"I don’t know where to start from. I am watching Palestinians in Gaza digging with their bare hands to find bodies under the rubble of a building which was completely demolished by Israeli shelling a few hours ago. The Palestinians just found a body… if this is what I can call it. The “body” consisted of a foot and a headless torso with half a leg hanging. Like every day, I am watching horrible images which no longer shock me as they use to.
Yesterday or the day before, I watched however a scene that will haunt me forever. It’s about the 5 month old baby Mohamed el Borai who was killed 2 days ago. It is not so much the picture of his dead body that disturbed me, it is the image of his father carrying this small body and standing in front of the open door of the mortuary refrigerator where he was supposed to separate from his child and leave it there. Mohamed’s father held his child for a while and in front him the refrigerator was already full of other bodies. He knew that he was to place Mohamed near one of those bodies and close the refrigerator door leaving Mohamed alone in the cold and in the dark without his parents for the first time. This father’s image broke my heart. I will never forget this image and I will never forget who is to be held responsible for it.
Earlier today I heard the testimony of a Palestinian women who had survived yesterday night’s Israeli onslaught. She was sitting alone silently with a 3 or 4 year-old on her lap. I won’t forget what she said either: “They (the Israelis) hit them with a missile. I could see them… then the ambulance took them away. I went to the hospital looking for them. I found my eldest son in surgery and his father and brother in the mortuary refrigerators.”
I cannot close my ears and eyes and ignore what is happening in Gaza or in the West Bank. The least one can do as a human being is to listen to the Palestinians and convey their plight.
Tonight is the third night of consistent Israeli bombing. Ambulances are mostly unable to reach the injured because Israelis fire at them injuring and even killing the medics. For hours throughout the night the injured lay there torn in pieces, with amputated limbs or burnt bodies alone in the streets of Gaza or buried alive under the rubble of a shelled building. It is only at dawn when the cowardly Israelis withdraw that help is able to reach the wounded who often haven’t managed to survive the night. Israelis are out to inflict maximum pain and harm even though they know that they are essentially attacking a civilian population that includes many children, women and elderly who are mostly unarmed and not equipped to defend themselves. Tonight, Israeli air raids are continuing and again the injured are left to suffer alone and die. To add to Palestinian misery, ambulances and hospitals are running out of fuel because of the criminal siege imposed on Gaza. The whole world is able to come out and condemn the Resistance for using 10 dollar Qassam rockets that have hardly caused Israel or rather illegally occupied Palestine any harm, but this entire world community is silently watching Israeli Apaches, F-16’s, navy and tanks bombing with proper missiles made-in-the-USA a 99% civilian population that is living in UN refugee camps in occupied Palestine, a land that Israel is illegally occupying lest the world have forgotten.
As for the Arab regimes, what is happening today in Gaza is the crowning of their failure to cope successfully with Israel when Israel is weaker than it has ever been. If Arab leaders imagine by any chance that the Arab people do not understand exactly what is happening, they are mistaken. If Arab leaders think that the Arab people are content with their silent and weak stand, they are also mistaken. Collusion with Israel under any circumstances will never be tolerated as has already been demonstrated. Normalization with Israel will never be tolerated especially that Israel has never shown any respect for International Law, for UN resolutions or for the very basic rights of the Palestinian people to also live in peace and safety on their own land and in their own state. Before the Palestinians are given their legitimate rights according to the terms and expectations of the Arab people and not Annapolis, Arab leaders should neither expect sympathy nor support from us. What is happening in Gaza will not be forgotten or forgiven.
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These are just a few of the courageous Palestinians who survived the night alone torn up in pieces on the streets of Gaza waiting for hours and hours until Israelis kindly allowed ambulances to pick them up. To them the whole Arab and Muslim world raises its hat.. and because of them, there will never be normalization with Israel until there is justice according to the will of the Arab people."
