Please, everyone, stop what you're doing. This is not just any reportfrom Palestine, but the worst in my lifetime, the worst in 40 years.At this moment, Israel is raining bombs down on Gaza, an enclosed tinyarea that is home to 1.5 million men, women, and children, most ofthem innocent civilians. This space is tightly sealed by Israel, whichconstantly denies Gazans electricity, food, medicine, and the abilityto leave. Gaza is one big prison being bombed from above. The deathtoll is up to 428 in the past 7 days. That's more than the number ofIsraelis killed in the last 7 years. This is what I would call a massacre.
Yes, more Palestinians killed in 7 days than Israelis in 7 years, andyet no comments from President Bush or President-elect Obama.Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice places blame solely on Hamas forholding Gazans "hostage," as if Israel's actions were beyond judgment.Would Rice ever respond to a Palestinian attack on Israelis by blamingthe Israeli government for holding its citizens hostage with theirarmy's violence?
I am writing you from Jordan. I arrived the day after the attacksbegan. The day before they began, my friend and colleague Hannah hadasked me to deliver a book of poetry to her friend Summer in Gaza,hoping I'd manage to make it on a Free Gaza boat. Since then, theseboats bringing unarmed witnesses to Gaza (www.freegaza.org) have beenattacked in international waters, and Summer's house has been blown topieces, her brother almost died under the rubble, and her fatherdesperately needs an operation but the hospitals are overflowing. Inevery home or shop I enter in Jordan, people are huddled watching thestories unfold: a family killed in their home, a university destroyed,a pharmacy blown to pieces, countless bloody babies screaming orworse, silent.
I wonder if people in the US are also seeing the bodies and faces or,as I fear, only some rubble and angry Gazans. The day after attacksbegan, Israel's largest newspaper Yediot Aharonot covered almost theentire front page with the words, "500,000 Israelis Under Attack!" Insmaller font, one could learn that in addition to 1 Israeli, 225Palestinians had also been killed. It was surreal. Consider where youare getting your news, and what is not being told to you.
For example, the stated purpose of the attack is to drive out Hamas,i.e. to kill anyone in Hamas and scare the rest into turning againstHamas. Not only does this tactic not work (brutality fostersviolence), but it clearly fits the definition of terrorism: unlawfulviolence intended to frighten or coerce a people or government inorder to achieve a political or ideological agenda. Israel isoperating as a terrorist state in the true sense of the word.
Hamas is also a terrorist organization by this definition, so it wouldbe easy to simplify the conflict as "an endless cycle of violence"were there no historical context. But there is a context, and thereare alternatives: Let us remember that Hamas was elected after anintentional shift away from violence towards a mainstream politicalagenda. Hamas stopped its attacks and began offering the Palestinianpeople an alternative to the corruption of Fatah. Hamas wasdemocratically elected and immediately strangled by a US-led boycott,preventing the government from functioning. Hamas continued to hold toits one-sided ceasefire (totaling almost 2 years), meanwhile the USand Israel began to train and arm the opposition government, Fatah,which they preferred. In response to plans for a coup in Gaza(anti-democratic takeover by the US-supported opposition government),Hamas secured its control (again, democratically-elected whether ornot we like them) over Gaza, and continues to offer Israel anindefinite ceasefire--no more violent attacks, period--if Israelsimply complies with international law. The Arab League (comprised of22 Arab nation members) has offered the same. These offers aredismissed by Israel and silenced in the US media. Israel says it hastried everything else, but it has not tried the most obvious:complying with international law and accepting repeated offers for apeaceful resolution.
As events unfold in Gaza neither the media nor the people are silenthere in Jordan, where people refuse to go on as if nothing werehappening to their brothers and sisters (sometimes literally--morethan 60% of Jordan's population is Palestinian refugees). Just one dayafter attacks began, the king of Jordan gave blood to send to Gaza andinspired hundreds of others to do the same (meanwhile President Bushwas on vacation in Texas). Spontaneous demonstrations have erupted atleast twice here in the capitol today, and thousands are protesting invarious major cities around the Middle East and around the world.
Please, wherever you are, do something. Write a letter to the editor.Get a large group to inundate your congressperson at once. Protest!There are demonstrations being organized around the US. If there isn'tone happening near you, then do what I would do: buy a poster-boardand large marker and write something on it ("Gazans Are People Too,""Massacre in Gaza: Silence is Complicity," "Our Weapons Are KillingPalestinian Children," or anything you can think of). Go outside andstand on a busy corner with it. Force others to confront the reality.Talk to people, invite them to join you. People around the world areempowered enough to take to the streets; we have no excuse not to. Thetime is now.
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