Gaza aftermath. Palestine Chronicle photo.
How many times must a person be bombed, terrorized, chased out of their lands and homes? This elderly Palestinian man is a survivor of the Nakba and of the Gaza massacre. Can not this elder find peace in his later years? Can not the leaders of the world's nations find it in their hearts to help him and his beleaguered people? Must he be homeless, stateless and bombed for eternity? Must catastrophe be his?
"It's a massacre not only against our people, but also against our homes."
In Tal Al-Hawa another resident glanced around the depressing landscape.
"Everywhere I look there is rubble. There is still smoke rising from some places. The roads and buildings have huge gaping holes," said Jumma Nasser, 62.
In the southern city of Khan Yunis, Mohammed Al-Najar sought desperately to find [his] home -- in vain -- in the rubble.
"At least 20 residential houses are completely destroyed in our neighborhood," he said.
"I came to see my home. I searched for it. There is no home. I don't even know where my home is."
Mats Svenssen writes:
"But one did not learn anything [from the war crimes of WW II]. The mistakes are repeated with a creepy sense of precision. The Nakba came shortly after the peace agreement of the Second World War was signed. The ink had dried but all the crimes of the war seemed to be forgotten. Every Palestinian family was affected and many have since then lived in refugee camps. It is these refugees or their children who are being bombed today."
Elna Sondergaard asks
"The crucial question is however: To which courts of justice can Palestinian victims bring their claims? There are Palestinian courts in Gaza but they have no jurisdiction over criminal cases involving Israelis. As stateless people, Palestinians have no state which could sign the Rome Statute with a view to seeking the adjudication of the ICC, or which would be entitled to bring a case to the International Court of Justice in The Hague as Bosnia and Herzegovina did concerning the massacre at Srebrenica. Without a state, Palestinians are also denied the legal protection offered by classic interstate diplomacy."
4 comments:
They will NEVER be brought to court. Today I heard on the radio the upteenth cynical propagandistic message coming from Israel, Olmert "apologized" for killing civilians but told Palestinians i.e. American gullibles, that it was NOT Israel, it was Hamas... How LOW, FALSE and HYPOCRITICAL can one get!
Merche, we must all work to see that Israeli criminals are brought to world courts. No matter if this takes our entire life, we must, each of us, work towards this goal. The world courts do work when the powers that be want someone charged--witness Iraq when it invaded Kuwait. It's just the hypocrisy of their application. Against Isreal, silence. Inaction. Against the US, silence. Inaction.
This is what we must work to change. The hypocrisy. The valuing of some lives over others.
But ¡¿HOW?! They're the MASTERS of the world because not even upcoming countries like India or China will want to meddle. But, of course, we'll try... Hugs, M.
Well, I don't define my world in relation to "the Masters". I realize they are powerful, but I refuse, like the Palestinian people, to have them define and circumscribe my existence.
One resists. One works to construct another world, where love, compassion and generosity of spirit and wealth, and beauty exist for all peoples. This is not a dream. There are many realities of existence. Beauty is among us, so too our power and our strength and our agency to change, continue and make a better world.
This is what I call hope and peace.
It is a whole world that we work in. It is a culture of justice. We point out, and work towards dismantling, the powerful elites and the ignorant, but we do not define our lives in relation to them. Otherwise, they hold their centrality and power. Refuse to play their game. Define your own reality with like-minded people.
The Dream time of the indigenous of Australia and the generations of past and dead grandmothers and grandfathers of the indigenous of Canada are not just stories. These are realities, too. I choose to walk with them, on my own path that meets many other people, places, groups, spirits, animals, communities, and cultures that see the world through loving eyes of justice, peace, and co-existence.
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