No Wonder the World is in a Mess

The first thing I do every morning  is to turn on the radio near my bed  to get the latest update on Gaza.   Yesterday  morning there was a special item reporting that Mr. Trump will not allow the  Palestinian president and his delegation   from reaching New York to attend  and address the general assembly of the UN in September, simply because some European countries have already expressed their plans to recognize the Palestinian State in that  September meeting of the UN General Assembly . 

The first thing that came to my mind was why are the headquarters of the United nations in New York in the first place?  But then I recalled that  When the United Nations was established in 1945, there was a  stipulation that all delegations to the UN would have access to reach the headquarters in New York.  However,  when Mr. Arafat was due to address the GA in 1988 and the US denied him a visa, the whole United Nations meeting was held in the headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.  That could be an option in this case as well.   But the mere fact that the US dictates the terms of attendance at the UN, as well as the right to veto any resolution that would affect the US or its staunch ally, Israel,   means that this body is not a United Nations body but a USA organization.

 So it is very clear that as long as the international community is at the mercy of the USA, there can be no justice or peace around the world,  nor can the United Nations play the role that it was meant to play according to its charter.  However,  dare we hope that  the news item of today that Turkey has cut all ties with Israel– Ports, Airspace, and trade closed over Gaza Genocide,  will really make a dent?  And encourage other countries, and especially the  Arab Gulf  countries  to do likewise?  Most probably not, but without that hope we could not have survived the ongoing genocide ever since 1948.

Gaza

 

When the word Humanitarian is used to describe one of the genocidal traps for the people in Gaza, then Webster’s dictionary needs to be updated.  Even The donkeys that are the only remaining means of transportation in Gaza are now being stolen  by Israel. What else can they think of?

I suppose  it is  a blessing  to be blind and deaf these days and be spared the  agonizing scenes from Gaza.  How can the world watch children starve to death while the plates of Arab/Israeli/American/European leaders are filled with food over discussions regarding Gaza, and in the long run the whole region. Ending all wars was one of the items on Mr. Trump’s agenda when he was elected. .  However  all the action he has taken indicates nothing  but complicity with the genocide plan of Gaza. And to add insult to injury, all protests are being sanctioned. Until when will the international community stay silent with no action, while children continue to starve to death. It takes one hour of watching the news to figure out the reality and the demonic plan for the whole Middle East region, now that Syria is on the agenda as well.   Will we continue to hear speeches at the UN and watch summit meetings while people are dying, or will the international community at long last act according to its mandate? Samia  

As I was ready to circulate my short reflection, my daughter sent me the following from a colleague of hers in Gaza.  How truly sad!!!! 

Hunger or Death: Which is More to Be Feared?

I am at a loss—by God—I am, stumbling in disbelief like one struck stunned by shock. How can a world so vast, a world that folds the earth in the blink of an eye, splits the atom, and pierces the heavens, fail to save a starving soul? How does it orchestrate this sinister balance, keeping an entire people teetering on the edge—neither letting them fall nor offering a hand to pull them up even half a step? A people left to choose their preferred death: torn apart by shells, drained dry by hunger, or consumed by disease without cure?  

Here, in this surreal city, people sit at the mercy of metal frames awaiting coordinates to seal their fate. They eat salt—if they find any—without bread, chew pain instead of thyme and oil, and walk in slow, weary steps—not in play, but in exhaustion; not in joy, but in sorrow. They wander like the lost on a road with no sign, like the trapped in a tunnel with no glimmer of light.  

Hungry—yes, but their hunger is not just in their bellies. It is in their souls, stripped bare, and their hearts, stabbed deep.  

They perish before the bombs reach them, devoured by hunger that arrived first. They die not because Death has finally called, but because the world has gone deaf to their cries. They are crushed between the hammer of missiles and the anvil of empty pots, each bearing a burden no mountain could shoulder: a child begging for milk, a mother dreaming of a handful of beans, a grandfather gnawing on what stones might sprout, and a father, unraveling at the thought of what meal might shield his children. Will the world explode before he finishes the lentil stew? Or after, when his family wrinkles their noses—as usual?

And now hunger laughs. It mocks. It wasn’t enough that we ate crumbs—it introduced us to “alternatives”: fake meat, faux milk, pretend oil, counterfeit salt. Even water comes with a substitute. So do power, batteries, sunlight, money, and electronic payment. Until we searched for an alternative to the human being. Someone capable of enduring all this madness!  

We now cook "substitute meals" trying to convince ourselves that "Flavor lies in faith," and "Patience tastes sweet”. But truly? Can a human truly remain human amidst all these substitutes?! I dare say it would take a wholly new being—one beyond humanity—to endure.

Yet more terrifying than empty stomachs are the hollowed-out values. When hunger strikes, ethics collapse, and humanity crumbles  from within.

I’ve seen it: an angel yesterday, a devil today—clawing at his brother’s flesh over a handful of flour. I've heard stories that make the heart bleed: of a man who stabbed his cousin for an aid parcel of food. I’ve witnessed it with aching eyes, how hunger can erase faith, fold morals, and reshape man—not from clay—but from a pitch-black, foul-smelling substance.

So I ask myself—what madness is this? Is it mere famine, or a test of the world’s humanity?

How is death prepared in the kitchens of global conscience? How is hope trapped inside a tiny piece of land with the size of a sardine tin?

‎‏I confess… crafting these words feels like pulling threads from a frayed soul. Not for lack of language, nor betrayal by the alphabet—but because hunger stole my focus, and perhaps, my will to care.

No room remains in the heart for wonder, no tears in the eyes for grief, no cunning in the mind for comprehension."  

How do we explain to the world what's happening, when after twenty-one moons it still cannot see?  

What manner of image demands such endless gazing to perceive?  

Is it some encrypted Van Gogh? A Beethoven symphony only understood when lived? Or perhaps Nietzsche's philosophy needing centuries to decipher?  

A world that climbs to the moon every hour, traverses galaxies, bends time itself... yet fails to provide milk substitutes—oh the irony of substitutions!  

Fails to feed a child—guiltless, helpless, nationless—whose only refuge is a mother's hollow bosom.  

In Gaza, hunger is no mere instinct—it's a war machine... an ordeal of the soul. a moral reckoning:  

Is starvation kinder than shelling? Is death by hunger gentler than death by shrapnel?  

I'd nearly swear our Prince of Poets, Ahmed Shawqi, composed his verses for us alone when he lamented:

"From the war of al-Basus to this cruel inflation—  

It returns like seven harsh trials…  

Is there no Joseph among the people to face this?  

To calculate wisely and see the path rightly?  

Your servants, Lord, have starved in Egypt—  

Was it the Nile You gave them, or merely a mirage?"

Breaking the terms of the Cease fire

My 90- year- old cousin who lives in our area called around noon.  Both being widowers, we always check on each other, so as usual, I asked how he was. “Zift” was his answer. “Did you fall? ”I asked , worried about his answer “zift”  which literally means (tar) used metaphorically when one is  “at the lowest ebb.” No, I did not fall but I am so upset because Israel is shelling Gaza and the number of people killed is rising while the world is watching. Aren’t you going to write something?  I immediately sat at my computer and recalled  the famous quotation by Edmund Burke “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.”  

Although a little bit too late, but actually many good people have tried to do a lot for Gaza   during this genocide, and many ended up paying a high price for their solidarity, whether they were students, professors, doctors or journalist.  But in the meantime, the international community has failed to hold Israel accountable.  Furthermore, Israel,   encouraged by Mr. Trump, broke the terms of the cease fire it had agreed to, and the Palestinians continue to pay the price.

In March 2003 Rachel Corrie, a young American woman volunteering in Gaza, was bulldozed as she was trying to  prevent the demolition of a house.  In today’s local paper Al-Quds,  Bin Maummar el Haj Issa wrote a column in  memory of Rachel,  noting that  the “World conscience has been bulldozed and buried just as Rachel was.  So, unless the international community and its organizations  that were established to maintain world peace and order take action, and implement their resolutions, nobody is going to be safe, including those who think  themselves immune like emperors and can run the world as they wish. We have learned from history that even empires eventually do fall.  And for those who use the Bible to justify their actions,  remember the legacy of prophet Micah :”What does  the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love mercy  and to walk humbly with your God."

UNRWA

 On January 30, 2025 Israel announced officially the closure of UNRWA in Jerusalem, adding another blemish of shame to the international community for its failure to implement the United Nations resolutions concerning the question of Palestine.   For those of you who might not remember why UNRWA was established in the first place and what its mandate was supposed to be, I would like to remind you that it was indeed established as a temporary relief organization in the wake of the 1948 war and the expulsion of around 750,000 Palestinians from their homes upon the establishment of the State of Israel.  UNRWA was established as a temporary organization because the United Nations had also passed resolution 194 which stipulated the return of all Palestinians who were forced out of their homes or had fled out of fear upon the establishment of the state of Israel.  Of course, this resolution was never implemented because Israel refused to implement it and The United Nations failed to take any action against Israel.   But in the meantime, it had to exert its energy on raising funds for UNRWA to enable it to continue providing services for those Palestinian  refugees who were spread out in the region (including the Palestinian territories Jordan,  Syria,  and  Lebanon. )  So, the funding of UNRWA, and its health, educational, and social services  was always at the mercy of those countries who footed the bill of UNRWA.

Ordering UNRWA at this very crucial time to close its offices in Jerusalem, and to prevent its services in Gaza which has been practically razed by the Israel forces in the wake of October 7, 2023 is not surprising.  The world has been watching the intensive raids on other refugee camps in the occupied territories like Jenin and Tulkarem.  So will the international community just continue to watch and record numbers, or will this international body eventually have enough guts to stand up and challenge all those violations. 

On the first of February, there was another exchange of prisoners.  The whole episode of taking hostages by Hamas was for the purpose of exchanging them with Palestinian prisoners who have been languishing in Israeli prisons for years without any hope for their release.   Even upon the signing of the Oslo Accords, Israel did not abide by the stipulation of releasing all the prisoners.  At long last, this is happening now.  However, I   could not help but wonder whether with some wisdom, this exchange could have happened without bringing so much devastation and suffering to the whole population of Gaza as well as so much anxiety to the Israeli families of the hostages   Any way anybody who was watching the process of the exchange of the hostages with the release of the prisoners could see clearly that the hostages looked quite well, while  most of  the Palestinians prisoners looked sickly. 

 I hope this is a wake-up call for all the people of this land, their leaders, and the world community to realize that Justice and only justice will bring peace and tranquility to this land, so called “Holy”.  So please Mr. Trump do not exert your pressure on Egypt and Jordan to take the people of Gaza because these are not refugees from other countries.  They are Palestinians, from Gaza or Palestinians made refugees from their original villages and homes around Gaza when they were ethnically cleansed in 1948 upon the establishment of the State of Israel, and were replaced by Jewish immigrants who came from Europe, and other parts of the Western World.  

The Irony of Concern

 Mr. Biden expressed his concern regarding the latest massacre at Al -Taabe’en School in Gaza where  hundreds of people mostly women and children were killed when Israel bombed the  school sheltering Gazans taking refuge after fleeing their homes to safer places as Israel continues its genocide in the Gaza Strip. 

How ironic indeed that he should express his concern when all he has been doing since this war on Gaza started, was to support Israel morally, financially and with endless armament to finish the job that his friend Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to do from day one after October 7.  “Welcome to Hell” is the latest report by B’tselem, the Israeli Human Rights organization describing the conditions of the prisoners and their being sexually abused.  I could not finish the report and I could not even watch the news that evening after I read all about it.  Maybe it will be a good reading for you Mr. Biden before you go to sleep, especially if you are really concerned.

I know the concern of Mr. Biden is meaningless, more so now that he is a lame duck.   But he has done more than enough damage during his years in office, and so did previous presidents, and probably so would future presidents do.  That is  why it is not  surprising that Israel is allowed to  get away with this genocide with the blessing and support of the USA and its allies, who continue to shield Israel no matter what it does.  Dare we hope that the successor of Mr. Biden will have guts to say enough is enough? 

At one time the European Union expressed its concern as well, when settlers demolished some schools that the European Union itself has actually built in a remote area for  Beduins.    

Expressing concern without action like  (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions,)   is meaningless, especially in view of the  extent of that genocide which has been publicized  by local and international media, over and above the ICJ hearings.     

Ironically Israel has shut down Al-Jazeera English channel, and now it is targeting Al-Mayadeen to block the dissemination of  news.     For a sophisticated country in technology,  Israel should realize that the news will get out eventually,  challenging all their technology.  Unlike the  massacres and ethnic cleansing of 1948,  that were  discovered at a later stage,  the ethnic cleansing of  Gaza since October 7 has been covered widely and there are already records of the  numbers who have been killed or buried under the rubble including  press personnel who have been targeted as well as medical teams, who have lost their lives in the process of salvaging the victims of this genocide, most of whom have been women,  children and elderly people. 

Will you continue to be concerned Mr. Biden? Or  will you put an end to your  blind support to Israel?  We know where you stand Mr. Biden,  but if you are a true friend of Israel as you claim to be you won’t encourage it to  walk the path that will take it and the whole region down to hell when doom’s day comes.

How Many More?

 

How many more need to be killed in the Gaza Strip before this genocide comes to an end? How many more need to be buried alive under the rubble before the international community takes action against this ongoing ethnic cleansing process of a defenseless people? Thanks to university students and people of conscience who went out to the streets to say “enough is enough. Israel has pulled wool over our eyes for too long now.” 

 

Nobody can claim ignorance of the true facts anymore. The justification used by the US that Israel, an occupying force,  has the right to defend itself was never justified in the first place, and does not hold water anymore, especially that the Gaza Strip has been under Israeli siege for the last sixteen years,  and has been considered the largest open air prison by many human rights organizations including international and Israeli ones.  

 

From day one after October 7, the Israeli PM was determined to wipe out  the Gaza  Strip.. Why was he not stopped there and then? The Israeli hostages could have been released with the exchange of Palestinian prisoners without any need for all this brutality.  Therefore,  it was no surprise that the lives of two hundred Palestinians had to be sacrificed recently, for the salvaging of four hostages.  Is it plausible that the ego of one man can bring about so much disaster while the world is watching until a new battlefield expands beyond the Lebanese border. Over 150,000 Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Saturday the 22^nd of June,   calling for the end of the mandate of Netanyahu’s government, and requesting  a deal to release the hostages.  Today those protestors announced an open-ended general strike in Israel as of July 7 until a cease fire is implemented.  Dare we hope???? 

 

The Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli jails are having their share of the brutality of the Israeli occupation, and many towns in the occupied territories,  have been raided continuously. In fact, what triggered me to write this reflection is the sight of a wounded Palestinian during an Israeli raid to the city of Jenin tied to the windshield of the military vehicle to guarantee the Israeli security and a safe exit from the area.  Ironic indeed that the “most moral army,” needed an injured Palestinian to guarantee its safe exit from Jenin,  a town that  has been  raided continuously.  Surely many of you might remember how an Israeli soldier dressed as a woman walked into the Jenin hospital some time ago and shot dead one of the injured freedom fighters who was being hospitalized.  How moral is that?  

 

Enough is enough.  So I hope the international community will make a special effort to put an end to this carnage, and the ICJ will have its say  before Israel drags all its allies into a third world war.  Salaam, Samia

Shadi's Court Session

 Dear Friends, 

I promised to get back to you after the court session for Shadi’s case today, which has been lingering  on  since his arrest on the 18th of  October 2022.  The session was a long one  starting at 9:00 a.m but I finally got the following report from his mother.  Some of you might have received the outcome from her already.  She reported that in general it was not too bad.  The lawyers defending Shadi were able to challenge every claim and highlight every breach that occurred during the investigation.  Through threats one of the investigators somehow forced the main defendant, Khaled Abu Asab, to say that he knew Shadi Khoury, the Christian, to establish the charge.  Even though at the beginning of the investigation,  he had  said that he did not know Shadi at all.  The lawyers showed through documents and video how Khaled was coerced into saying that Shadi had participated.  

Today, five people were interrogated:  two investigators, two fingerprint experts, and a communication expert.  Each one of them had clear procedural breaches and missing links, especially regarding the fingerprints. Under normal and civilized circumstances the case would have been dropped, but then we know this court is not functioning under normal nor civilized conditions, so we do not know what plans the judge has for Shadi.  What is important at the moment is that Shadi will be graduating from high school – The Friends School in el-Bireh- Ramallah on the 2nd of June.  And the next court session will be September 9.  So I hope we will all have a nice summer break.