November
16
2009
As we in the news media like to say, violence has “abated” in Iraq. For example, on Monday it was reported that 16 people – including a member of the country’s main Sunni political party and several of his relatives – were killed by gunmen. And a parked car bomb exploded in a market in Kirkuk, killing five people and wounding seven others.
It’s sad to say that the death of 21 people is not too bad, but this is a country that, since the U.S. invasion, often saw a daily civilian death toll topping 100.
But there is another, more insidious violence that is on the rise and will likely continue to rise for generations to come.
The Guardian.co.uk reports that doctors in Fallujah are dealing with up to 15 times as many chronic deformities in infants and a spike in early life cancers that may be linked to toxic materials left over from the fighting.
The report said, “Neurologists and obstetricians in the city interviewed by the Guardian say the rise in birth defects – which include a baby born with two heads, babies with multiple tumours, and others with nervous system problems – are unprecedented and at present unexplainable.”
Actually, this rise in birth defects has been reported on – by, at least a handful of journalists – for years. Iraqi researchers and doctors – for years – have documented the rise of birth defects and cancer primarily in southern Iraq where most of the fighting took place in the first Gulf War. With the second war in Iraq, it seems obvious that the problem is spreading. Depleted uranium has been singled out as the most likely cause.
Depleted uranium, which is used for armor-piercing shells of various sizes, is a highly dense metal that is the byproduct of the process during which fissionable uranium used to manufacture nuclear bombs and reactor fuel is separated from natural uranium. DU remains radioactive for about 4.5 billion years. Many governments have outlawed the use of DU as weapons. The United States has not.
In 2002 and 2003, I researched the effects of depleted uranium in Iraq for stories in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper.
In the 2002 story:
“Although the Pentagon has sent mixed signals about the effects of depleted uranium, Iraqi doctors believe that it is responsible for a significant increase in cancer and birth defects in the region. Many researchers outside Iraq, and several U.S. veterans organizations, agree; they also suspect depleted uranium of playing a role in Gulf War Syndrome, the still-unexplained malady that has plagued hundreds of thousands of Gulf War veterans…”
At the Saddam Teaching Hospital in Basra, Dr. Jawad Al-Ali, a British-trained oncologist, showed me photo albums he kept of dead and deformed infants that he believed were linked to DU. There were photos of infants born without brains, with their internal organs outside their bodies, without sexual organs, without spines, and the list of deformities went on and on.
In the 2003 story:
“Doctors in Iraq say the number of cancers and birth defects may be devastating.
“‘This is the right time for active support to help prevent the catastrophic effects of the bombing,’ said Dr. Alim Yacoub, dean of the Al Mustansiriya Medical School in Baghdad.
‘“If there isn’t a centralized health plan soon, the consequences could be devastating,’ said Yacoub, the foremost Iraqi authority on the effects of DU. Yacoub has tracked the rise of cancer in Iraq for years, and places the blame squarely on DU.”
An Iraqi scientist, Souad N. Al-Azzawi documented the entire history of DU in Iraq and its devastating effects on the people there, in a presentation to the Kuala Lumpur International Conference to Criminalise War in October. Al-Azzawi, who was forced into exile from Iraq, has devoted many years to her work, at considerable personal risk.
So, the problem isn’t that the rise in cancer and birth defects in Iraq is “unprecedented” or “unexplainable.” The problem is the United States government, and other governments, won’t do anything about it.
November
13
2009
Malalai Joya, an Afghan politician who the BBC has called “the bravest woman in Afghanistan” for denouncing the warlords in the parliament, was in Western Washington recently. You wouldn’t know it from reading any of our struggling online or print news media. The only coverage was an interview Wednesday on KUOW’s Weekday program with Steve Scher.
One would think, with President Obama poised to send more troops to Afghanistan, that a book tour by a woman who became the youngest person to be elected to Afghanistan’s new parliament in 2005, would be a big deal for our local news folks. But, it wasn’t. I only found out about it after seeing a mention of it on an Afghan site, and then finding her itinerary on a local activist web page, Peace Action of Washington. The lesson, I guess, is that I should tune in to KUOW more often.
Malalai on Wednesday spoke about her country’s struggle and about her new memoir, A Woman Among Warlords at Antioch
Malalai Joya's new book
In May 2007, Malalai, who, incidentally, has survived five assassination attempts, was suspended from the parliament on the grounds that she had insulted fellow representatives (War lords and drug lords are a sensitive lot). Her suspension, which she is appealing, has been protested by lawmakers, activists and intellectuals around the world.
Since most of us missed her talks, I’m reprinting some of Malalai’s key messages, taken from an essay she wrote for Britain’s The Independent just after the August elections in Afghanistan and from an article she wrote for the San Jose Mercury News on Tuesday:
“Democracy will never come to Afghanistan through the barrel of a gun, or from the cluster bombs dropped by foreign forces. The struggle will be long and difficult, but the values of real democracy, human rights and women’s rights will only be won by the Afghan people themselves.
“So do not be fooled by this façade of democracy. The British and other Western governments that claim to be bringing democracy to Afghanistan ignore public opinion in their own countries, where growing numbers are against the war.
“In my tours to countries that have troops in Afghanistan, I’ve met many bereaved parents who have lost their loved ones in the war in my home. I am very sorry to see governments putting the lives of their soldiers in danger in Afghanistan in the name of bringing democracy. In fact the soldiers are serving the strategic and regional interests of the White House and the consequences of their occupation so far have been devastating for my people.
“The worst casualty of this war is truth. Those who stand up and raise their voice against injustice, insecurity and occupation have their lives threatened and are forced to leave Afghanistan, or simply get killed.
“We are sandwiched between three powerful enemies: the occupation forces of the U.S. and NATO, the Taliban and the corrupt government of Hamid Karzai.
“Now President Obama is considering increasing troops to Afghanistan and simply extending former President Bush’s wrong policies. In fact, the worst massacres since 9/11 were during Obama’s tenure. My native province of Farah was bombed by the U.S. this past May. A hundred and fifty people were killed, most of them women and children. On Sept. 9, the U.S. bombed Kunduz Province, killing 200 civilians.
“My people are fed up. That is why we want an immediate end to the U.S. occupation.”
November
10
2009
(This is a guest blog by Joe Copeland, a former Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial writer. Joe was a visiting researcher at Hiroshima City University’s Hiroshima Peace Institute earlier this year as a Fulbright Scholar. Visit his blog here.)
Barack Obama would like to go where no sitting U.S. president has gone before: to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It’s a real statement of Obama’s interest in eliminating nuclear weapons.
In an interview with Japan’s NHK public broadcasting network in advance of a trip to the Asian country this week, Obama said, “The memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are etched in the minds of the world and I would be honored to have the opportunity to visit those cities at some point during my presidency.” After Tuesday’s broadcast, the mayors of the two atomic-bombed cities quickly welcomed the statement as a very positive sign.
In the United States, Associated Press reported the statement in terms of the possible political controversy at home. Some conservatives would try to make the president look like he was apologizing for the atomic bombings at the end of World War II and attempt to dismiss his pursuit of a nuclear weapons-free world as naïve.
Although an apology would be justified (as with so many actions on all sides of the war), it’s not going to happen when some 60 percent of Americans – especially those who are white and older – believe the bombings were justified. But thinking that something may have been justified in the context of the world’s worst war hardly eliminates the element of human sympathy most Americans can feel and their rational concern about nuclear dangers.
In any visit, Obama’s points would be to promote nuclear weapons nonproliferation, to mourn the tragic toll of hundreds of thousands of victims and to express the world’s hope that the August 1945 bombings remain the only atomic attacks. Across the political spectrum, most Americans would be in accord with the president. Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, former secretaries of state in Republican administrations, are active in promoting the complete abolition of nuclear weapons as a matter of national security.
Obama made no promises. But his interview will raise hopes even higher in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where people young and old had launched petitions asking the president to visit. As leaders of the international Mayors for Peace (Seattle’s outgoing leader, Greg Nickels, is a member), Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba and Nagasaki’s Tomihisa Taue have directed a great deal of attention to making progress on nuclear abolition when the United Nations holds a major review of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty next May. As Obama tries to contain and reduce nuclear dangers, a visit to Hiroshima or Nagasaki would be a powerful symbolic card to play.
November
9
2009
A reader comment about my blog on American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC, pointed out that there is new Jewish-American lobby called J Street that “seeks to present a different viewpoint on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that is more cognizant of the rights of the Palestinians.” He’s right. It is very different from AIPAC.
Here is how this new lobby describes itself: 
“J Street is the political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement.
“J Street was founded to promote meaningful American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts peacefully and diplomatically. We support a new direction for American policy in the Middle East and a broad public and policy debate about the U.S. role in the region.
“J Street represents Americans, primarily but not exclusively Jewish, who support Israel and its desire for security as the Jewish homeland, as well as the right of the Palestinians to a sovereign state of their own – two states living side-by-side in peace and security. We believe ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is in the best interests of Israel, the United States, the Palestinians, and the region as a whole.
“J Street supports diplomatic solutions over military ones, including in Iran; multilateral over unilateral approaches to conflict resolution; and dialogue over confrontation with a wide range of countries and actors when conflicts do arise.”
As stated on its web site, the group’s positions on two key issues that have long stalled the peace process are encouraging.
On the status of Jerusalem: “Jerusalem’s ultimate status and borders should be negotiated and resolved as part of an agreement between official Israeli and Palestinian authorities and endorsed by both peoples.
“J Street would support the approach outlined in the Clinton parameters and other models of a two-state solution under which the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem would fall under Israeli sovereignty and the Arab neighborhoods would be under Palestinian sovereignty. Negotiations have produced creative ideas for resolving the hardest issues, including sovereignty and management arrangements for the Old City and the Holy Basin.”
On settlements: “Israel’s settlements in the occupied territories have, for over forty years, been an obstacle to peace. They have drained Israel’s economy, military, and democracy and eroded the country’s ability to uphold the rule of law.
“Continued settlement growth undermines the prospects for peace by making Palestinians doubt Israeli motives and commitment, and by complicating the territorial compromises that will be necessary in final status talks. The arrangements that have been made for the benefit of settlers and for security – checkpoints, settler-only roads, the route of the security barrier – have all made daily life more difficult for Palestinians, deepening hostility and increasing the odds of violence and conflict. A majority of Israelis have recognized this reality and oppose settlement expansion, yet their views have been outweighed by a small, vocal pro-settlement minority.
“J Street supports President Obama’s call for an immediate and total freeze of settlement construction.”
An Oct. 30 Reuters story described J Street as “a new pro-Israel lobby for the liberal majority of American Jews (78 percent voted for Obama) who do not feel represented by traditional pro-Israel advocacy groups, chief of them the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.”
For the sake of peace and justice for Palestinians and Israelis, let’s hope that that liberal majority of American Jews flock to J Street.
November
6
2009
Here’s how the powerful, pro-Israel lobby AIPAC describes itself:
“For more than half a century, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee has worked to help make Israel more secure by ensuring that American support remains strong. From a small pro-Israel public affairs boutique in the 1950s, AIPAC has grown into a 100,000-member national grassroots movement described by The New York Times as ‘the most important organization affecting America’s relationship with Israel.’”
Here’s how STOP AIPAC, a group formed by peace and justice activists in the San Francisco Bay Area, describes the lobby:
“AIPAC had played a key role in fomenting support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. It is playing an even greater role in supporting a future military strike against the people of Iran… Only rarely is a critical word uttered among politicians regarding AIPAC and its associates that support unjust and aggressive and disastrous U.S. policies toward the peoples of the Middle East… For too long, policies that support Israeli militarism and occupation have gone unchallenged. Political voices raising even minor disagreements with prevailing policies are silenced or subject to campaigns of intimidation.”
Whichever view is right about AIPAC, the group – and Israel – certainly got a boost recently with the vote on House Resolution 867 which called on “the President and the Secretary of State to oppose unequivocally any endorsement or further consideration of the Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict… .”
You may recall from an earlier blog, that the report, by Richard Goldstone, a widely respected former prosecutor at the U.N. war crimes tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, condemned both Israel and the Palestinian authorities for war crimes during Israel’s military invasion of Gaza from December 27 to January 18. But it singled out Israel for “actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity.”
There were 344 representatives who voted for the resolution; only 36 voted against it. Washington state representatives Brian Baird and Jim McDermott were part of the lonely stand against the resolution. All the other Washington state representatives – Jay Inslee, Rick Larsen, Doc Hastings, Cathy McMorris, Norm Dicks, Dave Reichert and Adam Smith – voted in favor.
I’d like to hear sometime our lawmakers’ views on AIPAC.
November
5
2009
Italy convicted 23 CIA operatives on Wednesday in a 2003 Milan extraordinary rendition case.
Dan Murphy of the Christian Science Monitor wrote:
“After two years of wrangling to head off a case that centered around the Bush administration’s practice of abducting alleged terrorists abroad and sending them to friendly third states for interrogation, Italian prosecutors won a stunning victory on Wednesday, when 23 US intelligence agents were convicted in absentia by a Milan court for kidnapping.
“The practice of ‘extraordinary rendition’ became common for the CIA after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US, with hundreds of alleged militants abducted in Europe and Central Asia and elsewhere, and delivered to states like Algeria, Egypt, and Syria, where torture is often used against presumed enemies of the state. The US says it received assurances that torture would not be used. But the practice has been especially controversial in Europe, where roughly 100 Muslim men have been abducted.
“In a ruling that could damage US-Italian relations, Robert Seldon Lady, the former CIA station chief in Milan, was handed an eight-year sentence, and the 22 others — all believed to have been CIA employees or contractors — were given five-year sentences for the 2003 abduction from a Milan street of Muslim cleric Hassan Moustafa Osama Nasr. The convicted Americans were also ordered to pay Mr. Nasr and his wife $2 million. It was the first conviction for a rendition case. None of the men are in Italy, and their whereabouts have not been disclosed.”
Meanwhile, also on Wednesday, Daniel Tencer writing for the alternative news site, “The Raw Story,” describes the experience of Britain’s former ambassador in Uzbekistan with the CIA rendition program in that totalitarian country:
“The CIA relied on intelligence based on torture in prisons in Uzbekistan, a place where widespread torture practices include raping suspects with broken bottles and boiling them alive, says a former British ambassador to the central Asian country.
“Craig Murray, the rector of the University of Dundee in Scotland and until 2004 the UK’s ambassador to Uzbekistan, said the CIA not only relied on confessions gleaned through extreme torture, it sent terror war suspects to Uzbekistan as part of its extraordinary rendition program.
“‘I’m talking of people being raped with broken bottles,’ he said at a lecture late last month that was re-broadcast by The Real News Network. ‘I’m talking of people having their children tortured in front of them until they sign a confession. I’m talking of people being boiled alive. And the intelligence from these torture sessions was being received by the CIA, and was being passed on.’”
Murray was dismissed as ambassador in 2004 after he documented and raised questions to his superiors about the CIA rendition program in Uzbekistan, the horrific torture taking place in prisons there and that the United States and Britain were relying on that torture to provide them information on suspected terrorists.
The British government first tried to convict Murray of 18 charges, ranging from issuing visas in exchange for sex to driving a car down a flight of stairs. He was cleared of all the charges but not before the details were leaked to the press. With his 20-year career with the British Foreign Service over, Murray continued to work to expose and end torture.
These two news items show how important it is that the U.S. investigation of torture and other war crimes that involve CIA officials and former White House officials be allowed to continue. It will likely be a very ugly can of worms, but it’s time we took a look.
November
3
2009
(For the past week, I have been running a guest blog by Gerri Haynes, a former president of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility. Gerri, a nurse from Kirkland, Wash., was in Gaza with 11 other people in an effort to help the people there and also to better understand the situation. They are on their way home now, but Gerri passed along this story from a mental health worker in Gaza. She said it was best if his name wasn’t used.)
“Father, stay beside me and as soon as you hear the shelling, close my ears.”
“Don’t worry, Husam, just sleep.”
“I can’t sleep, I’m afraid.”
“What are you afraid of?” The child pauses. The two sit listening to the sound of their breath. Husam fears what he may hear. The night seems calm. At this moment no sounds enter the home.
“I am afraid of the Israeli shelling,” Husam replies.
“Don’t worry, it is not shelling. It is just sounds to scare people.”
“Why are they scaring people”? Why would anyone scare a family? Such innocent questions a child asks can remind us of our humanity.
“It is part of the military’s way. They want everyone to be afraid at these times. It is their punishment to us for their own fears. Maybe they want us all to feel their fears.” What can a father say in response to collective punishment?
“I am afraid. I don’t want to go to school tomorrow.” Husam is hoping for anything that may give him comfort.
“Why not”?
“They might shell when I am in class, the children will scream, then I will start to cry.”
“Don’t worry, just go to sleep.” What can a father say? Husam knows this experience.
“Okay, I will try. But can you do me a favor? Close my ears. I don’t want to hear the shelling.”
“Okay, just go to sleep.” The father’s voice is comforting to Husam. His presence consoles the child.
“Father, can you hide with me under the blanket?”
“Why, should we hide?”
“If we hide, then we will not hear the shelling.”
“It is okay, son, don’t worry, we will be safe. You just try to sleep. I am beside you.” The father conceals his chills from the cold. He does not want his child to think he is scared.
“Father, I want to go to the bathroom.”
“Okay, son, go.”
“No, I can’t. I want you to come with me to the bathroom.”
“Why?” His father is trying to give him confidence.
“I am scared that they will shell while I am in the bathroom.”
“Okay. I will come with you.”
Then Husam rushes to the bathroom, the father not far behind. He rushes back to his bed covering his head with the blanket. He asks his father to read from the Quran as he is unable to fall asleep, anticipating another shelling noise. The father reads with the hope his child will sleep tonight.
“Father, do not leave, stay beside me.”
“Okay son, don’t worry. I am beside you.”
This conversation is too typical for a father and son at 2 a.m. in the morning. Even during the holy month of Ramadan, the Israeli F-16 fighter jets poison the air with their screeching sonic booms. The children are showing extreme behavior of attachment to the parent due to the fears of the fighter jet sounds that occur abruptly during day or night.
An hour after the conversation between the boy and his father, the sounds resume. The children are awake again. The mother, seven months pregnant, is also awake. It is 3:00 AM, the time to prepare Sehour, the meal before fasting. She is afraid to go alone to prepare the meal. She asks her husband to help her. Her husband, needed in two places, replies, “I would love to help you, but I should stay with the kids in case another sonic boom happens.”
The mother, although afraid, leaves to prepare the meal. Shortly afterwards, the sonic booms begin again. The children are awake again. She returns for her children and for comfort from her husband. They ask her to come beside them. The food leaves her mind and she comforts the children until they fall asleep.
Later, as the parents are eating, her husband says, “I am glad I did not help you in the preparation of food, the kids woke up terrified.”
Swallowing her fear she replies, “Yes, you were right.”
“Funny thing, the Israeli sonic booms did us a favor,” the father says. “We did not have to sleep through the alarm clock, and they woke us up just in time to eat before the Dawn Prayer.” The two laugh at his joke. Sometimes it is all that helps.
“Yes. You were right,” the mother replies. “I am cold,” she says. They cannot close the windows. They have to keep them open. Otherwise, the windows will shatter from the loud sonic noises and the flying glass could hurt the kids. They endure the cold weather as best they can.
The next morning Husam did not go to school. He was too afraid of the sonic booms. When he stayed at home and the booms began he said, “Thanks to God. I did not go to school. I would have been terrified and crying.” He thought about the other children who went to school that day.
November
1
2009
(For the past few days, I have been running a guest blog by Gerri Haynes, a former president of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility. Gerri, a nurse from Kirkland, Wash., was in Gaza with 11 other people in an effort to help the people there and also to better understand the situation.)
We return today to the U.S. – nine days and eight nights we have been away. We have listened and watched, discussed, served and learned. We said “good-bye” to our hosts in Gaza – knowing that we will take home with us the pain and courage of the people we met.
We exited Gaza through the Erez checkpoint Friday morning and returned for one last night in Jerusalem. At Erez, our luggage was thoroughly examined. On the Israeli side, the thoughtful and competent Israeli lieutenant who helped us gain entry to Gaza greeted us. She and her supervisor noted the large border facility that is the Erez checkpoint and told us they hope for the day that passage will be easily accomplished in both directions.
Now we examine our memories, our notes and our hearts – looking for ways to tell our stories. What words and pictures can we use to awaken in the citizens of this country and in our friends in Israel the need to be directed by our common humanity? We need a humanity that will end the siege on, and the imprisonment of, the people of Gaza. The horrendous situation in Gaza is a blight on humankind.
Our Israeli friends want to live in peace, but it is difficult to imagine how anyone on earth can live in peace while the lives of the 1½ million people in Gaza continue to be threatened every day. Their water is polluted, access to paid work is minimal, education suffers, food is scarce, medical care is disrupted. Leaders of Palestine and Israel have the power to alleviate all of these problems, but hope fades among the people at risk. It falls to the wider world to speak for the people of Gaza. Statesmen/women of wisdom and compassion are urgently needed.
A bright and accomplished young woman, Sahar from Gaza, served as my interpreter for two of the four days I taught last week. She wrote these words:
“As a Palestinian girl of 22 years, I’d like to tell you that I never wish anyone in this world to witness the life I am leading here in Gaza.
I witnessed two uprisings and one war launched over Gaza by the Israeli Occupation. Until this moment, I didn’t lose a loved one, but my lovely friends are frequently leaving Gaza, searching for a peaceful, secured place where their dreams can be achieved.
In spite of the hardships I am passing through, I still believe in the inherent humanity in mankind and that’s why I am sending this message.
I believe in the American’s power and responsibilities by which they can change the policy of war and unrest.
We are all human beings and deserve to lead a decent life. And we need to help the others lead good lives.”
Please take this personally. Please help Sahar.
Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem. In the Old City, the three Abrahamic faiths come together. We call on the world – all of humanity - to free the people of Gaza.
October
29
2009
Children sing for the Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility delegation.
(For a few more days, I will be running a guest blog by Gerri Haynes, a former president of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility. Gerri, a nurse from Kirkland, Wash., is in Gaza with 11 other people in an effort to help the people there and also to better understand the situation.)
Elliott Adams, a member of Veterans For Peace wrote this:
“Walking near the beaches of Gaza, dangling from the wires, are some sun bleached sticks, the remains of a kite. Once it caught the Mediterranean winds and darted across the sky in a streak of color playing in the blue. Then, caught by the wires, held fast, it flipped and flopped with flashes of the same colors, but no longer wild arcs across the sky. Its color growing weaker, tattered paper flapping, the sun bleaching the color even from the remaining sticks.
So, too, we watch as Gaza, caught by the inaction of the world, hangs on a wire, its color fading. Its people determined to fly free again, keep struggling to make it through just to morning or to have some piece of life just today. But the world stands by and watches as they are tattering and their colors are fading under the strangling force of the blockade – a blockade that is in violation of international law and moral principles.”
Tomorrow we will leave Gaza. We’ve taught, visited, served and learned. All of the physicians have been teaching and learning in clinical settings and in journal clubs. In the final class that I will teach during this visit, the women gave me more statements they would like the world to read. The words from one statement: “First, it was nice for us to meet you. We want from Israel and America: stopped war, stopped killing our children, stopped violence, stopped siege, stopped suffering. Yes for peace, yes for life. We haven’t anything except we want to protect our children. Thanks.”
The press of Gaza gathered with us for a conference at noon today. We read a statement of
gratitude and commitment – telling the people of Gaza that we will take to the world outside Gaza the message of their communal plight. This afternoon, Dr. David Hall and I visited a family in Beit Hanoun. Their home is close to the border with Israel and over the last five years, two sons of this family have been killed by fire from Israel. The destruction of Gaza near the northern border with Israel has left many dead and all traumatized.
We met briefly with the Samouni family – a clan of 400-plus people. Reports say 48 members of
this family were killed when Israel invaded Gaza last winter.
The Staff of Gaza Community Mental Health continues to provide services for this family – but there is much to do. The destroyed homes are difficult to replace – building materials are not allowed to be brought into Gaza. The lives of the surviving family members remain traumatized.
This evening we were treated to songs and traditional dances in the Cultural Center of Jabalyia Refugee Camp. One group of solemn-faced children sang this song – which was written as part of their therapy following the winter attacks:
Don’t cover the sunshine
We want to speak loudly
Don’t make childhood die
On behalf of children in the world
Who are crying, not sleeping, die
With the death of consciousness, desperate
to have independence and freedom.
War, strikes and sound of bullets
Where are you the world
Without Feeling, we are
Prevented to dream, no freedom
No peace
Children in the world have the right
To study, to read, to write and speak
But we have been prevented education and
Are suffering with pain
We are hungry, feeling cold, don’t eat
Can’t sleep
The Feast Day is coming
Nothing new
No playing
No sleeping
October
28
2009
(For a few more days, I will be running a guest blog by Gerri Haynes, a former president of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility. Gerri, a nurse from Kirkland, Wash., is in Gaza with 11 other people in an effort to help the people there and also to better understand the situation.)
As our activities of service and learning continue, we become more and more aware of the crippling effects of the brutal siege on Gaza. And we become more and more aware of the incredible fortitude of the people in this land. Children’s services are emphasized – services that will promote the cultural and spiritual development of the next generation.
This afternoon our delegation met with the Prime Minister of Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh. With great care, he spoke of the need for the people of Gaza to be free of occupation and the hope that the American administration will live up to the promises made by President Obama in his speeches in Egypt and Turkey. The Prime Minister spoke of peace and justice and love and offered direct communication with world leaders.
The social workers and psychologists in the class I taught today echoed his comments. Several wrote notes so that the people of the United States might read their words. One of the notes: “I’m a Palestinian human being. I don’t care about politics. I don’t care about Israel, Fatah or Hamas agendas. I’m not looking for money or authority. I just want to live in peace in my home and with my family, my society, my neighbors, my colleagues. All I want is to feel safe.” Six mental health workers signed this statement.
Cherie Eichholz, Executive Director of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility wrote: “If you plant a cucumber (from seed), when the plant grows it does not yield tomatoes. Similarly, if you plant violence, you will not end up with peace (the quote comes from Reem, 38, director of the Children’s Cultural Centre in Gaza).
The human rights group met yesterday with Ahmed Somouni and after hearing this 9-year-old’s story of his family devastation, Reem’s phrase rings out in my mind. Ahmed’s family was massacred; dozens were killed. This boy began his story telling of how last winter his father was asked to come out of his house and as his whole family watched, was executed on the front sidewalk.
What exactly is being sown in Gaza today? So far I have seen rubble and sadness and bombed out buildings. Driving from north to south, almost border to border, there is little in between in terms of standing buildings and make no mistake, there once were buildings. I/we have talked to government leaders, educators, NGOs, and children. We have seen the tunnels. And we have seen many tears.
Oddly enough, the other amazing thing I have seen is an unquenchable spirit of hope. Life is stubborn. That is how one of our new friends put it. And that same sentiment has been expressed repeatedly. This family of 1.6 million people is invested and is simply trying to do the same things as people do all over the world and indeed, they are no different from you or me.
The question though is pesky; what is being sown? Are Palestinians today living lives nurturing their families, their culture and their future? Or are they running fearful to the next day, wondering when the next bomb will explode, the next tank roll in or the next relative be killed?
If peace is planted, peace will prevail.
Reem, the director of the Children’s Culturtal Centre talks with Ahmed Somouni, who lost his family to the violence in Gaza.