Palestinians Will Never Forget

[Nothing1234 2]

Palestinians Will Never Forget

by Susan Abulhawa / January 7th, 2009

How can anyone watching Gaza burn escape the bitter realization that history repeats itself? Many have compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to Apartheid South Africa. But not in their cruelest hour did the Apartheid regime wreak such wanton murder and destruction. Let us stop mincing words. What is happening to Palestinians now whispers of Warsaw and Lodz.

Schools, universities, mosques, police stations, homes, water treatment plants, factories, and anything that supports civil society, including the only mental health clinic in Gaza, have been blown to rubble from planes that rain death from clear skies without any resistance, because Palestinians have no opposing air force. Nor do they have an army or navy. No mechanized armor or heavy weaponry. Thanks to Israel, they haven’t even had continuous electricity or fuel for the past two years. Or food and medicine. Israel’s siege and blockade of Gaza has prevented the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza, including the import of the most basic goods necessary for survival.

A recent study by the Red Cross showed that 46 percent of Gazan children suffer from anemia. Malnutrition affects 75 percent of Gaza’s population, half of whom are under the age of 17. There has been widespread deafness among children due to Israel’s intentional and frequent sonic booms from low overflights. An alarming number have stunted growth and serious mental disorders due lack of food.

The only way they have been able to survive thus far has been due to the tunnels that smuggle food and goods from Egypt.

Half of Gazan children under 12 have lost their “will to live.” Can anyone fathom the kind of oppression that leads small children en mass to lose their will to live?

This is what Israel has done to Gaza over the past two years. They ghettoized Gaza and turned it into an open air prison – a concentration camp of civilians with no way to earn a living, no way to defend themselves and no place to run from the slaughter bombarding them from air, land, and sea. From the white phosphorous disemboweling young and old alike. Hear eyewitness accounts.

But Gazans dared to try to resist with pathetic homemade rockets that, until Israel’s barbaric attack, generally landed in open desert. The rockets were mostly symbolic of resistance, very much like the fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

But who would have called on a ceasefire there, in 1943, for “both parties” to “cease the violence”? Who would have blamed the Ghetto fighters for their ultimate fate? Who would say they had no right to resist? No right to fight back?

Just as Nazis gave Jews only the right to die silently, Israel starves and besieges Palestinians, giving them only that same right. Just as the Warsaw Ghetto was blown to rubble, Gaza is left to burn in an inferno, its hospitals bursting with the puss of death and unspeakable wounds. The entire population of Gaza is terrorized and traumatized. No one is spared the insecurity and fear. Imagine, please, that you are a Gazan.

What have Palestinians done to deserve such a fate? To be endlessly hunted like animals? To have their homes demolished, their ancient history and heritage cast into forgotten space? To languish in refugee camps and slums, while Jews from all corners of the earth flock to fill their confiscated homes and farms? To be tortured, imprisoned, and denied in every conceivable way?

What have we done that leaders will not speak against this massive and cold aggression against our people? With what logic do you call Palestinians terrorists when their streets flow with the blood of their own children? When they have been stripped naked of possessions, dignity and hope?

Why? Because they elected Hamas? Hamas has held power for less than two years. Yet, Palestinians have suffered this kind of slaughter for 61 years. Whether now in Gaza, in 2002 in Jenin, in 1947 and 1948 in Deir Yasin, Balad el-Sha, Yehida, Tantura, and the list goes on. Or 1982 in Sabra and Shatila.

Palestinians are killed as if insects not because of Hamas or Yasser Arafat before them. Not because of Qassasm rockets or hand thrown rocks. Palestinians burn and bleed because they are the non-Jewish natives of that land. There is no other reason. Just like Jews were killed for being Jewish. Palestinians are killed for being the Muslims and Christians who hold historic, legal and even genetic title to that land.

But unlike Jews of Europe, Palestinians are killed slowly over decades. Unlike Israel, Nazi Germany did not establish such an effective global propaganda machine that would demonize its victims and blame them for their own ghastly fate. But most importantly, like the fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto, Palestinians do not march like mice to their death. In six decades of enduring unspeakable oppression, their will has not been broken. Now is no exception.

Israel, and the United States with its unconditional support, will only succeed in radicalizing a whole new generation of its victims. Of revving world hatred and resentment against this unholy duo.

Palestinians will not forget this, as they have not forgotten the past 60 years.

But what will you remember a week or a year or a decade from now, when a Gazan, who stood before the long rows of corpses and vowed vengeance, creates your 9-11? When one of those few million children without a will to live straps on a belt that rips through your daily routine? Will you remember what we did to them?

Susan Abulhawa is the author of The Scar of David, a work of historic fiction.

She is also the founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, www.PlaygroundsforPalestine.org and Board Member of Deir Yassin Remembered.

Read other articles by Susan, or visit Susan's website. Source: http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2009/01/pale...l-never-forget/

[Ban Hammer 13,345]

From the white phosphorous disemboweling young and old alike.

it does not do that.

[allousa 1]

From the white phosphorous disemboweling young and old alike.

it does not do that.

I agree that I've not heard reports that it disembowels....but it causes extremely severe burns.....

I guess, Charles....that is SO much better.

And they ARE using phosphorous as well as cluster bombs, both of which I do believe are not allowed in proper rules of engagement. Not that I would call this current conflict "proper".

[Craneman 2]

From the white phosphorous disemboweling young and old alike.

it does not do that.

I saw an add on the TV last night.

For $350 you can help send another Jew to Isreal.

This $350 includes classes to teach them Hebrew and instructions on Jewish and Isrealy customs.

Just think you too can help send more people to Isreal from all over the world to build more new settlements, push even more pallistinians form the land and help build the population of Isreal.

Is this great or what ?????

[Ban Hammer 13,345]

From the white phosphorous disemboweling young and old alike.

it does not do that.

I agree that I've not heard reports that it disembowels....but it causes extremely severe burns.....

I guess, Charles....that is SO much better.

And they ARE using phosphorous as well as cluster bombs, both of which I do believe are not allowed in proper rules of engagement. Not that I would call this current conflict "proper".

you might find wp worth reading about....it's not outlawed.

Article 1 of Protocol III of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons defines an incendiary weapon as 'any weapon or munition which is primarily designed to set fire to objects or to cause burn injury to persons through the action of flame, heat, or combination thereof, produced by a chemical reaction of a substance delivered on the target'. The same protocol also prohibits the use of incendiary weapons against civilians (already forbidden by the Geneva Conventions) or in civilian areas. This protocol is only binding upon those who have signed it; the United States, along with the other major military powers, has not signed or agreed to Protocol III and is not bound by it.

There is a debate on whether white phosphorus should be considered a chemical weapon and thus be outlawed by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) which went into effect in April 1997. The convention is meant to prohibit weapons that are "dependent on the use of the toxic properties of chemicals as a method of warfare" (Article II, Definitions, 9, "Purposes not Prohibited" c.).

The convention defines a "toxic chemical" as a chemical "which through its chemical action on life processes can cause death, temporary incapacitation or permanent harm to humans or animals" (CWC, II). An annex lists chemicals that fall under this definition and WP is not listed in the Schedules of chemical weapons or precursors.[26]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_phosphorus_(weapon)

From the white phosphorous disemboweling young and old alike.

it does not do that.

I saw an add on the TV last night.

For $350 you can help send another Jew to Isreal.

This $350 includes classes to teach them Hebrew and instructions on Jewish and Isrealy customs.

Just think you too can help send more people to Isreal from all over the world to build more new settlements, push even more pallistinians form the land and help build the population of Isreal.

Is this great or what ?????

quit following me and my posts, it's quite annoying. this isn't the first time you've done this.

[Craneman 2]

From the white phosphorous disemboweling young and old alike.

it does not do that.

I agree that I've not heard reports that it disembowels....but it causes extremely severe burns.....

I guess, Charles....that is SO much better.

And they ARE using phosphorous as well as cluster bombs, both of which I do believe are not allowed in proper rules of engagement. Not that I would call this current conflict "proper".

you might find wp worth reading about....it's not outlawed.

Article 1 of Protocol III of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons defines an incendiary weapon as 'any weapon or munition which is primarily designed to set fire to objects or to cause burn injury to persons through the action of flame, heat, or combination thereof, produced by a chemical reaction of a substance delivered on the target'. The same protocol also prohibits the use of incendiary weapons against civilians (already forbidden by the Geneva Conventions) or in civilian areas. This protocol is only binding upon those who have signed it; the United States, along with the other major military powers, has not signed or agreed to Protocol III and is not bound by it.

There is a debate on whether white phosphorus should be considered a chemical weapon and thus be outlawed by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) which went into effect in April 1997. The convention is meant to prohibit weapons that are "dependent on the use of the toxic properties of chemicals as a method of warfare" (Article II, Definitions, 9, "Purposes not Prohibited" c.).

The convention defines a "toxic chemical" as a chemical "which through its chemical action on life processes can cause death, temporary incapacitation or permanent harm to humans or animals" (CWC, II). An annex lists chemicals that fall under this definition and WP is not listed in the Schedules of chemical weapons or precursors.[26]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_phosphorus_(weapon)

From the white phosphorous disemboweling young and old alike.

it does not do that.

I saw an add on the TV last night.

For $350 you can help send another Jew to Isreal.

This $350 includes classes to teach them Hebrew and instructions on Jewish and Isrealy customs.

Just think you too can help send more people to Isreal from all over the world to build more new settlements, push even more pallistinians form the land and help build the population of Isreal.

Is this great or what ?????

quit following me and my posts, it's quite annoying. this isn't the first time you've done this.

And your posts are not annoying???

[allousa 1]

Jesus Charles. Honestly, both of these weapons are designed to increase severe damage...#######????? And too use these against civilians???? I could give a d#mn if these are legal or not.

You know, I have not engaged you in any of your posts during this conflict because I have found them to be very distasteful, rude and insensitive. This being a MB and a public forum, people ARE free to say whatever they want.

But you know, as often as you post here, I would have hoped that you would have at least been more sensitive to some of the people that are personally affected by what is going on in Gaza right now. Which, if you have such glib feelings for the people in this area, then why do you post in MENA?

I in no way expect every person to believe how I believe...not at all. But at least be respectful of other's feelings.

[Ban Hammer 13,345]

And your posts are not annoying???

try using the ignore feature then.

[Ban Hammer 13,345]

Jesus Charles. Honestly, both of these weapons are designed to increase severe damage...#######????? And too use these against civilians???? I could give a d#mn if these are legal or not.

You know, I have not engaged you in any of your posts during this conflict because I have found them to be very distasteful, rude and insensitive. This being a MB and a public forum, people ARE free to say whatever they want.

But you know, as often as you post here, I would have hoped that you would have at least been more sensitive to some of the people that are personally affected by what is going on in Gaza right now. Which, if you have such glib feelings for the people in this area, then why do you post in MENA?

I in no way expect every person to believe how I believe...not at all. But at least be respectful of other's feelings.

i'm just pointing that out as you said

And they ARE using phosphorous as well as cluster bombs, both of which I do believe are not allowed in proper rules of engagement. Not that I would call this current conflict "proper".

wp is allowed to be used in warfare. however, neither can be used against civilians.

[Sinergy 3]

Charles, do you have a stalker?

[Nothing1234 2]

Charles, do you have a stalker?

He's always been a hot commodity!

[Sinergy 3]

Charles, do you have a stalker?

He's always been a hot commodity!

i know

[Ban Hammer 13,345]

Charles, do you have a stalker?

i'm surprised they don't bump into each other, i've got so many of them.