Gaza on Our Minds...

March 4, 2008

"Genocide in Gaza"

The Israeli Ministry of Defense has warned of a "holocaust" if the homemade Qassam rockets that are fired into southern Israel do not stop.

Why was that statement not reported on the vast majority of news stations? Why are the Gazans immediately – and always -- referred to as militants? And why is the international community remaining silent in times of a humanitarian crisis?

In the last four days, 91 one Palestinians have been killed. At least 12 are women and 18 are children. The youngest casualty last reported on Al Jazeera's Arabic channel was a two-day old child. More than 250 have been severely injured. People are climbing on to the roofs of their homes to create human shields so that the Israeli Army won't attack.

It hasn't worked so far.

What's worst, though, is that the government is divided in two over this issue. Over here in the West Bank, the Fatah-controlled government blames Hamas for bringing this on to its people and Hamas blames Fatah for not offering support. This is a time when the Palestinian people must – MUST – show solidarity and a will to come together. It is not about one party's ideals versus another, but the fact that Israel is aiming for genocide.


The Qassam rockets are not a good selling point; however, this conflict is not one-sided. If Apache helicopters are shooting people down every moment, what does Israel expect? Yet, Hamas's leader should not have stated that the Qassam rockets will never stop.

Strikes have begun in the West Bank. Meaning, cities like Ramallah, Bethlehem, and Nablus have closed their shops, restaurants, cafes, supermarkets in solidarity with the Gazan people.

A friend of mine took me for a drive around Ramallah yesterday because we were curious just how fast people would react to the horrifying news (Keep in mind all of this news is in Arabic – I am not even going to start with the crap that the English channels put on. Pure mindless garbage.). Within moments, most of the city had shut down. I went with him and his friends afterwards to do some shopping and everywhere, people were fixated on Gaza.

Last night, that very same evening, we were having dinner at a friend's place and what was supposed to bea relaxing night before I came back to Nablus turned out to be a horrific, bloody mess. At first, because half of us were foreigners and the other half Palestinian, we started off with Al Jazeera International. Yet, only the Arabic Al jazeera truly covered the complexity of the situation. What is frustrating about this is that the people outside of the region need to learn and understand the situation more than the people within the conflict. We're an emotionally invsted group here, we know the facts, the numbers, the background. All the guys could only curse as we watched Minister after Preseident after Political Leader blame one another. After hearing what they were saying without recognizing the true problem, I couldn't blame my friends.


Curse away.

It's only a short distance away, and yet, it feels like another country, maybe even another world. Gaza is the world's biggest prison, with 1.5 million people living in those few kilometers. And to shoot at them under already horrid circumstances of limited electricity, food, and supplies – might as well herd them around like cattle and shoot them dead.

Just a few weeks ago, the last catastrophe, when Gaza blacked out for days, seems like a simple little problem, in retrospect.

People are saying that Nablus is next. I don't think that is the case, but things are a bit off in the West Bank in general. As I came home this morning from Ramallah, more Israeli jeeps were around than usual. We were shot at this morning around 9 a.m., but I was the only one who flinched, and all I could think was, "If anyone gets shot, they get shot. So what?" Every time I looked out of the window, an M-16 was pointed in our direction.

Israel starts a new war, and the Palestinians are in danger.

At this very moment, there is an official strike for the next few hours and no one is allowed to work at the University. I have to go because we are showing solidarity with the Gazans, and almost everything in the West Bank has shut down.