It was not possible to sleep here for two nights now. The events and the images of death and carnage of children, of policemen, of people that look like my mother and my son and my sister and my friends were simply too much. Gaza has run out of stretchers and many are now carried to hospitals (which are running out of supplies) and morgues on commercial street signs, in blankets or simply by their limp limbs. Three mosques were destroyed. I recalled the Israeli attacks on the Church of Nativity which was minor compared to this. I was watching Israel shell the University in Gaza city including its faculty of science and a residence dorm for female students and was thinking of my university and my lab and office at Bethlehem University. I was then shocked into more horrific scenes and news. In one house five young sisters killed. In another six family members including four children killed while eating breakfast. In a scene that haunted me where four children were killed with their mother, I saw rescue workers try frantically to pull the remaining surviving girl whose legs were crushed under a huge boulder from the roof. As some of them were calming her down and working hard, just next to them other workers pulled the dead body of her sister (looked like 3-4 year old). They quickly covered her but I think her sister noticed. Sometimes the dead are envied for their suffering has ended. Her suffering is just beginning. I thought of all the thousands of relatives of all the victims and how they feel…..I thought of friends I lost and talks with people in Gaza...I thought of my mother who at 76 has seen so much suffering and still she cried at the new images of new atrocities…
My heart aches and struggles with my scientist brain. The latter wants to focus on facts and figures. The attack in its second day was in the words of Israeli leaders “the beginning” and is intended “to send Gaza back decades”. So far over 300 were killed and over 1000 injured (200 of those critically), 35% women, children and elderly. I examine numbers of homes, police stations, civil society building destroyed. I read the Al Mezan Center for human rights which rationally states that most Gaza victims are civilians. But even my rational mind refuses to deal with these things. How could it handle just that one image of the young girl’s anguished pained look under the rubble of her house and so tears stream down again to to try to wash the image to no avail…..How could my mind examine rationally the statements of “leaders” saying this carnage is not the fault of the bombers and war criminals, but of Hamas!
Protests were organized around the world and more are being planned. The demonstrations helped vent some frustration and we hope will herald a reawakening of the heart of humanity that has been sputtering. But we hope it will go much farther to changing the rotted system of elites in power ignoring people’s rights for political expediency and for profit.
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Читать всё подряд утомительно и малоинтересно, но типичные особенности сразу заметны. Подробное и натуралистичное описание погибших (и тяжелораненых) детей, особенно погибших непосредственно на глазах автора, особенно маленьких девочек ("I saw rescue workers try frantically to pull the remaining surviving girl whose legs were crushed under a huge boulder from the roof"). Обязательное упоминание названий Израильских населённых пунктов в кавычках ("one million of those are refugees [...] denied their rights to return to their homes [...] across the borders on their lands in areas like “Sderot” and “Netviot”"). Полная уверенность автора, что любая "борьба" палестинских "беженцев" законна и справедлива, в то время как любые ответные действия Израиля заведомо незаконны. Но при этом обязательно надо упомянуть, что сам автор ни в коем случае не поддерживает насилие: "I personally support civil forms of resistance". С цитатами из Евангелия (!) "Вы – соль земли. Если же соль потеряет силу, то чем сделаешь ее соленою?" (Мф 5:43).Ну и так далее....
В общем, почувствуй себя арабом.
