December 2023

 Dear Friends

I am writing to you this greeting the day before Christmas with a very heavy heart.  It is usually the time when the grandchildren and I would  be  busy preparing for the family gathering the next day.  My oldest grandson Omar,  the designer in the family,  and who is unable to be with us this year, usually comes up with a very creative Christmas tree.  But unfortunately and sadly, this year  I am unable to even have a  green branch on the mantelpiece.   Watching the atrocities against the people in Gaza makes one reflect on the true meaning of Christmas.  This short message is not meant to be a theological analysis, but an earnest call for repentance on behalf of all those complicit in enabling this  genocide to take place. 

We were hoping the Security Council would come up  with a resolution that would  put an end to this carnage, and we waited anxiously for the delays so that the security council would guarantee a no veto vote.  What a fiasco vote it was that eventually  passed with the abstention of both the USA and Russia,  which proves my point in my recent reflection regarding the redundancy  of the  UN in  its present structure.   Ironically it was considered a victory that the US did not veto the resolution.  I watched the representative of the Emirates who had proposed the resolution giving the American and British representatives a big hug for this “great achievement of allowing relief material to get into the Gaza Strip.”  No wonder Mr. Guterrez was greatly disappointed with such a resolution that could not possibly be implemented while the invasion and  bombing was going on.

 My immediate reaction was an Arabic saying which means that the rage and labor of a mountain delivered a mouse. 

تمخض الجبل وولد فأرا

With hope and best wishes for Christmas and peace throughout the New Year.   Samia 

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Bewitched!

After watching endless  scenes  of the carnage on the Gaza strip last evening which included an attack on the Catholic church with two women killed, over and above the killing of Al-Jazeera camera-man, Samer Abu Daqqa,  I decided to take a break and find some entertainment on my Youtube channel.  

Ironically “Bewitched”  popped up  with Samantha and her mother Endora, a popular old series whereby the magic powers of  those women enabled them  to do things beyond human abilities,  that could  change realities.  I lived for an hour of relaxation and with a wild range of imagination wishing that both Endora and Samantha would hail on Gaza, and reverse the situation to what it was before October 6, or even better to what it was like before 1948.   

Unfortunately,  these things happen in movies only,  because what happened in the Gaza strip during those last two months with the full support of the USA and its allies is a brutal act of another ethnic cleansing that we had lived through in 1948.  During this crises,  the United Nations proved to be as impotent and as useless as ever, despite all the efforts of the Secretary General, as well as the countries who voted for the “humanitarian ceasefire” on  December 12. 

The first item of the first  article of the UN Charter which was established in 1945 is “To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace.” 

However,  there is no equality or justice in the UN  structure as long as certain countries are privileged to be permanent members of the Security Council  and have the right to veto any resolution of the security council.  While the security council resolutions are binding, the resolutions of the General Assembly which includes all the countries are not binding.  Why?  Are not democratic systems applied by a majority vote.  However,  It is worth noting that after the 1967 war  and on November 22, 1967, all the security council members voted unanimously on resolution 242 regarding the status of East Jerusalem.  But Israel refused to abide by that resolution with impunity and annexed East Jerusalem to West Jerusalem.  So once again this emphasizes the impotence and futility of all those meetings and resolutions.  Unless there are reforms to guarantee equal rights for all countries and that sanctions are implemented and applied  to all countries, irrespective of their status and the powers that are trying to shield them, then the UN might as well close shop.

As we are getting close to the Christmas season, I could not help but reflect on the Gospel reading of last Sunday from Mathew 3:3 –“Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.” So I pray that we do not lose hope as more people, mostly women and children are  getting  killed in Gaza  while   Mr. Biden and his allies are  destroying all the straight paths of Justice and Peace.  Have a blessed Christmas.