Saturday, March 16, 2024

Remembering Rachel Corrie

 



March 16, 2024  marks the  twenty first anniversary of the slaughtering of  Rachel  Corrie,  from Olympia,  Washington in the USA,  by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza.  What is happening in Gaza today is not a reaction to  the events of October 7,  2023,  but an on  going genocide that started seventeen years ago when Israel turned  the Gaza Strip into an open prison.  Rachel, 23 years old,  was volunteering in Gaza and was trying to stand in the way of a bulldozer to  prevent it from demolishing a Palestinian home.  Nobody with any sense of humanity could have believed that the bulldozer driver would not stop at the sight of this young woman  waving and  blocking the road to deter him  from proceeding to demolish that home in Gaza.   But without any compunction and in a most brutal manner, Rachel was no more, swallowed by  that monstrous machine. 

As we remember that day,   we Palestinians are never  surprised at what Israel is capable ofdoing including  the genocide that is taking place in Gaza . My generation who lived through the Nakba has witnessed atrocities of such magnitude, but they were not exposed to the whole world to see for months on end.  What is sad and unacceptable is that Israel not only has been   able to dispossess the Palestinians and violate international law with impunity, but furthermore,  it gets rewarded by the USA and its allies for its ongoing plan of our dispossession. All this under the guise of “its right to defend itself,” despite the resounding protests of masses of human beings around the world. 

Please remember Rachel Corrie on this day and here is the link to the foundation side established by her parents after their great loss. Rachelcorriefoundation.org

Bless you dear Rachel.  You will always be remembered by all the Palestinians and especially the people of Gaza who are going through what you have gone through.

Thursday, February 8, 2024

J.aacuse

J'accuse the USA and its allies for the thousands of Palestinians who have been massacred in Gaza.  And to add insult injury   for  the decision to withhold funding from UNRWA

I am not sure whether Mr. Biden and his allies   are aware that UNRWA was established as a temporary   organization by a United Nations resolution 302 on December 8,  1949 after the eviction of Palestinians from their homes in 1948 during what is known as the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe)  and who  ended up as refugees in the surrounding Arab countries.  It was those same countries that are taking measures against UNRWA now, those who committed themselves to support UNRWA as A TEMPORARY Organization  for the Relief of the Refugees until a  just solution was found for them. (Either the return to their homes according to the UN resolution 194 ,  or to be compensated for their losses for those who wished not to return.) Had it not been temporary, the Palestinians would not have accepted the humiliation of standing in line for handouts.  But the situation was dire,  and now it is even worse for the Gaza Strip population. 


Ironically,  however, it is the USA and its allies – those  same countries-  who have always obstructed our  rights are those  who are withholding the UNRWA funding .  And here I wish to differentiate between the stand of the  governments and the people, especially in the latest invasion on Gaza.  The Palestinians had accepted the principle of UNRWA as a temporary relief agency because their cause was a just cause and they were sure they would be returning to their homes soon after the catastrophe.   However 75 years after the original catastrophe, the people of the Gaza Strip,  most of whom are originally refugees from Palestine during 1948, and even after,   are facing now another catastrophe and in the midst of it all, the USA and its allies have decided to withhold funding from UNRWA under the guise that some of its employees took part in the 7th of October 2023 events.   Even if those allegations are true (although there has not been an investigation yet) , and even though they had been fired from their posts,  such collective punishment against millions of Palestinian refugees violates international humanitarian law that the USA allegedly upholds.   

Wake up Mr. Biden and act as a true and honest leader of a superpower country!!

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

December 2023

 Dear Friends

I am writing to you this greeting the day before Christmas with a very heavy heart.  It is usually the time when the grandchildren and I would  be  busy preparing for the family gathering the next day.  My oldest grandson Omar,  the designer in the family,  and who is unable to be with us this year, usually comes up with a very creative Christmas tree.  But unfortunately and sadly, this year  I am unable to even have a  green branch on the mantelpiece.   Watching the atrocities against the people in Gaza makes one reflect on the true meaning of Christmas.  This short message is not meant to be a theological analysis, but an earnest call for repentance on behalf of all those complicit in enabling this  genocide to take place. 


We were hoping the Security Council would come up  with a resolution that would  put an end to this carnage, and we waited anxiously for the delays so that the security council would guarantee a no veto vote.  What a fiasco vote it was that eventually  passed with the abstention of both the USA and Russia,  which proves my point in my recent reflection regarding the redundancy  of the  UN in  its present structure.   Ironically it was considered a victory that the US did not veto the resolution.  I watched the representative of the Emirates who had proposed the resolution giving the American and British representatives a big hug for this “great achievement of allowing relief material to get into the Gaza Strip.”  No wonder Mr. Guterrez was greatly disappointed with such a resolution that could not possibly be implemented while the invasion and  bombing was going on.


 My immediate reaction was an Arabic saying which means that the rage and labor of a mountain delivered a mouse. 

تمخض الجبل وولد فأرا


With hope and best wishes for Christmas and peace throughout the New Year.   Samia 



Sunday, December 17, 2023

Bewitched!

After watching endless  scenes  of the carnage on the Gaza strip last evening which included an attack on the Catholic church with two women killed, over and above the killing of Al-Jazeera camera-man, Samer Abu Daqqa,  I decided to take a break and find some entertainment on my Youtube channel.  

Ironically “Bewitched”  popped up  with Samantha and her mother Endora, a popular old series whereby the magic powers of  those women enabled them  to do things beyond human abilities,  that could  change realities.  I lived for an hour of relaxation and with a wild range of imagination wishing that both Endora and Samantha would hail on Gaza, and reverse the situation to what it was before October 6, or even better to what it was like before 1948.   

Unfortunately,  these things happen in movies only,  because what happened in the Gaza strip during those last two months with the full support of the USA and its allies is a brutal act of another ethnic cleansing that we had lived through in 1948.  During this crises,  the United Nations proved to be as impotent and as useless as ever, despite all the efforts of the Secretary General, as well as the countries who voted for the “humanitarian ceasefire” on  December 12. 

The first item of the first  article of the UN Charter which was established in 1945 is “To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace.” 

However,  there is no equality or justice in the UN  structure as long as certain countries are privileged to be permanent members of the Security Council  and have the right to veto any resolution of the security council.  While the security council resolutions are binding, the resolutions of the General Assembly which includes all the countries are not binding.  Why?  Are not democratic systems applied by a majority vote.  However,  It is worth noting that after the 1967 war  and on November 22, 1967, all the security council members voted unanimously on resolution 242 regarding the status of East Jerusalem.  But Israel refused to abide by that resolution with impunity and annexed East Jerusalem to West Jerusalem.  So once again this emphasizes the impotence and futility of all those meetings and resolutions.  Unless there are reforms to guarantee equal rights for all countries and that sanctions are implemented and applied  to all countries, irrespective of their status and the powers that are trying to shield them, then the UN might as well close shop.

As we are getting close to the Christmas season, I could not help but reflect on the Gospel reading of last Sunday from Mathew 3:3 –“Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.” So I pray that we do not lose hope as more people, mostly women and children are  getting  killed in Gaza  while   Mr. Biden and his allies are  destroying all the straight paths of Justice and Peace.  Have a blessed Christmas. 

Thursday, November 30, 2023

Reflecting on The solidarity day with Palestine and the cease fire

The talks regarding the extension of the cease fire coincided with the Solidarity Day with Palestine.  And as I write these lines, representatives at the United Nations are talking about the need for the extension of the ceasefire and that the two state solution is the only way out. That solution was fouled up many years ago when those same countries allowed Israel to get away with violating UN resolutions and expanding settlements and control of the West Bank despite the United Nations resolutions after the occupation of the rest of the Palestinian territories in 1967 .    Now they are all talking, and I am not sure they will do anything beyond that.  Couldn’t the cease fire have taken place before all the shelling of  the Gaza Strip turned the area into smithereens 

 

The whole purpose of the Hamas operation on October 7 was to take hostages so as to exchange them for Palestinian prisoners, most of whom have been languishing in Israeli jails without charge or trial, including many young children.

But the blind support of the Western countries led by the USA simply watched, until it was not humanly bearable anymore, especially after the shelling of the hospitals and  the photos of the babies in incubators hit the world media. Nobody and nothing was spared. The scenes reminded me of the photos we used to see after World WarII

 

For the last few days we have been glued to our TV screens watching that great exchange operation. But Israel cannot tolerate a moment of joy for the Palestinians and the released prisoners were prevented from any public celebrations or offering of sweets for the happy occasion.  In the meantime the arrests and shooting of young men in the West Bank have almost exceeded the number of the released prisoners.  And while I am writing this two young children were shot in Jenin. 

 

Ironically the Occupation Forces could not also tolerate a positive word by the hostages about the good treatment they had by Hamas while in hostage, especially after the testimony of a woman who was released with her daughter.  So,  later on those who were released were allocated to special wards in hospitals, so that they will not talk  to anybody about their experience. 

 

I just hope and pray that the efforts of all the leaders gathering to discuss the ceasefire will succeed in making it a permanent one. And all efforts will be pursued to bring about a just solution to the Palestinian issue as well as the rebuilding of Gaza, and not razing it in accordance with the plans of the Israeli Prime Minister.

Thursday, November 23, 2023

A Thanksgiving Letter to Biden

 

Dear Mr. Biden,


I wonder how  you and your guests for Thanksgiving dinner on the 23rd will be able to celebrate when so many families in Gaza have lost dear ones and have been deprived of their homes, food, and  shelter due to the Israeli invasion of Gaza which you could have stopped immediately.    No humans, including medical teams and news reporters, along with buildings, hospitals, schools  or churches and  mosques have been spared.  I hope the  sight of those  babies in incubators will make you  and your  guests at the White House lose your appetite.


However as you claim to be  a man of faith, I would like to remind you of the words of our Lord according to Luke 4:18-19 


“The spirit of the Lord is on me 

because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind , to release the oppressed , to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor”


So hopefully during this blessed season you will spare the people of the Holy Land further suffering under an occupation that is morally and financially supported by your administration.


A 90-year-old Palestinian great grandmother.



Thursday, November 9, 2023

No Bears to Protect Those Children

After one month of the Gaza surprise events, I was determined to take a break from watching the horrific news of the bombing of Gaza, its residential sections, schools as well as hospitals.  Not even the church was spared where some of the people whom we knew, and were taking refuge at the church  got killed.  No efforts for the end of the indiscriminate shelling by Israel  with the blessing of the USA and its allies made any difference.  Israel was determined on  “ mowing  the lawn”  a metaphor used to  completely wipe out Gaza.

I had Barbara Kingsolver Small Wonder Essays sitting by my reclining chair for some time now, and had no time for it.  So I decided  that this would be the best time for me to pick it up.

After the introduction, Barbara takes us through the first small wonder taking place in the hills of Lorestan, a  Province of Iran where a small child wandered out of the house without being noticed by the babysitter, and got the whole area searching for him.

 

The parents and the whole community kept banging the doors of hope until one of those doors opened  after three days, and  the child was found in a cave curled around by a bear who apparently was lactating and had fed the child.

 

But the  sad news is that Barbara was reading the story of the child and the bear on the same day that she had read the year’s opening on the bombing campaign in Afghanistan.

 

And here I am reading that story while Gaza is being bombed,  but  there are no bears to protect those children.