A Letter From Gaza

These are the reflections of a colleague in Gaza

October 22, 2023

Dead Man Walking

This is the name of a movie from the 90s that starred two actors I like, Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. The term is used by prison staff, guards, and wardens to describe inmates on death row. Shouts of ‘dead man walking!’ echo through the prison as a cruel reminder to the inmate that their time is limited, execution awaits.

In 1998, I received a scholarship to the University of Minnesota to study human rights, and, for my project proposal, I wanted to learn about programs designed for inmates on death row. In order to develop my proposal, I visited prisons, learned about such programs and watched ‘Dead Man Walking’ several times. I was hoping to learn from the US how to ease the last days, months, and years of these inmates as, finally, they are humans and receiving what the system and society believe is justice for their crimes. After working hard on my project proposal, I was surprised with an outright rejection with the justification that ‘the state of Minnesota abolished capital punishment in 1911.’

My project was cancelled, and the only memory of it that remains is a lingering sympathy with Sean Penn’s character. I am reminded of this movie and his character now as I survive under bombardment and siege in Gaza. I hear my prison wardens scream ‘dead man walking’ every day, every night. ‘I did not kill anyone!’ I want to scream back. My only crime to be Gazan and want to live. I wish wake up from my death row nightmare and no longer hear their whistling calls and exploding taunts.

 

Biko in Gaza  Thursday 26^th October 2023

As a teenager living under occupation, I used to follow the stories of people fighting for freedom around the world. Stories from South Africa always resonated with me, because I felt a strong kinship with people who suffered under systems of apartheid.

 

 I distinctly remember reading the story of Steve Biko, a black South African anti-apartheid activist who was killed in prison in South Africa. The story, unfortunately, was short and concluded with Biko’s murder while still in jail. I was accompanied for years by the song Peter Gabriel wrote in memory of Biko’s life and legacy, and, at some point, I was able to watch the movie Cry Freedom that documented part of Steve Biko’s struggle against apartheid.

 

The last part of my connection to Biko’s story was the Truth and Reconciliation Testimony Session that involved the murderers of Biko. Like others, I struggled to accept truth in lieu of justice; however, while watching the testimonies and observing the reactions from Biko’s surviving family as they listened to his killers describe the murder of their beloved, I realized that truth is not less important than justice. I realized that the truth can provide relief; it can provide a sort of peace.  Knowing the truth became important to me, too, and I became ready to give up the right of seeing or practicing justice in return for hearing and knowing the truth.

 

 Truth became more important to me than anything else. I dreamt of meeting Desmond Tutu and speaking to him about why he came to the conclusion that the truth would reconcile people. I wanted to ask him what happens to people when they are allowed to hear the full disclosure of the truth.

 

My request to all of my friends who will survive the current genocide in Gaza is not to fight for justice only, but to consider the pursuit of truth for all the victims. We should demand to know from our killers: ‘Why were they killed? Why are you killing us?’

 

And for the growing number of children killed, I wish I could ask ‘what did you dream of last month? What did you dream of before you were killed?’

 

Rest in peace Biko and see you soon 

 

The song of Biko           

Biden and the World have failed Gaza

**The following letter was written by an anonymous mother who asked for my help to circulate. Samia.

Mr. Biden,

Perhaps I am one of the few who had hoped against hope that your arrival into the holy land today would make a difference.  Perhaps this was not the case for those who have already passed, but definitely, would have for those who are still alive.  I was shuddering after the horrific shelling of a Christian hospital reflecting videos of pieces of children and human bodies strewn all over the grounds.  Ten days of relentless shelling on human beings, yes human beings mostly women and children who have no place to hide and no shelters to shield them.  We were all awaiting anxiously for a statement form you as the media had described what happened yesterday as a “Game Changer.” 

I watched you take on the presidency with an emphasis on being a Christian Catholic president as you attended mass on your inauguration.  I wonder if this is what your catholic upbringing has taught you Mr. Biden.  Has it taught you that an eye for a body and tooth for a head, as an Arab PalestinianChrisitan catholic, I recall it differently I recall my catholic teachings calling for peace for justice for forgiveness for equity of all humankind.

Since when has war brought about Peace? since when has killing ended the cycle of violence, I am not a president neither am I in charge, but I am old enough to have heard the stories of my grandparents’ survival of the Ottoman period and my parents the British mandate as well as the ethnic cleansing in 1948.  I am old enough to have witnessed the Palestinian dispossession and violations of human rights since 1967, and old enough to have served in hospitals during shelling and witnessed the missing heads and limbs. 

 Old enough to have helped at the Anglican hospital that got shelled yesterday, to patch up the legs and limbs of a whole generation that was rendered disabled as Palestinians from Gaza tried to March to end the siege.  Old enough to see a generation of youth losing hope, and watching the transgenerational trauma continue; generations of women and mothers mourning loss and imprisonment of their loved ones.  

As you are older than me Mr. Biden, and have personally suffered loss, have you not seen that war only brings about more death and destruction and hate?

God grants life and takes away life, however it is how we have lived our life that makes a difference, if only you would have stood there on the 7th of October and said it differently, you might have made a difference for peace in this world. Once more today my optimism in life was crushed becausewhat is happening in Gaza is being described as crimes against humanity according to international law.  Upon your arrival to the holy land, you decided to align yourself with those causing the suffering instead of doing what needs to bedone: uphold the conventions of human rights and hold all parties to count.  We are not children of a lesser God Mr. President we are the Palestinian Christians of the holy land where the message of love peace and justice started, and we call upon you to stop this Genocide.

 

A Palestinian Daughter Mother, Human Being 

October 18th 2023

The Gaza Surprise

It has been a long time since I shared one of my Reflections with you. After all the tragic events of the last week, my daughter asked me if I had written anything.   Actually I had not.  And despite the many thoughts that crossed my mind,   it seemed  futile to  make a difference to people who are still not aware of the reality of our situation. But I thought I might as well remind you all of some facts that will help you share with those who are still wondering “why?”

Neither  Israel nor the International community should have been surprised at  the recent events that hurt not only  the Israelis, but also  the Palestinians who are under Israeli siege in the Gaza Strip.   It has been 75 years of dispossession for the Palestinians, and 56 years of a military occupation, 16 of them in an open-air prison for the people of Gaza,  and two Palestinian  uprisings.  Over and above a failed peace process, called the Oslo Accords which Israel not only flouted,  but abused,  to create more realities on the ground and more settlements  causing further dispossession of  the Palestinians in whatever land was left for them on what is known as “the Palestinian Territories.”

The daily incursions by the settlers to the Mosque in Jerusalem under Israeli protection, as well as the continuous  killings of young Palestinians in different parts of the West Bank, and the ongoing deprivation of the Palestinians of their farms,  and their olive groves further exasperated the situation. Huwara and  Jenin were only recent events not forgotten by the Palestinians. Furthermore the number of Palestinian prisoners is continuously on the rise, and some of them without charge or trial.  Even a number of them who were supposed to be released with the signing of the Oslo Accords are still languishing in the Israeli jails.

Those 2.2 million oppressed people under siege are not “human animals” as they were called by Israel.   They are actually humans who have  been dehumanized,  as if they were  children of a 'lesser God'   They have reached a tipping point and could not  take the oppression  and the deprivation of freedom anymore.

Had the USA, and the European countries  implemented the United Nations Resolutions and stood up against all the violations of  Israel ever since its creation in 1948,  things would not have deteriorated to that  extent. They watched them kill Palestinian children, raid homes in the middle of the night,  demolish homes, and evacuate complete Palestinian areas for the establishment of Israeli settlements, with the maximum comment that those actions were not conducive to peace.  But nobody had the guts to take action, not even when Israel demolished a school funded by the European Union.  When the Israeli  Prime Minister showed a map recently  at the United Nations that had no Palestine in it, nobody even protested.

But now when the surprise news hit the world  that Israelis were attacked and hurt, the US and the European countries who have been at the root cause of the Palestinian  dispossession in the first place, came rushing to the region in support of Israel, an occupying force in the region.   Ironically, they are the same  countries who rushed to salvage Ukraine from the Russian occupation.  Is one occupation permissible, while another is not?  Enough is enough of double standards.  And please do salvage the trapped Palestinians of Gaza who have been ordered by Israel to move out.  Out to where?  When all the borders are closed.  The hospitals are not even safe.  We just heard that Israel bombed the Ahli hospital, run by the Anglican church.  We know many of you have been praying, but we need action.  According to St. James, prayer without action is futile.