They simply seek their human rights, justice for their condition—in a word: freedom!

Furthermore, I do seek judgment and the placing of blame on those parties that act inhumanely, injure and kill others, exploit economic power, and generally act against the rules and laws of civilized people. Thru the application of international law to this conflict, a point I stress repeatedly, and a possible truth and reconciliation process like that of South Africa, I believe we can rectify the wrongs, set the course toward justice, peace, security, and reconciliation for most parties in this conflict. Some, like Hamas and the extremist Israeli Jews who tend to populate some settlements, and the Knesset in recent years, may not be satisfied with outcomes. I hope they are patient and understand the benefits of a resolution based on compromise.

I agree that spiritual transformation is crucial for a solution, I’m not convinced it is the only element. Simply put: honor the humanity in all, we are all connected, and all are divine and from the divine. Radical religious Jews and radical religious Muslims may understand this.

As for under and distorted reporting of Palestinian experience, over the past half decade or so the proportion of information about Palestinians has modestly increased. I do not have figures but clearly over the past 3 or so decades the proportion favors Israeli Jews. The New York Times, New Yorker, Boston Globe, and mainstream television, 60 Minutes in particular, buttressed considerably by web-based media, have done a much better job of reportage. I hope to be part of that new wave.

Thanks again for your willingness to engage the issues and me, and for allowing your name and affiliation to be public. I encourage others to join us.

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A Dialog about “The Slaughter of the Innocents: the Sandy Hook school shooting & the Gaza Strip”—part 1

This post will consist of at least one further dialog elicited by my initial post which compared the Sandy Hook school shooting of late 2012 with the continuing Israeli assaults on the Gaza Strip. I encourage others to join the dialog.

Skip:

I was disappointed, but not surprised when you published a text with the title,” The Slaughter of the Innocents: the Sandy Hook school shooting & the Gaza Strip”.  Your pro-Palestinian bias was already pretty evident in your messages.  However, this title, and more especially your defense of it in your dialogue with “Mr. H” of it reveals your position on another level.

As peacemakers, we are called upon to be aware of the suffering of both sides and live a life that evinces compassion for all.  One can criticize the behavior, motivations, and goals of either party in a conflict without betraying ones commitment as an advocate of peace.  From my acquaintance with your message, you have been doing that, although from a clearly biased one sided perspective.

The conflict in Palestine has been an endless litany of war, blame, and recrimination for the last 64 years.  Anyone who is even casually listening to the politics or witnessing the armed conflicts of that region is completely and painfully aware of the grievances  of all sides and the injustices and inhumanity exhibited by all parties. 

A witness that merely restates over and over again the rational behind the blame for these horrific events is simply adding to what has become uninformative, numbing, drone.  It is a pointless witness that offers no benefit.  To be sure, we need to continue to hear about the events, but we have been past the need for more twisted histories and justifications for those events for a long time.

What we are all hungry for is a witness to the efforts towards reconciliation and forgiveness.  That witness, that voice exists, but it is very hard to hear.  It is hard to hear partly because there are so few publishing that message and so very many publishing their understandable outrage.  That voice of rage dominates the media and the noise drowns the testimony those few offering another way,

Unfortunately, you personally have left behind even that dubious witness with you recent article.  When you chose to demonize the Israelis, you departed from the ranks of peacemakers.  In your justification of what I had hoped was just an intemperate remark, you clearly joined the ranks of provocateurs.  You moved beyond being yet another witness with a particular position to being an active contributor to the environment of rage that is at the root of this tragic history.

My hope is that you will find a way to move back from that destructive position.  I don’t know what kind of effort on your part that would take.  Perhaps you could spend some time seriously looking a the sad lives of the Israeli settlers.  After all, they live in a prison too.

In the meantime, you and all the other combatants and victims in this tragic and unnecessary struggle will be in my prayers.

Thomas Laxar

Member, Berkeley Friends Church

From me:

Dear Thomas,

 

Thank you for writing me.

 

I regard myself and my photography not as pro-Palestinian but as pro-justice, peace, reconciliation, security and truth—for all parties in the Levant—with the clear emphasis on justice.

 

As Desmond Tutu remarked, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on a tail of a mouse and you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”

 

In the case of global climate change do we ask for balance and neutrality, no side taking? Do we insist on portraying the corporate positions about the environment or do we clearly take the side of the earth, as Bill McKibbin and 350.org are doing with their divestment campaign against the fossile fuel industry? Did Martin Luther King Jr in his activism include the positions of his white racist adversaries? Or Gandhi about the British or South African governments? He sought to know the British, acknowledge their humanity, but he did not maintain neutrality in his movement for Indian freedom. Using methods anchored in love and truth (satyagraha—truth force), both primarily sought justice, with freedom as their goal. Neither first sought peace and reconciliation between adversaries. I seek freedom and justice for the Palestinians, while I acknowledge the humanity of Israeli Jews.

 

Furthermore, how often do supporters of Israel even mention the experiences of Palestinians? I seek to adjust the overall balance which heavily favors Israeli perspectives. I do not intend to “demonize” or “delegitimize” Israel or supporters of Israel, 2 frequently heard words aimed at critics of Israel. I do intend to demand Israel adheres to international standards as expressed in laws, conventions, and UN resolutions. Their behavior during Operation Cast Lead clearly contravened those standards.

Dr. Mona AlFarra, in her apartment with the destroyed buildings of Hamas outside, after Operation Cast Lead, 2009-2009

You claim “we are all hungry for… reconciliation and forgiveness.” Many do surely, I do as well and I suspect many Palestinians would agree. However my priority and those of many Palestinians that I know emphasizes justice first, peace, reconciliation, and forgiveness later. “No justice, no peace,” about sums it up.

 

Finally, despite my identification as a Quaker I do not view myself or my work as primarily peacemaking, as laudable as this goal might be. I seek truth and justice. As was said by one of my photographic mentors, W. Eugene Smith, “Let truth be my prejudice.”

 

Thank you for your message and your prayers. May I suggest others might be interested in our dialog? Would you post your message to my blog? And then I’ll post my reply.  

 

—Skip 

TO BE CONTINUED

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Photographic exhibition by Skip Schiel about Gaza & the West Bank, open now in Cambridge MA, reception on Jan 20, 12:15

Gaza: How Do 1.5 Million People Live under Siege and Assault? + The West Bank: A Tale of Two Towns and Their Resistance: Violent or Nonviolent?

January & February, 2013

Friends Meeting at Cambridge, 5 Longfellow Park (near Harvard Square)

Mon-Fri, 10-3, other hours possible–Off hours appointments: 970-209-8346

Opening reception: January 20, Sunday, 12:15

Light refreshments and sale of photos, books, DVDs

Info about related programs (panels, slide shows, workshop, etc)

Flyer attached, please circulate this invitation

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The Slaughter of the Innocents: the Sandy Hook school shooting & the Gaza Strip

A few days after the Sandy Hook school murders in Newtown CT, I posted the following article from the Guardian about the Israeli assault on Gaza a few days before the school massacre. My email led to a brief dialog with one of my correspondents, Mr. H. I offered more details about my comparison.

PHOTOS

Gaza: ‘My child was killed and nothing has changed’ by Harriet Sherwood in the Guardian, December 11, 2012

The morning ritual goes like this: three-year-old Ali Misharawi wakes up and reaches for his father’s mobile phone. He kisses and strokes the face of his baby brother, Omar, on its small screen. Then he starts asking questions. Why is Omar in paradise? Why did you put my brother into the ground? Why can’t I play with him any more?

“He asks a lot of questions. Every day he asks if Omar is alive or dead. He knows what happened, he was there, but he needs to make sense of it,” says his father, Jihad Misharawi, whose family was devastated in an inferno on the first full day of last month’s war. Misharawi’s 11-month-old son Omar and 19-year-old sister-in-law Heba were killed instantly; his brother Ahmed, 18, died after 12 days in intensive care with burns to 85% of his body….

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/11/gaza-child-killed-nothing-changed

Jihad Misharawi weeps while he holds the body of his 11-month-old son Omar, killed by an Israeli airstrike. Photograph: Majed Hamdan/AP

Mr. H replied to my post which I’d entitled, “Sandy Hook Compared to Gaza”:

No! There is no comparison. It would be like comparing the climate on Venus to the climate on Mars. Gaza and Sandy Hook exist in two different worlds. Much more heat than light would be generated.

BTW, as reported by Mondoweiss.net there was an op-ed in the NY Times today comparing Palestinian suicide-bombers to US mass murders such as Adam Lanza [shooter at Sandy Hook school]: check it out. A lot of grotesque emotions will be stirred up by such talk.

Please reconsider such titles such as the one above.

Distraught family members leave the fire station after hearing news of their loved ones from officials Dec. 14, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. (Don Emmert/AFP, via Getty)

From me:

Thanks for engaging on the issue of my comparing killing children in Gaza and killing children in the Sandy Hook school.

Of course they cannot be equated. However I maintain there are at least 3 key similarities.

1.     The slaughter of innocents. Children and entire families die in Gaza, 20 children and 6 of their teachers and their principal die in Sandy Hook.

2.     The deliberate slaughter of innocents. Altho Israel claims they do not intend to kill civilians, they do, predictably. The UN-initiated and accepted Goldstone Report about Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli assault on Gaza of 2008-09 which killed more than 300 children, established Israeli’s deliberate policy of striking non-combatants. Yes, one of the authors, Richard Goldstone, later recanted that claim but the other 3 authors maintained the claim’s veracity.

 3.     The US complicity in the deliberate slaughter of innocents in both places. As is well-known the US is the main supplier of Israeli weaponry, namely F 16 jet fighters, Apache helicopters, white phosphorus (used during Cast Lead) and M 16 rifles. The US also provides political cover to the Israeli regime. Compare this to the prevailing policy, fostered by congress and accepted by the administration, in our country which allows, even encourages, purchase and possession of assault weapons.

I publicly claim the comparison to illustrate the gaping disparity between attention to the two regions—20 children dead in this country and the nation stops, the president appears in person and speaks, media swarm, flags descend to half mast, prayer vigils everywhere, and even Congress may react. 300 children die in Gaza—who notices?

I could also compare Sandy Hook with the drone attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and earlier the carnage wrought by international sanctions, led largely by the US, on Iraq. More slaughter of innocents, deliberate and with US complicity. But that’s another story.

I look forward to your response.

BTW, I read the article you suggested in the NY Times and found it provocative, worth thinking about. I’m not sure why you feel that “a lot of grotesque emotions will be stirred up by such talk.”

After an attack by Israel F-16′s fighter jets supplied by the United States 

 

From Mr. H:

 

Of course you are correct on all counts: the problem is that all points apply GLOBALLY. Therefore it is incorrect and misleading to apply them in isolation to one or two particular geographical locations or populations. #1 the slaughter of innocents is constant and widespread #2 Israel, Hamas, Assad, Komaini (sp?) AND the CIA slaughter innocents on a regular basis #3 the US complicity in “the deliberate slaughter of innocents” applies, at minimum, to the US use of drones wherever it is employed and, in general, globally.

If you want to address immorality and depravity in the human psyche I suggest that you do it both on an individual and global basis. 

 

As regards Gaza: too many Americans already have preconceived opinions to make comparisons to Sandy Hook meaningful. As regards to Sandy Hook: everyone is well aware that that is an upper income community that has experienced a terrible tragedy. They may possibly be aware that Connecticut enjoys considerable revenue from sales of guns manufactured there AND has the fifth weakest support (among the 50 states) for mental health programs and treatment.

 

I think that the problems and successes of any community should be taken up and appreciated on their own merits, weaknesses and possibilities. Pitting unlike and unequal and emotionally charged situations against each other does not help.

 

If you want to make points which I think are universally true please make sure you intend that they apply to EVERYONE and EVERYWHERE.

 

Peace,

 

P.S. My response to comparing Palestinian suicide bombers to mentally-ill Americans: I do NOT think Palestinian suicide bombers are mentally ill. I think they are driven to frustrated, lethal revenge by years of subjugation and humiliation. The mental illness of an upper-middle class American who has demonstrated mental and social development problems and who has been introduced by his mother to the love and use of assault weapons is nothing like the situation of Gazan youth.  Anyone seeking to make such a comparison is surely following some other nefarious agenda.

From me:

 

if i understand you correctly on two points, the universality of what you term immorality and depravity, terms i’d agree with, and whether palestinian militants engaging in martyrdom operations, as they choose to name them, are mentally ill, i have these reactions.

 

to analyse we draw specific connections. sometimes better to localize the connections to bring the pot to a boil sooner, to make the connections more vivid. if the connections are too general the pot may never boil, ie, people may not understand the primary connections. some would argue against comparing israel and south africa using the lens of apartheid by declaring, “well, many regions hatefully separate people, why single out israel and south africa?” one reason is that the connection is dramatic, raises the question, forces the issue, stimulates thought—and is bound to upset many. jimmy carter dared to use the term in his ground-breaking book. i laud him and all who defy conventional propriety. 

 

point two, i’m just not sure about whether palestinians who commit horrendous acts against civilians—along with their counterparts in israel who do the same—are or are not mentally ill. as norman finkelstein has said about the israelis in many of their policies, hysteria prevails. a form of mass psychosis. which might apply to militant palestinians as well. individuals might test sane, but collectively they often exhibit insane behavior. consider the nazis, both the foot soldiers who killed civilians wantonly and the political leaders, officers, and camp commandants, all the way up to hitler. probably individually mentally healthy on most measures but together insane.

 

thanks for the reminder that ct benefits mightily from gun manufacturing and is one of the least supportive states for mental health programs and treatment.

 

Khan Yunis buffer zone, Gaza Strip, shell fired by Israeli military

 

From Mr. H:

My current thoughts are these: #1 Gaza, and the Palestinians at large, have suffered great injustices. This has been largely at the hands of the Zionists. This is a great and enduring evil. This evil is a transgression of Divine Truth and Cosmic Law. The evil, itself, will eventually bring about the destruction of Zionism. This is told over and over again in the Hebrew Bible.#2 The US is guilty of associating with, and supporting, for its own geopolitical and religious reasons, this immoral enterprise. But this association is our problem and not related to the plight of Palestine. Our actions will have their own ultimate, and probably tragic, consequences.

#3 The Palestinians are caught in the mill grinder of the great global powers. They will have to navigate their own way through these fierce waters: they are beginning to gain some traction in the UN and in playing the global powers off against each other. BDS [boycott, divest, sanction] and other divestment movements are helping but they have their own overlapping dimensions with other justice [issues].

In the end salvation must and will be found in both politics and spirituality.

There must be people, in all walks of life, who decide: Enough’s enough; there are children here. That even if, in your derangement and pain, or your greed and covetousness, you do me grievous harm, even to the taking of the life of my child, I still choose to see you and your people as human; though perhaps distorted, warped and tortured almost beyond human recognition. I refuse to turn away from the effort to talk to you, frightened though I might be. Whenever possible, I will not refuse to make friends.

—Alice Walker from her foreword to the book, The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine, by Miko Peled

Skip Schiel teaching photography in Gaza, 2005 c.

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