Truth and Trauma in Gaza
Monday,
03 December 2012 10:26
Dr.
T., a medical doctor, is a Palestinian living in Gaza City. He is still reeling
from days of aerial bombardment. When I asked about the children in his
community he told me his church would soon be making Christmas preparations to
lift the children’s spirits. Looking at his kindly smile and ruddy cheeks, I
couldn’t help wondering if he’d be asked to dress up as “Baba Noel,” as Santa
Claus. I didn’t dare ask this question aloud.
“The
most recent war was more severe and vigorous than the Operation Cast Lead,” he
said slowly, leaning back in his chair and looking into the distance. “I was
more affected this time. The weapons were very strong, destroying everything.
One rocket could completely destroy a building.”
The
8-day Israeli offensive in November lasted for fewer days and brought fewer
casualties, but it was nonstop and relentless, and everywhere.
“Civilian
services and civilian administrative buildings along with a Palestinian bank
building were affected.”
“At
1:00 a.m. the bank was bombed, and everyone in the area was awakened from
sleep. Doors were broken and windows were shattered. There was an agonizing
sound, as if we were in a battlefield.” “The bombing went on every day. F16
U.S. jets were hitting hard.” “This is more than anyone can tolerate. We were
unsafe at any place at any time.”
U.S.
media and government statements are full of accounts about the scattershot
Hamas rocket fire that had taken one Israeli life in the months before the
Israeli bombing campaign. The U.S. government demands that the Gazans disarm
completely. Due to simple racism and a jingoistic eagerness to get in line with
U.S. military policy, Western commentators ignore the bombardment of Gazan
neighborhoods which has caused thousands of casualties over just the past few
years. They automatically frame Israel’s actions as self-defense and the only
conceivable response to Palestinians who, under whatever provocations, dare to
make themselves a threat.
“Any house can be destroyed. The
airplanes filled the skies,” Dr. T. continued. “They were hitting civilians
like the one who was distributing water.” The Palestine Centre for Human Rights report confirms that Dr. T is
discussing Suhail Hamada Mohman and his ten year old son, who were both killed
instantly at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, November 18, 2012 in Beit Lahiya while
distributing water to their neighbors.
Dr.
T. then mentioned the English teacher and his student killed nearby walking in
the street. The PCHR report notes that on November 16, at approximately 1:20
p.m., Marwan Abu al-Qumsan, 42, a teacher at an UNRWA school, was killed when
Israeli Occupation Forces bombarded an open space area in the southeast section
of Beit Lahia town. He had been visiting the house of his brother, Radwan, 76,
who was also seriously wounded.
And
Dr. T. mentioned the Dalu family. “They were destroyed for no reason. You can
go visit there.”
The
next day, I went to the building north of Gaza City where the Dalu family had
lived.
In the afternoon on Sunday, November 18, an Israeli
F-16 fighter jet fired a missile at the 4-story house belonging to 52-year-old
Jamal Mahmoud Yassin al-Dalu. The house was completely destroyed as were all
inside. Civil Defense crews removed from the debris the bodies of 8 members of
the family, four women and four children aged one to seven. Their names were:
Samah
Abdul Hamid al-Dalu, 27;
Tahani
Hassan al-Dalu, 52;
Suhaila
Mahmoud al-Dalu, 73
Raneen
Jamal al-Dalu, 22.
Jamal
Mohammed Jamal al-Dalu, 6;
Yousef
Mohammed Jamal al-Dalu, 4;
Sarah
Mohammed Jamal al-Dalu, 7;
Ibrahim
Mohammed Jamal al-Dalu, 1;
On
November 23rd, two more bodies were found under the rubble, one of them a
child.
The
attack destroyed several nearby houses, including the house of the Al-Muzannar
family where two civilians, a young man and a 75year-old woman, also died. They
were: Ameena Matar al-Mauzannar, 75; and
Abdullah
Mohammed al-Muzannar, 19.
One
banner that hangs on a damaged wall reads, “Why were they killed?” Another
shows enlarged pictures of the Dalu children’s faces.
Atop
the rubble of the building is the burned wreckage of the family minivan,
flipped there upside down in the blast.
The
Israeli military later claimed it had collapsed the building in hope of
assassinating an unspecified visitor to the home, any massive civilian death
toll justifiable by the merest hint of a military target. Qassam rockets killing
one Israeli a year are terrorism, but deliberate attacks to collapse buildings
on whole families are not.
“All Palestinians are targeted now,” a woman who lives across the street told us. Every window in her home had been shattered by the blast. She had been sure it was the end of her life when she heard the explosion. She had covered her face, and then, opening her eyes, seen the engine from the neighbor’s car flying past her through her home. She pointed to a spot on the floor where a large rocket fragment had landed in her living room. Then, looking at the ruins of the Dalu building, she shook her head. “These massacres would not happen if the people who fund it were more aware.”
Mr.
Dalu’s nephew Mahmoud is a pharmacist, 29 years of age, who is still alive
because he had recently moved next door from his uncle’s now-vanished building
to an apartment that he built for himself, his wife and their two year-old
daughter who are also alive. With his widowed mother and several neighborhood
women, he and his wife had been preparing to celebrate his daughter’s birthday.
A garland of tinsel still festoons a partly destroyed wall. The blast destroyed
much of his home’s infrastructure, but he was able to shepherd his family
members and their guests out of the house to safety. Several were taken to the
hospital in shock.
“I
don’t know why this happened to us,” Mahmoud says. “I am a pharmacist. In my
uncle’s house lived a doctor and a computer engineer. We were just finishing
lunch. There were no terrorists here. Only family members here. Now I don’t
know what to do, where to go. I feel despair. We are living in misery.”
“Any
war is inhuman, irreligious, and immoral,” my friend, Dr. T., had told me.
Dr.
T. is afraid that Israel is preparing a worse war, one with ground troops
deployed, for after its upcoming election. “We are hopeful to live in peace. We
don’t want to make victims. We love Israelis as we love any human being.”
“But
we are losing the right to life in terms of movement, trade, education, and
water. The Israelis are taking these rights; they are not looking out for the
human rights of Palestinians. They only focus on their sense of security. They
want Palestine to lose all rights.”
Election
logic aside, Israel has already violated the ceasefire - at any time the
missiles and rockets could start raining down once more. Year round, that is
what it means to live in Gaza.
I decided not to bring up the Santa Claus question and instead thanked him for his honest reflections and bade him farewell.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license.
It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the
source.
Kathy Kelly is a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Donations
can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The
master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought
the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while
the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially
their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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