Wissam Nasser, Ma'an photo.
I am in Fort Frances as I write this, sitting at a beautiful Bed and Breakfast on Rainy Lake. My room overlooks the lake, I see the sunrise, the field of snow covering the lake ice and the silence of beauty surrounds me. I took a photo of the serenity in which I am enveloped, of this white and blue wonderland kissed by the glow of the rising sun. Others in the world, like Wissam Nasser, are not so privileged. His heritage and home is Palestine. He is enveloped in death. Nasser and other photographers in Gaza have had the grim task of photographing the sheer opposite of what I live: they are documenting death, archiving the Palestinian lives and bodies sacrificed because of the world's support of Israel. Their photographs are shocking, troubling, saddening, angering, and heart-wrenching. Wake up, world leaders and ignorant masses. Trouble yourself to see the truth of Palestine. Don't let your silence support the murderers of Palestinians. Speak out against the apartheid state of Israel.
Sharpeville 1960, Gaza 2009
Dr. Haidar Eid, The Electronic Intifada, 22 January 2009
Please take the time to read Dr. Eid's full article. I've excerpted some of the questions he has for us below:
The 2009 massacre in Gaza will be for international solidarity with Palestine what the Sharpeville massacre was for the international solidarity against apartheid in South Africa."
"Subhi's [who lost 17 family members] words echo the harsh reality of all Palestinians in Gaza: alone, abandoned, hunted down, brutalized, and, like Subhi's grandson, orphaned. Twenty-two days of savage butchery took the lives of more than 1,300 Palestinians, at least 85 percent of them civilians, including 434 children, 104 women, 16 medics, four journalists, five foreigners, and 105 elderly people.
....
Are there any other 10-year-olds in the world who are asked to carry this experience [of watching his family die of bombardment] around with them for the rest of their lives? Of course not -- this "privilege" is reserved just for Palestinian children because they were born on the land that Israel wants for itself. But it is these traumatized children who will deny Israel what it wants because their very survival is a challenge to that apartheid state. It is these same children who will surely inherit Palestine: it is their birthright and no assault can change that fact -- not today, not ever.
....
Amira, Muhammad, Rashid, Subhi and the more than 40,000 families whose houses have been demolished know differently. Those people who rushed to the cemetery after it was bombed and found the body parts of their dead relatives exposed to the elements know differently. They know that they were deliberately targeted because they are Palestinian. All the rest is propaganda to appease the conscience of those with Palestinian blood on their hands -- those who are both inside and outside Israel.
For 22 long days and dark nights, Palestinians in Gaza were left alone to face one of the strongest armies in the world -- an army that has hundreds of nuclear warheads, thousands of trigger-happy soldiers armed with Merkava tanks, F-16s, Apache helicopters, naval gunships and phosphorous bombs. Twenty-two sleepless nights, 528 hours of constant shelling and shooting, every single minute expecting to be the next victim.
....
Archbishop Desmund Tutu of South Africa said, "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." The UN, EU, Arab League and the international community by and large have remained silent in the face of atrocities committed by Apartheid Israel. They are therefore on the side of Israel. Hundreds of dead corpses of children and women have failed to convince them to act. This is what every Palestinian knows today -- whether on the streets of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank or refugee camps in the Diaspora.
....
Similarly, the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions has been gathering momentum since 2005. Gaza 2009, like Sharpeville 1960, cannot be ignored: it demands a response from all who believe in a common humanity. Now is the time to boycott the apartheid Israeli state, to divest and to impose sanctions against it. This is the only way to ensure the creation of a secular, democratic state for all in historic Palestine."
4 comments:
I've read your three last posts, very informative as always. I keep writing to my bloggers and to the newspapers that we have to support those who want to see the Israli government judged which means the great majority in the world. Let's hope it happens. Hugs, M.
let's hope and, like yourself, do the work necessary to bring action for change. As we have read, the powerful in the world community continue to support the apartheid state, Israel, including President O.
All I have to say about him is "Oh."
Oh, is this the change?
I wish I could jump for joy about the first African American/white man in the president's office. I was going to add that phrase that has been so misused, "the leader of the free world", but somehow it is so inappropriate. The US, its unequivocal support of Israel, which is apartheid, racist, and expansionist, and its role in making and giving Israel all the war machinery it needs to carry out their terrorist deeds, makes the world unsafe.
The world is unsafe because of the so-called 'free world'. Canada, too, makes the world unsafe, yet if one makes and buys the lies that it is "those terrorists" "over there" that are the problem, then one deludes oneself about who is/what nations are the culprit/s in world insecurity.
I am very disgusted that people from other countries are standing behind terrorists. Special when they forget the suicide bombers blowing up civilians in restaurants or shops. In Israel or even killing Israelian sport-people in the Olympic games in Munich. REMEMBER. Remember all the hijacked planes in those years...
In Sharpville the terrorists were hiding behind women and children and attacking a small police station. The police were shooting to save their own life's.
That was no turning point. The turning point was the collapse of the Berlin wall in 1989. When it was clear that the USSR had no money to support terrorism any more. They did during the Cold War in Africa and in Asia.
Please read world history and don't read nonsenses.
hey anonymous...
maybe YOU should remember who the first people to hijack a plane were.. ISRAELIS! yes, its true. the first TERRORISTS to hijack a civilian airliner were israeli zionazis. learn more about the terrorists you support before you go pointing fingers at the victims.
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