http://www.countercurrents.org/gazapics.htm Regards
Abdulkareem On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 12:30 PM, Afthab Ellath <[email protected]> wrote: > 'A dark fog has enveloped us' When a rocket killed his mother-in-law in > Israel, actor Paul Kaye was appalled by the celebrations in Gaza. Six months > on, he feels a different kind of despair > http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jan/16/gaza-first-person-israel > > I had to hold my 17-year-old son down on the bed after he heard the news. > His strength really shocked me. I was gripping his upper arms as tightly as > I could to hold him flat on the bed, but he was spitting with rage, tears > streaming down his face. I was shouting, "Stop! Please stop!" but he was > pushing up at me hard, his face twisting like his body underneath me. He was > fighting with everything he had in order to be able to get up, run down the > stairs and get out of the house. All I knew at that moment was that I > couldn't let him leave. We were in his bedroom in London and I had just > given him the news that his grandmother had been blown to pieces by a rocket > in Israel. Jordy had lost his other grandmother five months earlier to > cancer. This time there was someone to blame. > > Our pain and his rage opened a window up for me on to what is happening in > Gaza <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gaza>. There are thousands and > thousands of young men who have experienced - or are experiencing - that > rage in Gaza and the West Bank, and their fathers and grandfathers have no > doubt experienced it too. When I heard in the days that followed Shuli's > death that they handed out sweets in Gaza to celebrate the fact that the > rocket had hit a target, I was appalled. Now with all I have seen over the > last two weeks in Gaza, part of me feels: why wouldn't they celebrate? > > Shuli, my wife's mother, lived on Kibbutz Gvar-am, which lies 5km to the > north of Gaza and 10km to the south of Ashkelon. She had been the kibbutz > nurse until she retired and lately had worked part-time in the kibbutz > factory making envelopes for the Salvation Army and Asda. In May last year > she had been expecting a visit from a cousin who was over from America. The > cousin had phoned to say that she was too frightened to come to Shuli's > kibbutz on account of a rocket landing in Ashkelon the previous day. "Don't > worry," Shuli told her, "every missile has its own address. We'll come to > you instead." > > An hour later she arrived at the house where her cousin was staying. Her > son, Yariv, rang the doorbell and while they waited for someone to answer, > Shuli stepped away in order to get some shade next to a wall. The rocket > came out of nowhere and she died instantly. None had landed in that area > before. Only later did we find out that Shuli had rung her sister the night > before her death and made her promise to look after her children if anything > were to happen to her. It was beshert - meant to be. > > That was six months ago and now, sat at home in north London with the > Israeli bombardment of Gaza well into its third week, and with news of fresh > horrors arriving daily, our house is filled with a despair of a different > kind. It has felt like a house in mourning again. A dark fog which I can't > really describe has enveloped us. Maybe it's shame. I don't know. I know we > all felt relief that Israel didn't retaliate after Shuli was killed. But > it's happening now. I keep looking at Shuli's birth certificate which my > wife now has. Shuli's mother had left Germany by boat for Palestine after > Hitler came to power and she helped form a radical socialist community on > land partitioned to the Jews by the British. Shuli's birth certificate > states her nationality as Palestinian. Her death certificate said Israeli. > > My wife says she feels scared and lost and full of guilt. "It's my country > and I see myself as Israeli not Jewish," she keeps shouting at me. Does that > make you feel better or worse about what's going on, I ask? "That's worse!" > she says, "because Israel is nothing to do with God." I digest this, but > don't even know where to begin to start unravelling that statement. > > I'm trying to think back to Christmas when I was staying on the kibbutz. > I'm struggling to remember what I felt as the Hamas rockets were flying in > every day during the week before the Israeli F16s screamed over our heads > and began pounding the Gaza Strip and those condemned to live within it. My > five-year-old son, Geffen, was constantly asking me if he was going to die > like his Grandma. People on the kibbutz rallied around as you would expect; > it was no time for questions or politics. We didn't see the bigger picture. > But on returning home, I saw it all too clearly, and it sent me into > meltdown. > > I feel guilty about abandoning my friends on the kibbutz - not physically > but mentally. A good friend of mine over there called Mirav, whom I've known > for 25 years, has a 12-year- old daughter, Omer, who just stays in her room > and cries. She's been doing it for three months now and this all began after > the fourth Kasam rocket hit her school. I try to think about her, but > shockingly she doesn't seem to matter so much any more. Not at the moment > anyway. Not from here in England with what we're seeing on television every > day. Everything is dwarfed by the horrors in Gaza. > > I'd seen the ground troops massing up the road from the kibbutz towards the > border with Gaza in the days before I left Israel, but I never believed for > one second that they would go in. They did. In the last few days, I've > stopped watching television and buying newspapers. For the first time in my > adult life I don't want to know what is going on outside my own front door. > > Most Israelis I know think Hamas wants to annihilate Israel. A lot of Jews > over here think that too. I don't know if that's what Hamas wants: it > depends what you read. I was over there when they blew up buses on > Dissenghof Street in Tel Aviv in 1996. That act seemed to turn Israel right > wing just at the moment the country was mourning the death of Rabin and was, > I believe, genuinely committed to peace. But Hamas is now part of the > political process whether Israel, Britain and America likes it or not and > dialogue is the only way forward. Would hatred for Israel stop if it were to > return to its 1967 borders? Of course not, but Israel has to do it anyway. > It has to do the right thing, to help build a strong Palestinian state where > people can live normal lives, work, feed their kids, be happy, safe, have > dignity. That's what most people want in life isn't it? > > At Shuli's funeral last May, her son Jonathon, my brother-in-law, gave a > speech. "Where are the doves?" he asked. "What is this land worth without > someone with a vision? Nothing. Without doves it wasn't worth the struggle." > Jonny is 34. He's an army reservist who is studying to be a neurologist and > has a two-year-old son called Boaz. He didn't scream for blood at his > mother's graveside, he screamed for peace. > > In our house we have our own thinking to do. My eldest son, Jordy, has > Israeli citizenship and in two years he will have to choose either to > relinquish that citizenship or to fight in the Israeli army. It can be only > his choice. But, unlike the Palestinians in Gaza, at least he has one. > > > > On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 12:21 PM, Afthab Ellath <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Gerald Kaufman on Gaza >> http://exmypar.wordpress.com/2009/01/16/commons-debate-on-gaza/ >> Live Commons debate >> >> at >> http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2009/jan/15/gaza-sraelandthepalestinians >> >> 3.15pm: Sir Gerald Kaufman delivers a blistering speech which starts with >> a reference to his grandmother being killed by the Nazis. >> >> [Via Press Association] Sir Gerald, who was brought up as an orthodox Jew >> and Zionist, told MPs: "My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to >> her home town … a German soldier shot her dead in her bed. >> >> "My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers >> murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza. >> >> "The present Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploit the >> continuing guilt from gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust >> as justification for their murder of Palestinians." >> >> He said the claim that large numbers of the Palestinian victims were >> militants "was the reply of the Nazi" and added: "I suppose the Jews >> fighting for their lives in the Warsaw ghetto could have been dismissed as >> militants." >> >> The Manchester Gorton MP acknowledged that Hamas was a "deeply nasty >> organisation" but it was democratically elected and "is the only game in >> town". >> >> Refusing to hold talks with Hamas was a "culpable error from which >> dreadful consequences have followed", he said. >> >> Calling for an arms embargo, he said: "It is time for our government to >> make clear to the Israeli government that its conduct and policies are >> unacceptable and to impose a total arms ban on Israel." >> >> Sir Gerald added: "It is time for peace - but real peace, not the solution >> by conquest which is Israel's real goal but which is impossible for them to >> achieve. >> >> "They are not simply war criminals, they are fools." >> >> "My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers to kill >> Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza," he says. >> >> 3.16pm: He says that he is a supporter of Israel. "Golda Meir [the former >> Israeli PM] was my friend," he says. >> >> 3.22pm: Hamas is a "detestable organisation", he says. "But it is >> democratically elected and it is the only game in town. The boycott of >> Hamas, including by our own government, has been a culpable error from which >> dreadful consequences have followed." However many Israelis have been killed >> by Hamas rockets, the Israelis cannot believe that they will deal with the >> problem exclusively by military means, he says. >> >> "When, however, the fighting ends, there will still be 1.5 million >> Palestinians in Gaza and 2.5 million Palestinians on the West Bank who are >> being treated like dirt by Israel. >> >> "The time will come when it is time for our government to make it clear to >> the Israeli government that its conduct and policies are unacceptable and to >> impose a total arms embargo on Israel." >> >> >> Regards >> Afthab Ellath >> >> >> On Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 12:38 PM, Murali K Warier <[email protected]>wrote: >> >>> My dear friend, >>> >>> Till now, you or anybody else who commented in this thread haven't >>> addressed any of my points. No wonder of course, the Left's standard >>> response is to attack the person -insinuations, vilification and denigration >>> by association - rather than what he says. I understand your itch when you >>> see opinions that do not conform to your worldview. But sorry buddy, there >>> is no cure in medical science for that. >>> Just a friendly suggestion, mate. If you really want to vilify me as a >>> Muslim hater, you will have to come up with something more imaginative than >>> 'neo-Nazi'. As I commented in another >>> thread<http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth/browse_thread/thread/ad63d8e2e0d672d5/835afcff14a2091e?lnk=gst&q=neo+nazis+love+islamists#835afcff14a2091e>, >>> the neo-Nazis love the Islamists, not hate them. Modern Islamist movement >>> had very close ties with the paleo-Nazis. If anything, the Nazis were >>> Islamophiles, not phobes. And yes, read up some history. Take the Eminent >>> Journalist's help - though he has missed those pesky little details I just >>> mentioned, he can still suggest some nice books on 20th century history. >>> >>> Cheers, >>> Murali >>> >>> On Jan 15, 10:24 pm, "Afthab Ellath" <[email protected]> wrote: >>> > There is of course a crucial difference between a Nazis and this >>> Neo-Nazi... >>> > During the Nuremberg trials many Nazis did not deny their hate towards >>> Jews >>> > and the crime they committed due to that hate.. But this war mongering >>> > neo-Nazi never felt ashamed of the denial of his muslim hate, while >>> being >>> > itched 24 x 7 by it... >>> > >>> > Regards >>> > Afthab Ellath >>> >>> >>> >> > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
