The question was like an electric shock to the six or so Palestine solidarity activists, including myself, as we were standing inside a classroom at a school in Gaza City.
“Why the Palestinians? Why are we the only ones suffering?” asked a Palestinian girl who was probably about nine or ten-years-old. And then the enormity of what the people of Gaza go through every day hit me.
Most of us were Americans and one was Canadian, and we were delivering some of the $17,000 in school supplies that Jessica Campbell and Julia Hurley, two members of the Gaza Freedom March student delegation, had brought and raised on their own.
Campbell and Hurley had hauled the aid and supplies in across the Rafah crossing late Dec. 30, all the way from the United States, and the stuffed animals and stickers we brought were a tiny portion of the total.
We didn’t quite know how to react to that question.
“I don’t know how to describe it. I’m still feeling in shock from it. I’ve known about this so long and it’s now kind of becoming real to me that our government is complicit with doing these terrible things to these children, and there’s nothing we’re going to be able to do to make up for it. And realizing that is really painful for me,” Campbell, a student in Oregon, said.
Hurley, who graduated from Seton Hall University, said, “It feels really good to be able to give toys and school supplies to these children, but I really don’t feel like I’m doing enough. I feel like this is such a tiny little thing and it might make them happy for a moment and think about Americans a little bit differently, but I wish I could give them more. I wish I could fix everything. I wish I could rebuild the schools.”
Although I didn’t have this reaction to the question of “why the Palestinians” right away, and I wouldn’t have said it out loud in front of a classroom of young Palestinian girls, I thought back to a story a professor at school told me.
He is a Holocaust survivor, and was teaching a course I took on the culture and politics of Nazi Germany. One story that remains with me from that professor is when he described a scene in Hungary, where an Austrian friend, who came to stay with his family in Hungary after the Nazi invasion in 1938, repeatedly asked, “What have we done?” And someone in my professor’s family responded, “Your only crime is that you were born a Jew.”
The only reason why these innocent girls, and all the innocent children and people of Palestine are suffering, is because they committed the “crime” of being born Palestinian. Had they been born Israeli, or in the United States, the crippling siege on Gaza would not be a reality for them. But it is. The Zionist movement had looked to Palestine as a place where Jews could create an state where only Jews would reside, and the children of Gaza continue to live with the indescribable effects of occupation, war, and death that came as a direct result of the Zionist move to establish a state in Palestine.
Realizing this fact is heartbreaking and disgusting to think about. This memory will only make me fight harder back in the States to do my best to break the siege on Gaza from there. I must, and I promised this to all of the wonderful Palestinians I have met so far. But will that be enough?
The United States, Egypt and the whole international community have turned their backs on the people of Gaza, denying them the simple right to live in dignity. I have hope, of course; if I didn’t I wouldn’t be fighting for Palestine. But I’m also realistic, and unless the political situation drastically changes in the United States or Egypt, this God awful, criminal siege will continue, because Israel has no interest in a Palestinian state, and clearly no interest in the human rights of Gazans. This, of course, is why a strong boycott, divestment and sanctions movement is badly needed.
Throughout the day, discussions of the logistics of getting out of the border, and whether people could stay longer than the Egyptian government wanted them to, went on. We foreigners are worried about being stuck in Rafah for a couple of days and possibly missing our flights home because of the Egyptians and all of the trouble they have put the Gaza Freedom March through.
That concern is a joke compared to some of the stories I have heard from people my age in Gaza. One college student had a scholarship to study in Egypt, and couldn’t get out because of the siege on her land. Others expressed hope of visiting New York and other places around the world, only to lament that they were stuck here indefinitely, until the Israeli government lifts the siege.
Saying that the Gaza Strip is the world’s biggest open-air prison is a good characterization. But even most prisoners have a set date of when they will get out, and have guarantees of where their food is coming from. Gazans can’t look to a set date when the siege will be lifted. And now the Egyptian government, once they’re done building their iron wall to compliment all of the Israeli walls and fences around Gaza, have set out to destroy the tunnels that are literally the main source of food, medicine and fuel for the Palestinians of Gaza. I worry for my new friends in Palestine. How will they eat? How will they live?
Gaza is worse than a prison. I don’t know if there are words to describe how Gazans live.
The more people come to Gaza, especially Americans, the better. I visited the site of the American school in Gaza, which was blown up by Israel during the massacres in Gaza one year ago. Massive amounts of rubble remain, and it has not been rebuilt because Israel refuses to allow in materials to rebuild the schools and homes they demolished last year.
The phrase the Palestinian teacher kept repeating was the appalling irony that the American school in Gaza City was “built by USAID [and by U.S. tax dollars], and destroyed by the US Army.”
After seeing and understanding that sad fact, I believe people must be determined, creative, and brave in confronting the crimes of the United States and Israel. Whether that means demanding the Goldstone Report’s recommendations be implemented, initiating a boycott of a company that profits off the illegal occupation of Palestine, or shutting down weapons shipments that go to Israel, it must be done. This slow suffocation of our brothers and sisters in Gaza must stop, and it must stop now.
This article was originally published on Mondoweiss.
Alex Kane is a junior at Marymount Manhattan College, and a reporter and writer with the Indypendent. He is part of the student delegation to the Gaza Freedom March, where he joined over 1,300 delegates in a historic march in Gaza on December 31.
Follow his Twitter account at http://www.twitter.com/alexbkane.
Comments
Reading this article was very frustrating for me. How can you compare the fate of an austrian Jew under the Nazis to that of the people of Gaza? I have an answer for that little girl in the classroom. This is happening to you because your people have elected Hamas, terrorists that still think they could destroy Israel, as their governing party. Palestinians do not suffer because they are arab, look at the west bank, they are making a lot of progress and living almost normal lives because they've stopped a lot of their aggression. Hamas, even after cast lead, still claims they are trying to destroy Israel and they think one day the will. Can you believe that? After all the suffering their people have endured, they have no problem keeping it up. If the people of Gaza said, "Israel we want peace with you!", there would be peace. And you have the nerve to say it's Israel's fault these people are suffering? The arabs (especially hamas and hezbollah) blame the Jews for their problems and so do people like you, and the enxt time a missle lands in sderot the IDF should level the gaza strip
Joe, you seem to be missing at least half of the story. The West pushed for the elections. Yes the people voted for Hamas, but lets examine the "option" available to these Palestinians, and why these options failed.
Your problem with Hamas is the "terror" label placed on them by the West. Yes, terror is bad. So my friend, what then is good? A political option maybe? Wouldn't it be better if instead of "terror", Hamas pursued politics? Got elected, and pushed for change by our rules of the game? That is what happened, but a rather strange and disturbing turn of events occurred. Instead of accepting a new direction from Hamas, Israel and the West took that option away. Remember, violence is an act of desperation. What options does Hamas have? Do they have a political option? No. And why? It's not that they didn't pursue it, or couldn't get elected, because they did, and they did. The problem is that when the people voted "wrong" according to people like you, the West waged war on them. Does this really put you on such high moral ground? No, it makes you an idiot.
Lets look back a little farther. A land without people for a people without a land? Keep in mind that this lie was told long before Hitler's rise to power. The Ottoman empire fell in WWI, and the British military occupation of Palestine began. At that point, the Zionists had been told no more than once. Jews were a very small minority living peacefully with their neighbors in the land. However, the Zionists wanted more and had already struck a deal with the occupying power to permit Jewish immigration against the will of the people.
Israel's so called legitimacy is based on the decisions of the "league of nations". Was it their land? Seriously. Did any of the land actually belong to Briton? Was it French land? Part of the USA? NO. Hmmm. That's a strange precedent to have been set don't you think? So, can I give your house away? No? What if I crush you neighbors first? Then can I? No? OK. What do I have to do to take your house, and be seen as legitimate when I give it away? I have a friend who really really wants to live there, and he thinks he can do so much more with the yard than you have. Why should you get to keep the house? You can live in the back yard, just don't be hostile about..
I support a Jewish homeland but not a Jewish state. Israel has no legitimacy. The West, including America, the land that I love, is on the wrong side of history. Why the Palestinians? Because they were not here in the West during the early 1900's to defend their rights. They are now. We know it wasn't a land without people. The people without a land lied to us. Still buying it? Idiot.
Apologies for Joe D's apparent, and likely deliberate, anopsia.
It's well documented that Israel and the US supported Hamas' rise as a counterweight for the appeal of the secular PLO.
This is not to discredit the Gazans' legitimate election of the party, which was dutifully earned by providing well for the people of Gaza. Women overwhelmingly voted for Hamas due to their establishment and funding of schools, perhaps including the one you visited.
Good job out there, Alex. Keep the reports coming! I'm sorry the entire delegation won't make it through, but I'm glad that some of those who did managed to bring some much-needed material aid.
Given the chance to wage peace, the Palestinians under Hamas choose consistently to wage war and then claim to be victims. What would happen if the Palestinians made a sincere effort to live peacefully with their neighbors?
During the period before the intifada we saw the beginnings of an economic upturn as both sides started to trade goods and labor. This shows what is possible.
Mr. Kane, you claim to have seen a lot but you have chosen to understand very little about the causes of this problem. Shame on you for being a tool of the propaganda machine.
Why me? might possibly be answered by saying that the identical question was asked by school children in Sderot who were dodging rockets and living in terror. Children on BOTH sides of the line are victims and children on BOTH side of the line suffer. Peace can come only when citizens on both sides of the line identify with and share the humanity of the other side.
Where Israel withdraws and peaceful conditions ensue, then the quality of life for ALL is improved. When Israel withdraws and the local government is sworn to destroy Israel and Israelis, then Israel - like any government - must protect its citizens. There is a powerful peace movement in Israel. Why is a parallel voice forbidden to be expressed in Gaza?
The "Seeds of Peace" program that tried to bring children together with mutual support on both sides of the line worked for the best for all. Partisanship that sees only good on one side and only evil on the other perpetuates the battle.
In1936 there were less than 50,000 Jews in Palestine, most of them elderly religious people who appreciated that Arabs had always treated Jews better than their own. The Palestinians may not have written deeds to their lands just as Afghanis or Africans don't have it even today, but it is criminal to say that Jews should claim their countries. The Arabs owned 90% of the land even after Zionists (racist Israelis) bought as much of it as they could because of the unauthenticated Bible that was written from 4 to 9 centuries A.D. The atrocities of the Jews in Palestine and the surrounding Arab countries are worse than what Hitler did to them for exploiting Germans. Palestinians can now see hope because American Presidents with Jewish blood have now depleted American resources and are a borrower nation! These Presidents included Harry Solomon Truman, FDR, Ted Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Carter, Clinton (married to H. Rodham Clinton), LBJ, the Bushes and even Obama. America is paying the price for the genocides committed by Israelis against Moslems and Arabs. Le's call a spade a spade. When you make one set of rules for your rotten child and another for all others, you abrogate your right to speak about 'human rights'!
The reason why the conflict is ongoing in the Middle East is very simple. The West needs a reliable source of oil, so the West keeps dictators in power to make sure this happens. Europe did not want to deal with the human aftermath of the Holocaust, so individuals were sent to live in Palestine. They do not want these individuals back in Europe. So they support Israel. This is why the condition of the Palestinians will not change anytime in the near future.
Anyone recall when this conflict started? About 5000 years ago ...
It makes a great sound-bite, but how are Palestinians the only ones suffering in this world? Gaza is surely one of the world's harshest places, but there are many other war-zones like it.
Just as there are elements in Israel that will never accept a fair settlement with the Palestinians, there are elements in the Arab world that will never accept Israel's right to exist.
Who is there to sign a peace accord with?
Both sides of a conflict have to feel like peace is worth compromising for ... for the last 5000 years these 2 sides have felt that no compromise is worthwhile.
Why the Palestinians? What is wrong with US "free media" - instead of objective news we have well paid USraelist Propaganda. Like today news - Israeli planes are POUNDING ... instead of Israeli planes are bombing and killing AGAIN ...
1500 people were killed in the tiny Gaza last Christmass - MOSTLY CIVILIANS
âFor almost the last three years Israel had subjected Gaza to an illegal economic siege, which in itself constitutes a crime against humanity. Israel had, and still is, preventing the entry into Gaza of vital life sustaining products such as food stuff, fuel, medicine and needed medical equipment, water purification equipment and many building materials. This is a genocidal crime using hunger and thirst as weapons.
Starting late December of 2008 and for continuous 22 days Israeli terrorist army had perpetrated a genocidal war crime against Gaza Palestinians. The Israeli army, known to be the fourth powerful army in the world, attacked unarmed civilian Palestinians of Gaza comprising mostly of children, women, and old people. There was no regular army in Gaza to face the well equipped, well trained to murder Israeli army. Only few male civilians, who took it on themselves to carry the light arms they could obtain to resist the Israeli war criminals in order to protect their own families.
The Israeli military radio station announced that half of the Israeli air force had conducted 2500 air sorties dropping a total of 1,000,000 KG of explosives on the civilian families of Gaza. This is not counting the shells fired by the artillery and tanks. They had used high precision GPS-guided bombs to destroy vital locations such as the UN food warehouse and schools, government buildings, hospitals and medical clinics, religious buildings and civilian institutions.â
Rocket fire.
4,500 since Israeli withdrawal from Gaza Strip in 2005
13 Israelis killed and more than 450 injured
Sources: Israeli government, Israel Defence Force, Dachaf Public Opinion Research Institute
"We enthusiastically chose to become a colonial society, ignoring international treaties, expropriating lands, transferring settlers from Israel to the occupied territories, engaging in theft and finding justification for all these activities. Passionately desiring to keep the occupied territories, we developed two judicial systems: one - progressive, liberal - in Israel; and the other - cruel, injurious - in the occupied territories. In effect, we established an apartheid regime in the occupied territories immediately following their capture. That oppressive regime exists to this day. â Michael Ben: The war's seventh day
To Peter Hindrup
It is refreshing to hear an honest voice. Thank you for telling the truth about the Israeli legal and apartheid regime in the occupied territories
To Vancouverite ,
1) The 5000 year conflict is a propaganda ploy by those who like the status quo namely the complete and permanent occupation of Palestine. Just look at the last 400 years from 1517 to 1917 between the Ottoman invasion to the British invasion of Palestine. All peoples moslems Christians and Jews were living under the Turkish Ottoman Rule. They were not fighting each other. They were all trying to survive the heavy taxation imposed upon all of them by the Turks
2) Prior to that, the fights were withThe Egyptians, the Philistines ( Greeks from the Island of Crete) the Assyrians ( 722 BC) and the Babylonians ( 586 BC) ,the Greeks (313 BC with Alexander of Macedon), and the Romans (Since Pompei 63 B.C.). During the Moslem occupation of Palestine ( 638 A.D.), Omar the third Caliphof Islam invited 70 Jewish families to live in Jerusalem when he found out that no Jew lived in Jerusalem. In Spain the Jews had their Golden age living with the Moslems. When the Christians took over in 1492 they forced babptism on the Jews and Moslems alike.
3) Even if they fought each other everyday in the past, now we live in an era post the WWII when we have established International laws of how to conduct ourselves in conflict. We know better how to resolve conflicts. We should implement that knowledge.
4)All the conflict you talk about in the area pales in view of the casualties of the WWII. In the WWII 70 million people were killed. 45 million of them were civilians. Should we say "Oh these Europeans have been fighting each other for hundreds of years let them continue to do so or should we respect and abide by the International laws that have been established to
moderate the conflict to avoid future wars?
5) Yes there are those who on both sides will oppose a fair solution to the conflict as you say so where is the peace partner. I say let us quantify these opposing voices. The entire International Community knows that in March 2000 22 Arab Countries including Yasir Arafat for the Palestinians signed the Arab Peace Initiative to end the state of war with Israel, exchange ambassadors, have free trade on the condition that Israel will evacuate the territories it occupied in the 1967 war and assumes its pre-1967 borders (The Green Line).
This is a fair and reasonable solution giving Israel 78% of the land of Palestine and giving the Palestinians 22% of the land of Palestine namely the West Bank and Gaza.
Both the US and Israel yawned and did nothing to develop and implement this unified Arab peace offer to Israel. Please do not say there is no partner for peace. There are 22 partners for peace. Even Hamas signed a cease fire Hudna with Israel which Israel broke on Nov 6 2008.
But Israel wants all of Palestine. It is delaying the peace process in order to create new facts on the ground so a Palestinian State could be no longer be viable. It wants the Palestinian Authority and Hamas to accept the Oslo agreement which was never fully implemented because Rabin was murdered, it wants to have both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas to accept its illegal settlement in the West Bank and its annexation of East Jerusalem. It does not want to abide by UN Resolution 194 to give the right of return to Palestinian refugees who lost their homes in 1948 and does not want to shoulder the financial responsibility of reimbursing those Palestinians whose homes and villages Israel has destroyed in 1948.
To To Vancouverite
Here is a statement from Ariel Sharon to Winston Churchill III, the grandson of Winston Churchill in 1973 when he came to visit Israel:
" We'll make a pastrami sandwich of them. We'll insert a striop of Jewish settlement between the Palestinians ans then another strio of jewish settlement , right across the West Bank, so that in 25 years time, neither the United Nations, nor the United States, nobody will be able to tear it apart"
Again in 1998 he says:
" Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can...Everything we do not grab will go to them."
" “Why the Palestinians? Why are we the only ones suffering?” asked a Palestinian girl" This illustrates the height of indoctrination and the author's bias for using this uncritically as the introduction for his piece. Since Palestinians are indoctrinated that Israelis only lie there is no way the little girl can comprehend that others ARE suffering. The author could know better but there isn't any indication he does. Distortions labelled facts also cripple the article but that is easier and simpler than something more nuanced which like the situation here ultimately boils down to one of two options: Israel or no Israel. On the other hand the author doesn't need any nuance. His position is obvious.
It seems to me that at the end of WW-II, the Jews should have been given half of Germany for their state of Israel. Instead, the western powers carve out a piece of land in Palestine without the consent of the people who were there. The truth is, the governments in the region don't care about the common people, or they would find a solution.
This article is embarassingly researched. If you knew ANYTHING about the history of the land of Israel, you would understand that originally, the British Mandate called for two distinct states to be created; one jewish and one muslim. The Jews accepted this. The muslims did not. War was waged on Israel by no less than 4 arab countries, and Israel won. In fact, Israel actually gave land back that they won in wars over the years (Sinai Peninsula). Has any other country in the annals of civilization ever done that? 'Palestine' has never been a political body. It's a convenient term used for people who live in a similar geographical area. There are no ethnic 'Palestinians'. These are people who chose to stay on land that was taken over in a war. WWI, do you remember that one? The ottomans ruled the land and then lost, thereby forfeiting their right to any of the land. All of you people who are promoting Hamas and insulting Israel need to pick up a history book and turn CNN off.
Great article. Thought-provoking.
Rawia - very interesting thanks.
Barifkin - it depends who wrote your history book? History is written by the victors (and the dominating imperialist oppressors).
FREE GAZA
My reponse to Joe D's comment that justifies the oppression of the people of Gaza because Hamas was voted into power, is no different to saying that it's fine to perecute Americans because they voted George W Bush as president of the US.
If those little girls were in the West Bank, Israel, or Jordon, they would not have those problems. The problems are caused by Hamas.
Hamas is very stupid, and by attacking Israel brought down a counter-attack. The Gaza operation stopped the rocketing of Israelis. When Hamas says they love death they mean the death of the people of Gaza, as well as Israelis.
Anyone can see that what Israel and the UnitedStates are doing to Palestine is WRONG.
If the American Government continue to support israel's poor behaviour and killing of inoccent palestian citizens then America itself has failed to show their belife in "world peace" and that they are FAKE criminals!
Why should Palestinians/arabs/muslims have to suffer just because of their religion/race.
This is called Racism!
Israel have NO RIGHT to just kill poeple and steal their land.
Palestine does not have to ask for peace becuase even if they did israel will still find away to make them live in depression. Even if they did shake hands on peace Palestinians will still be treated like dirt. They won't have as much rights as Israel so WHY should Palestinians back down?
One comment said that Hamas think they can beat Israel even after so many have been killed.
But need i remind you that if all the black african americans in America used that excuse and were to say "so many have died, lets forget about it and just live as the whites want us to live" then they would still be sitting at the back of the bus. But now they live perfectly normal lives after suffering so much.
The palestinians have suffered for over 5000 years! It would bring shame to them if they didn't stop trying and fighting for peace for their people, for there land and for their lives back.
Last year over 1500 palestinian died and only 13 israelies died, some by own fire.
This is DISGUSTING!
If Palestine could access food, building material and even WEAPONS, then the Isralies would have a challenge.
And then changing the name on maps, the name is PALESTINE and ALWAYS will be known as PALESTINE.
Every other Arabic/Muslim country/ government should do something other than sit and watch the news.
Alot of people turn on the news, watch it, feel sorry for the people, switch off the television and carry on with their normal lives. This is NOT making a difference!
Shame on you American Government and ISRAEL! The American Government should learn to nogotiate by words and not killing!
(I say American GOVERNMENT because i am aware that some American citizens are agaisnt this and are helping, i would like to thank all these people, and thank every organisation who support palestine, thank you because you are making a difference)
STOP WAR AND LONG LIVE PALESTINE! PEACE!
May i also include that it's a little strange that "white people" have never been discriminated in the same way as black poeple, muslims. But don't get me wrong, i do understand that poeple are helping and are against war, even white people so again thankyou.
To a certain extent, I have to agree with barifkin on this one. It is true that while Israel accepted the two-state solution proposed by the UN, with the Jewish State of Israel and the State of arabic Palestine alongside each other, with Jerusalem as an international city and a shared capitol between the two states, I do think that Israel's occupation of West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, with their overall treatment of the Palestinians at large, must end, and the Palestinians must be allowed their independence and sovereignity in the form of a nation-state of their own alongside Israel, with east Jerusalem as its capitol.
Both peoples need self-determinations in the form of their own states, and have done horrific things to each other over the years.
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