By Izzeldin Abuelaish
This book is at the same time an autobiography that parallels the Bible’s Job and the Quran’s أيّوب Ayyūb. It provides a working and modern day lessons that appears by all events in desperate need to finally be learnt. To me a western reader that collects his information from a western press finds a paradigm shifting dose of reality in this story by Izzeldin Abuelaish. I’ve actually gleaned a subtle shift in other books: Son of Hamas, Birds Without Wings, and the Israel Test come to mind. The paradigm shift in those books was not as profoundly portrayed as in this book. The shift is simple: Co-existence at grass-roots level. Izzeldin’s message is proposed against very staunch realities. The story will climax with the reader having no choice but to face those realities as a citizen of humanity. In reading the book I found myself fact checking on the internet to give a higher sense of the nuance of the cause of the problems in Israeli-Palestinian solution it’s helpful for the reader to have a glimpse of the timeline of events leading up to Izzeldin’s story. I have one word for this Borders.
First was a clumsy affair led by once again the British and the French with Americans once again drawn in to the fray. First is the 1916 Sykes Picot Agreement. From that Agreement between the French and the British drew up the below map that was presented by TE Lawrence to the Eastern Committee of the War Cabinet in November 1918. Notice how much of Palestine territory of that time crosses over in to Syria, Egypt, and Arabia for which a portion evolved to what is now called Jordon. Have you ever wondered why you hear that the Palestinians were abandoned by her neighbors?
Specifically, in 1916 Britain and
France concluded the Sykes-Picot Agreement which proposed to divide the Middle
East between them into spheres of influence, with
"Palestine" as an international enclave. The British made two
potentially conflicting promises
regarding the territory it was expecting to acquire. In the McMahon-Hussein of
1915 Britain had promised Hussein bin Ali, through T.E Lawerence, independence
for an Arab country covering most of the Arab Middle East in exchange for his support, (in the war against the German backed
Ottomans) while also promising to create and foster a Jewish national home in
Palestine in the Balfour Declaration of 1917.
Then came is the small Israeli-Palestinian war that brought
the birth of Israel and the below maps. While the Brits originally sided with
Palestinian they stood aside. Thanks to
Google and a look at the maps below and contrast with the map above one has to
ask what was in the deals made over those decades with the Emirates and Egypt that
allowed Jordan, Lebanon, Syria to claim the lush green portion of what was once
Palestine and leaving the largely barren brown portion for the Israelis and Palestinians
to war with each other. If it’s so hard
to intermix cultures: Why can’t Palestinians simply coexist with fellow Arabs
in Jordan, Syria or Egypt? Why can’t
they simply stay home and coexist with Israelis? Izzeldin explores this. The book the Israel Test claims this was the
case from 1949 to 1967. In the book Son
of Hamas, he claimed this case was somewhat true however there are many shades
of grey. In this book I Shall Not Hate,
Izzeldin turns the grey turns in to black and white.
Here it is, 100 years later we find the divide between
Israelis and Palestinians at fever pitch which finds the themes of oppression
and violence. In the I Shall Not Hate you will learn of the systematic containment
and oppression of Palestinians, primarily by Israel, but mostly ignored by the
world at large. In America, unless you
listened to NPR this was under reported.
In the book you will read about Israeli military atrocities against
Palestinians in Gaza and specifically Izzeldin’s family. It is the result of a powerful army against a
people with simple rockets, suicide bombers, and knives, and stones. However death is death on either side of a
boarder. To experience death the way
Izzeldin did makes one rethink this callous remark.
Amidst this cycle of violence, you will read about how people of the
medical society bridge this senselessness; working hand in hand, eye to eye
with a common theme…life.
Izzeldin's proposition is simple and applies to Gaza and
Israel but can be expanded to world at
large. Let the history of post colonialism
including the West, Egypt, and Arab nations be bygones. They were clumsy affairs managed by the World
Powers of the times where in their simple minds the solutions held the paradigm
of boarders surrounding the right to self determination…. yeaah to Woodrow
Wilson. In Gaza boarders meant demoralizing
border crossings, blockades, rocket launches that do not require passport
control, and finally invasions called police actions.
So Izzeldin’s primary focus is coexistence. Break down the border. Through coexistence living neighbor among
neighbor you find peace. He claims
coexistence must come first so that forgiveness found in the recognition of the
dignity granted to fellow neighbor lays the bedrock for peace. He says peace is not the absence of war, but
rather neighbors allowing neighbor’s simple human rights to pursue their own
dreams.
We also find as part of Izzeldin’s solution is the end to
oppression of women in the Muslim world.
Because Izzeldin loses his cherished daughters in such a violent over
use of force, he recognizes that the only way to give any meaning to their
deaths is to rise above hatred and the acts of revenge that follow. He describes in his wife and daughters women
who nurture mankind. He suggests this
ingredient is necessary for the cultural shift to occur across the Middle
East. At high level he suggests the
West’s penchant for drawing boarders has only created wars. The Middle East’s penchant for male dominance
has left out the ingredient for peace found only in the nurturing culture of
women. His physicians trained mind sees
peace as a person-to-person phenomena.
I have two links:to share:
Excerpts:
Forward: In
earlier times, ordinary people on both sides were more militant and the
governments were perhaps more inclined to search for a solution. He believes that the situation is the reverse
today: from grass roots up, Palestinians
and Israelis want to live in peace, to lead decent lives, to have roofs over
their heads and safety for their children.
Page 2: According
to the United Nations, the Gaza Strip has the highest population density in the
world. The majority of its approximately 1.5 million residents are Palestinian
refugees, man of whom have been living in refugee camps for decades; it is
estimated that 8- percent are living in poverty.
Page 4: As a
physician, I would describe this cycl of taunting and bullying as a form of
self-destructive behavior that arises whem a a situation is viewed as hopeless.
Page 5: Their
rallying cry is “Look over here, the level of suffering has to stop.” But how can Gazans attract the attention of
the international community?
My
Comment: By contrast to a very similar situation in India, the
reaction is very different. There is not
an effort to get world attention but rather a plan of how to put a community
together.
Page 7: But I
maintain that revenge and counter-revenge are suicidal, that mutual respect,
equality, and coexistence are the only reasonable way forward, and I firmly
believe that this region of people who live in this region agree with me.
Page 17: For me,
it was an example of what most families,
most teenagers, and most scholars in the region want: to find a way through the chaos in order to
live side by side.
To meet terrorism with terrorism ofr violence with
violence doesn’t solve anything
“We think as enemies; we live on opposite sides and never
meet. But I feel we are all the
same. We are all human beings.”
From the time I was a very small boy I have been able to
find the good chapter of a bad story, and that has always been the attitude I
try to bring to the considerable obstacles that have challenged me.
Page 35: “The old
will die and the new generations will forget.”
But look at the situation today: no one threw the Israelis into the sea,
and the Palestinians didn’t forget.
However after six decades in which thel largets harvest in the region
has been misunderstanding and hate, it is fair to say that forgetting the past
is not the only issue; we need to say forgetting the past is not the only
issue, we need to find ways to go
forward together.
It is important to note that Palestinians are willing to
coexist. It’s the leaders on all sides
that have proven incapable of facilitizing this. The prime blocker for Oslo was yaser Arafat,
for example.
Page 42: Al
Halaby, would become one of the most important mentors of my life. He treated me like a son. I learned from experience that you shouldn’t
hate something you don’t know, because it may turn out to be the bearer of your
greatest fortune.
Page 45 I hated myself for having to live like this, for
not being able to change our circumstances no matter how hard I tried. In my culture the responsibility carried by
the eldest son is very heavy.
I railed against so many injustices when I was growing
up, but today I llok back and am thankful for getting through it all, thankful
for the teachers who saw a brighter future for me.
Page 46: It is
true that the sky was always beautiful, bit I don’t remember marveling at
sunsets or gazing at the dawn of a new day.
Survival doesn’t allow for time for poetic reflection. In those years I was focused on one thing: getting an education and getting out of
there.
Page 54: I began
to ask questions about discrimination:
Why are Israelis like this and we are like that? How come there’s a difference in the way we
are treated? At last, at age twelve, I
began to keep my eyes open in order to better understand the circumstances
under which I was living.
Page 57: But more
than that, I was very impressed by the medical treatments, by the fact that
there were drugs or therapies or other means to actuall alter the course of
illness. I could see that they were
really helping people. This was when and
where my dream about becoming a doctor began.
I could see that if I became a doctor, it would be possible for me to
improve the condition of my family and also to serve the Palestinian people.
Page 58: That
summer left a powerful impression on me in many ways. That an Israeli family would hire me, treat
me fairly, and show so much kindness toward me was completely unexpected. The experience was made all the more
unforgettable by the events that followed one week after my return to Gaza.
Page 62: I was
able to reflect on the second milestone in my life. The paradox between the warm hospitality of
the Israeli family who had employed me that summer and the brute force of
Sharon’s Israeli soldier made me recognize that I had to commit myself to
finding a peaceful bridge between divides.
Arab Palestinian people; it is an indivisible part of the
Arab homeland, and the Palestinian people are an intregal part of the Arab
nation.
I was very aware of the suffering of my people, but I
also believed the weapon I needed was not a rock or a gun but an education so
that I could fight for human right and help al Palestinian people.
Page 69: I think
unemployment and poverty contributed to what I would call an unhealthy
manner
of parenting. Yet because she saw to it
that we survived, we succeeded.
This personal coming together helped me realize that
sometimes it’s better to look forward, to move into the future, rather than
dwell on the past. And there was so much
to look forward to. But I carried the
questions that had dogged me since childhood into the wider world. How come a Palestinian child does not live
like an Israeli child?
Page 72: I brought
boys from my neighborhood to work with us and paid them as well as myself on
contract rather than taking a salary.
That way you get more work done and, everyone works even harder because
that can see the money be made. I worked
for him right up to the day I left for Cairo.
He even gave me a good-bye present.
Page 78 He had
been a successful farmer, the son of a respected land owner, but then he
was
homeless, living in a refugee camp, raising his children there, working as a
guard, never earning enough money. It
was humiliating for him. I could feel
his anxiety throughout my boyhood, and as my life began to improve at medical
school in Cairo, I fealt guilty that my father hadn’t been able to be the role
model to his children that he believed he should be. The last days of his life were painfully
difficult.
I still feel the grief of his passing in my heart. So I will always do the three things that
Muslims do for the dead: share his
knowledge and wisdom with others, pray for him, and give to charity in his good
name.
Page 82: the way
the native-norn British sometimes looked down on people who weren’t
British. I noticed that superior
attitude on the stree, in stores, and in community centers. Happily if didn’t exist in the classroom , so
it didn’t affect my studies in London.
Page 84: We
arrived in the midst of the continuing intifada. There were Israeli guns and tanks at every
corner. Then, in the face of all
madness, it turned into a fracticidal bloodbath as well. An estimated one thousand Palestinians who
were accused of collaborating with Israaelis were executed by our own people,
even though in most cases there was no proof of collusion. By the time the first intifada ended on
August 20, 1993, with the signing of the Oslo Accordsw, more than 2,100 Palestinians
were dead – 1,000 at the hands of brothers and 2,100 at the hands of Israeli
soldiers.
Page 87: While I
was in Jerusalem, I decided to try to fine the Jewish family I had worked for as a teenager. I had been thinking about them for a long
time but had never before tried to find their farm. Since I had to drive from Jerusalem back to Soroka, I decided this was the time
to find the family who had had so much influence on me as a teenager; who had
allowed me to see how small the differences actually were between the two
peoples of the Middle East.
Page 88: I was so
happy to have found the family once again and to see that they were alive and
well. I was glad to have the chance to
explain to them how much my summer at their farm meant to me: that it had proved to me that Jews and Palestinians
could behave as one family.
I wanted to show thm the affection, even love I had for
them. I know how much we can accomplish
when we pull down the barriers that stop is from achieving our dreams.
Page 92: I love my
work because a hospital is a plave where huminaty can be discovered, where
people are treated without racism as equals.
Page 94: I did my
share of pushing the envelop for coexistence even then by acting as an
unofficial peace envoy for the region: I
would host groups of Israelis ay my home on in the homes of my friends one
weekend every month. We toured the
Jabalia refugee camp and Gaza City, showed the the conditions people live in,
let them experience the overcrowding, and allow plenty of time so they could
talk to people, ask their own questions, and draw their own conclusion. The we’d have coffee and sweets together –
all of us, the Israelis and the Palestinians.
We’d discuss, and we’d argue.
These get-togethers brought home to me how similar we are when it comes
to socializing.
Page 95: Although
it would get a lot worse later, many Palestinians couldn’t see any future for
themselves. They began to see their
lives as useless. And then, when one
person goes crazy and becomes a suicide bomber, no one around him tries to preven
the act Instead, they all call him a
hero. That’s the way things got worse.
My
comment: He comes close to
justifying suicide bombings, where earlier he condemns them. I am sure he condemns them but has a sense of
compassion for the desperation of the act of suicide bombing, It’s a different picture most westerners
have. Westerners believe that suicide
bombers are seduced by jihadists and there is no other motivation.
I wanted to go back to work in Israel and in order to
protect myself, I consulted many Palestinians about whether or not I
should. I wanted to know if it was
ethical. The general consensus was,
“Izzeldin, go to your work. It’s beneficial
for you, for us, for the Israelis.”
Page 96: As the
second intifada raged, each side was focusing on its own pain and blaming the
other instead of realizing we have to recognize the rights of both peoples to
live in harmony and peace; the alternative is war and distrust.
Page 99: I didn’t
think twice about the opportunity because that’s the way I saw it: As an opportunity to cross the bridge to get
to the Jewish community. This is
precisely where the healing needed to begin.
I carefully prepared my message, wanting to make every single word
count, I wasn’t nervous, but I was upset because I realized that they could
only see themselves and didn’t want to see me or understand what I neede to
tell them.
Page 100: That’s
how terrorism establishes its roots. By
finding its way among the disenfranchised, the disconnected, and the
uneducated, it germinates fear, distrust, and intolerance.
Page 101: Trust in
the Middle East is such a rare commodity; it’s gasping for air. The thing is, you cannot ask people to
coexist by having one side bow their heads and rely on a solution that is good
for the other side. What you can do is
stop blaming each other and engage in dialogue with one person at a time.
Instead, I talk to my patients, to my neighbors and
colleagues – Jews, Arabs – and I find out they feel as I do: we are more
similar than we are different, and we are all fed up with the violence.
As a physician who has practiced in Israel and Gaza, I
see medicine as the bridge between us, just as education and friendship have
been bridges. We all know what to do, so
who is stopping us? Who is holding up
the barrier between our two side?. We
need to reach each other by embracing one another’s realities, sending messages
of tolerance rather than intolerance and healing instead of hate.
Page 105: The
health system in the Gaza Strip is fragmented; services are duplicated and
poorly coordinated, so they don’t meet the needs of the people. The United Nations still covers primary
health care; the Palestinian Authority does the rest.
I confess I had come to the United States under the
impression that Americans are arrogant people. Living among them taught me not to judge
people by the frustration you may have with their governments. This was an open, competitive society that
was built on concepts of success. My
time in Boston taught me that most Americans are kind people and good
neighbors. Judging them all as
arrogant is the same as calling all Israelis occupiers and all Palestinians
troublemakers.
Page 111: I told
my neighbors that I knew what was wrong and I knew how to fix it. The health system- was on adequate. Progress was determined only by who had the
power to hand out jobs rather than by needs of the people.
Page 112: AT the
time, Hamas was not considered to be a contender; it was popular in Gaza, but Fatah still seemed to be in
charge. I wanted to run as an
independent.. Politics in Gaza are
tribal, party-based, and entirely dependent on who’s paying your salary, I
argued that we needed to challenge all
that and cultivate a people based form of politics where ordinary voters truly
choose. But Fatah assumed I was running
on its ticket, and weighing all the costs and the consequences. I felt I’d
better join forces with this party.
Suddenly, being elected wasn’t about who I was and what I
stood for; it was about who I was connected to and what I would do for them.
Page 116: Because
Afghanistan was a conflict zone, the work schedule was six week on and ten days
off. The situation in the country was
shocking, even to me. Humanity was
intimidated there. The living conditions
of most Afghan people reminded me of the descriptions or our villages a hundred
years ago. In Gaza we have an unstable
situation and much deprivation, but our systems are far more advanced than the
ones of Afghanistan.
My
comment: Gaza while being
severely oppressed by Israel, they have a civil system created by Israel. Such irony.
Page 117: The
situation had become complicated after the election. Mahmoud Abbas was still the leader of the
Palestinian Authority even though his Fatah party had been defeated. Although the two sides tried to form a
government, the union was on shaky ground from the start and the fighting
between factions was growing worse. It
was brother against brother, and violence was spreading both in intensity and
in range, until most of the Gaza Strip was involved in one way or another. My country was in danger of imploding.
Page 118: There
was gun fire all around, shooting on every street. With civil war you never know who the enemy
really is. I’d spent the last year in
Afghanistan seeing the same confusion of tribal, political and ideological
warfare.
Page 119: Mohammed
and some of his co-workers fed the base and his in a store, but Hamas ended up
searching the store and found them. They
were tied up, bindfolded, beaten, and tortured.
Page 120: I was
heartbroken with the turn of events in Gaza.
How could we heal this new wound and cope with the resulting scar? The Israelis were the enemy, butnow we’d
become enemies inside our own house
Page 121: The last
decade has been a particularly disappointing period in this grinding conflict
that keeps us apart. Our leaders bicker
like children, breaking promises, behaving like bullies, keeping the kettle of trouble
boiling. The people I talk to –
patients, doctors, neighbors in Gaza, friends in Israel – are not like our leaders. They worry about family as I worry about
their families.
Page 126: Our
politicians bicker about who said what and who will recognize whom and then
change their minds when a new slate of official is elected.
Palestinians face hardships in their daily lives; they
are prevented from doing what makes up the daily fabric of most people’s
co-existence. They face a deep human
crisis, where millions of people are denied their human dignity. Not once in a while, but every day, and the
people of Gaza are trapped and sealed off.
The humanitarian cost is enormous, people can barely survive, families
unable to get enough food increased by 14 percent, and Palestinians are being
trampled underfoot day after day. In
Gaza under siege, Palestinians continue to pay for conflict and economic
containment with their health and livelihoods.
My comment: He is
spot on. Americans see the Gazan Civil
War first. They only see violence of people
in power. We in the West do not at all
hear loud enough the damage that is occurring as result of the blockade by the
Israelis.
Page 128: Some of
the health issues have been addressed, some even solved. But every time there’s a change of government
on either side, the rules for transfer and treatment also change. It’s a life-threatening situation that
creates rage among those who have to endure it.
The Gazans depend on timely and reliable supply of
medicines from the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health in the West Bank,
but the supply chain often breaks down.
Co-operation between the health authorities in the West Bank and Gaza is
difficult. Complex and lengthy Israeli
import procedures also hamper the reliable suppy of even the most basic items
such as pain killers, including people suffering from cancer or kidney failure,
do not always get the essential drugs they need.
My
comment: This is an internal problem that is
exacerbated by the Israelis. And the
world turns a blind eye.
Page 131:
Humanitarian action can be no sunstitute for the credible political
steps that are needed to bring about these changes. Only an honest and courageous political
process involving all States, political authorities and organized armed groups
concerned can address the plight of Gaza and restore a dignified life to its
people. The alternative is a further
descent into misery with every passing day.
Page 133: Izzeldin
says health care can be an important bridge between two peoples. I agree with him. It works because saving lives and not giving
up and doing that over and over again gives the other side the opportunity to
see the face of Israelis, not through rifles, but through health care. People who were born and raised there come
here for treatment. They don’t know
us. They don’t know how sensitive we
are about life. They don’t know the real
Israeli. Palestinians are incited from
birth. They tell us that they never
imagined we were human, that they thought we were monsters, conquerors, people
who wanted to see them dead. Then
they’re treated by us and are surprised that those things are not true.
Page 134: The
majority of Israelis want to live side by side. I’m sure it’s that way with
Palestinians as well. But we’re led by
extremists on both sides. It’s so easy
to incite the people with the misery they are in.
The important thing about bridging the divide is
admitting the truth, the facts around people’s lives today. For example, ‘the right of return’ – the
topic everyone knows about but no one wants to discuss. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were
deported when Israel became a state.
Everyone knows this fact.
Page 137: I grew
up in Gaza watching the way decision making and the perseverance, but I
understood that the women weren’t being given the opportunity to bring their
own expertise to the table. Women and
girls are not able to rise to their potential in Gaza, and as a result they
cannot participate to their fullest.
My
comment: This cultural
problem has many tentacles.
Page 140: I wanted
to take them away from the tension that infects everyone like a virus in the
Middle East. Not forever – this is still
my homeland. But for a while – just to
give the family a chance to grown up, to be together. SO in August 2008, when I received a notice
from the international organization babout health policy jobs in Kenya and
Uganda and another one through the European Union in Brussels, I decided to
book a ticket and find out if there was something out there in the wide world
for me and my loved ones.
Page 145: There I
began gain, this time with Jordanian officials.
I presented my papers, including the visa for Jordan that I’d applied
for weeks earlier, and was directed to a special window designated for
Gazans. I waited there for what felt
like an eternity, especially in light of the flight I needed to catch in
Amman. A Palestinian designation on your
papers is enough to warrant a very long wait wherever you are in this part of
the world.
Page 150: All it
meant was another delay for me, as he tore up the arrest form he’d filled out
and demanded that I signa a form saying that no one at his checkpoint had
harmed me physically. And to prove that
he held the trump card, he announced that I had to go to Jericho – over thirty
miles back from the checkpoint we were at – and start my return journey all
over again. What’s more, he instructed
me to check in with the director of coordination for Israel in Jericho to get a
new permit – mine has now expired.
Page 158: Many people stranded at the boarder like I was
for days, weeks, even months. Only the
well-to-do can take advantage of accommodations available in the nearby
Egyptian towns. The others sleep on the
ground just outside the boarder crossing.
You can imagine what sanitation is like in this situation. It is normal to see hundreds of Palestinian
travelers waiting to be allowed to cross, including women, old people, young
men, and children, all with the same expression of gloom, frustration,
impatience, and fatigue.
My
comments: A border crossing
alone provides all the ingredients for an uprising.
Page 166: Imagine
your house being taken away from you by force, demolished before y
our very
eyes. How could a person not be in
despair or not feel powerless, stripped of dignity, and incapable of
differentiating between good and bad?
I’d seen further destruction as an adult when headquarters of the
Palestinian Authority was blasted into smithereens by a barrage of shells. How would we ever come back from this leathal
attack on the men, women, and children – the innocent civilians of
Palestine? How could psychologists,
sociologists, medical doctors, and economists rehabilitate the people who had
come through the craziness of this annihilation?
Page 168: At that
moment, I felt that we had reached the bottommost depths of humanity and that
noting remained ahead of us. What
remained was to count on God and our faith.
For three weeks during the war, we lost our belief in humanity, so God
and each other were all we had left.
Page 176: Bedroom
furniture, schoolbooks, dolls, running shoes, and pieces of wood splintered in
a heap, along with body parts. Shatha
was the only one standing. Her eye was
on her cheek, her body covered in bloody puncture wounds, her finger hanging by
a thread of skin. I found Mayar’s body
on the ground, she’d been
decapitated. There was brain matter on
the ceiling, girl’s hands and feet on the floor as if dropped there by someone
who had left in a hurry. Blood spattered
the entire room, and arms in familiar sweaters and legs in pants that belonged
to these beloved children leaned at crazed angles where they had blown off the
torsos. I ran to the front doo for help
but realized I couldn’t go outside because there were soldiers on the
street. A second rocket smashed into the
room while I was at the door.
To this day I am absolutely certain about who was killed
when.
Page 177: The
apartment was full of the dead and wounded.
Shatha was standing in front of me, bleeding profusely. I was sure Ghaida had also been killed as
there were wounds on every single part of her body and she lay still on the
floor. Nasasr had been struck by
shrapnel in the back and was also on the floor.
I wondered who could help us, who could get us out of this catastrophe.
My
comment: As it turns out
it was his Israeli friend, a reporter.
Page 181: Soon
enough arrived at Sheba – Ghaida airlifted from Ashqelon – to an enormous show
of support from the staff I’d worked with , as well as passonate blessings from
Arab, Muslim, Jewish, and Christian people in Israel who had been watching the
drama unfold on television and had gathered in the hospital foyer to wait for
us.
Page 183: When I
met with Izzeldin the next morning at the fospital, I was totally lost for
words; I hadn’t any idea what to say to him.
But instead of me finding the words to encourage him, I found myself
being encouraged by him. His message was
that his own personal disaster should serve as a kind of milestone, and from
here we should do more for peace in order to prevent such a horrible thing from
happening again.
We do humanitarian work. But that shouldn’t stop us from
facilitating the conversation where what needs to be said is said. I was attacked afterwards, mostly by the
families of Israeli soldiers, because every single thing here that relates to
Israel and Palestine is terribly sensitive.
However, my feeling is that I’m not just a manager or an administrator,
I’m a leader, and I’m obliged to contribute vision and beliefs rather than
simply execute instructions. Even
without declaring what I felt I should lead rather than be led.
Page 186: and I believe the Israeli soldiers were driven
into overkill by groundless fear fostered by so many years of hostilities and
prejudice. The troops’ actions even led
some of the hard-noosed military supporters within Israel to critize the IDF
for using excessive force.
Page 187: to respond to the chorus of people calling for
Israeli blood to atone for the death of my girls. One said, “Don’t you hate Israelis?” Which Israelis an I suppose to hate? I replied. The doctors and nurses I work
with? The ones trying to save Ghadia’s
life and Shatha’s eyesight? The babies I delivered? Families like the Madmoonys who gave me work
and shelter when I was a kid?
Page 188: Didn’t I
hate him? Buts that’s how the system
works here: we use hatred and blame to avoid the reality that eventually we
need to come together. As for the
soldier who shelled my house, I believe that in hais conscience he has already
punished himself, that he is asking himself, “What have I done?”
Page 193 In
Jabalia City alone there was some five hundred thousand tons of rubble; it looked like a cross between Sarajevo under
siege and Afghanistan after the mujahedeen were finished with it. The burned –out apartment buildings, the
blackened shells that once were house, the gaping holes where windows had been
that made the buildings still standing look like ghosts – it was all a
testament to the overkill that comes with the hatred engendered by engaging in
war.
My comment: Notice
how Izzeldin rises above the Israeli – Palestinian conflict and point to
examples of war elsewhere. It’s about
hatred…period.
Page 194: When I
surveyed the wanton destruction, I couldn’t help but ask myself what on earth
the soldiers thought they were doing.
Who made these decisions? What
were they thinking when they did this?
The IDF speaks about Qassam rockets; who was going to speak about this?
It was dubbed the Gaza War in the mainstream media,
code-nameed Operation Cast Lead by the IDF, called the Gaza Massacre in the
Arab world and the War in the South by the Israelis
Page 195: South African
judge Richard Goldston: He called the Israeli assault on Gaza “a deliberate
disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian
population.”
He accused the Israeli military of carrying out direct
attacks against civilians, including shooting civilians who were trying to
leave their homes to walk to a safer place, waving white flags. He blamed the IDF for the destruction of food
production and of water and sewage facilities, and he accused them of being
systematically reckless with their use of white phosphorous while bombing Gaza
City and the Jabalia refugee camp. Of attacking hospitals and UN facilities, ad
of rocketing a mosque during prayers.
But he also criticizewd Hamas for firing eight thousand rockets into
Israel of the last eight years, calculated to kill civilians and damage
civilian structures.
The Israeli government described the report as full of
“propaganda and bias,” and Hamas said it was “political, imbalanced and
dishonest.”
Page
196: The reaction of ordinary people strengthens the case for our need to talk
to each other, to listen, to act. And it
reinforces my lifelong belief that out of bad comes something good. Maybe now I really have to believe that; the
alternative is too dark to consider. My
three precious daughters and my niece are dead.
Revenge, a disorder that is endemic in the Middle East, won’t Get them
back for me. It is important to Feel
anger in the wake of events like this, anger that signals that you do not
accept what has happened, that spurs you to make a difference. But you have to choose not to spiral into
hate.
All
desire for revenge and hatred does is drive away wisdom, increase sorrow, and
prolong strife. The potential good that
could come out of this soul-searching bad is that together we might bridge the
fractious divide that has kept us apart. For six decades.
This
catastrophe of deaths o f my daughters and niece has strengthened my thinking,
deepened my belief about how to bridge the divide. I understand down to my bones that violence
is futile. It is a waste of time, lives
and resources, and has prove only to beget more violence. It does not work.
There
is only one way to bridge the divide, to live together, to realize the goals of
two people: we have to find the light to guide us to our goal.
To
find the light of truth, you have to talk, too listen to, and respect each
other. Instead of wasting energy on
hatred, use it to open your eyes and see what’s really going on. Surely, if we can see truth, we can live side
by side.
Page
202: As I have written earlier, women in
this region have not been part of the discussion in civil society, but
Palestinian women know about the sacrifice and suffering. They know how to manage in the face of
chaos. It’s not that the women aren’t
able to participate, the issue is that they have been denied the right to take
part in discussions vital to our future.
Page
203: I firmly believe that Palestine
women can carry the torch of change into the future, but first they need to be
released from the bondage that culture,
occupation, siege, and suffering have imposed upon them. Empowerment means being independent and
respected, and to create change in an entire society, women must be educated
and empowered.
Page
204: We must focus now on the lessons of
tolerance and compromise, on hope, on
good deeds, on embracing our diversity, acknowledging our similarities, and
saving lives.
Page
205: It is well known that all it takes
for evil to survive is for good people to do nothing.
The
dignity of Palestinians equals the dignity of Israelis, and it is time to live in
partnership and collaboration – there is no way backwards.
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