More than one way to get home! (Alternatively: of Love, Borders, and Desperation)
I've spoken a little bit about the situation at the Rafah Crossing-Gaza's only outlet to 1.4 million Palestinians in previous posts. Israel has hermetically sealed it, along with other commercial crossings further north, since the end of June and the capture of the Israeli soldier.
That move left over 2000 Palestinians, including many elderly and sick people who go to get treated for cancers and other complicated illnesses whose treatements are unavailable in Gaza, in Egypt; Many thousands of others have been waiting in al-Arish, or Cairo, including my friend, and tragic bride, Yasmin. She flew in to Egypt to meet up with her fiance and travel together to be married with their families in Gaza. HE beat her to Gaza; she waited for late luggage to arrive and was consequently sealed out. Now, he cannot get out, and she cannot get in; they missed their wedding date, of course, as she sits helplessly awaiting some good news that will allow her to reunite with her husband-to-be.
Included among those 2000 on the border itself was colleague and activist Fida Qishta, with whom I spoke in NY and Connecticute earlier last month. She flew into Egypt just as the border was shut down, and met up with her family at the border town, who had just left Gaza to meet up with her, when the border closed.
Yesterday, a group of armed Palestinians resorted to exploding a hole in the crossing to allow the people through, including Fida. I heard from her today by email, and here is what she briefly had to say:
i just got home yesterday , so that was the best . hope you doing good , you can send your friends and tell them that i got home , i will try to send you some pictures i got at Eygpt crossing. How is Yousuf , hope doing well .
will send you soon . i have here 75 msn , and i have to reply all of them . i miss you so much , i told my mum a lot about you and she wants to see you when you get home inshallah safe .
love , fida
posted by Laila @ Saturday, July 15, 2006
27 Comments:
Hello
Deeply concerned, and really grateful. I found your blog thanks to a friend, and became a regular visitor since then. For I need both: sharing the tragedy and finding a way out for hope...
Jaafar
I pray for your safety and for that of your family. I can't believe there is no-one in the international community willing to step in and put an end to Israel's genocidal violence. How many people have to die before the world cares?
Please be careful!
بارك الله
Misneach:
Maybe the world does not see the conflict as the one sided genocide that you are calling it. Israel would like a way out of this mess but refuses to be pushed in to the sea. During Oslo, Chairman Arafat was offered by Israel and negotiators most of what the Palestinian people are asking for. Arafat rejected the offer and and instead of trying to further the negotiations the Palestinians gave Israel Intifada 2 with homicide bombers killing civilians. Israel wants to negotiate with Mahmoud Abbas, a very honorable man who wants to make peace and the Palestinians vote Hamas in to power, a group that refuses to recognize Israel, sponsors homicide bombers, wants to destroy Israel and has been firing rockets into Israel (FROM THE VERY LAND THAT ISRAEL WITHDREW FROM IN GAZA) with one purpose, to KILL Israeli civilians. Then Hezbollah starts firing rockets all over Israel with ONE intent, to KILL civilians! What do you expect Israel to do? Sit on its hands? Would any other country in the world not try to protect / defend its people?
Regardless ... I pray for peace and for a fair end to all of this !!
Adrienne
Adrienne:
did you miss the part of the story that hamas was democratically elected and had observed a truce for over a year with israel but that israel repeatedly beoke?
did you miss the part of the story that when hamas was elected israel with held moneys from import/expost taxes that was palestinian and put an economic seige on palestine where they were and still are being starved for not voting according to bush/sharon? not only stoping aid from EU and USA but threatening arab country and banks that wanted to help them?
Adrienne how is it that you only see the israeli side but ignore their complete negation of all humanity?
i suppose you think that since the palestinians didn't vote the way bush and olmert wanted they deserved to be starved to death?
ever heard of empathy and compassion for anyone else but the isreali?
Did You Know: The Case Against Israel ?
http://www.rense.com/general31/didyouknow.htm
The Expulsion of the Palestinians, 1947-1948 -
Robin Miller - http://www.robincmiller.com/pales2.htm
The Origin of the Palestine-Israeli Conflict
Published by: Jews for Justice in the Middle East
http://www.cactus48.com/truth.html
Jets 'incinerate' fleeing familyby Jihad Siqlawi in Tyre
July 16, 2006 06:34am
Article from: Agence France-PresseFont size: + -
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ELEVEN children and seven adults were killed overnight in southern Lebanon, their bodies consumed by flames when an Israeli warplane opened fire on the convoy they were in, UN peacekeepers and hospital sources said.
Their charred remains were extracted from the wreckage of the minibus and car they were travelling in and taken to hospital.
A doctor, Ali Zeineddine, said they were burned alive.
"It is very difficult to identify the bodies or to distinguish between girls or boys, as the 18 victims perished from the fire triggered by incendiary shells. They grilled," he said.
They had been among residents fleeing villages close to the Israeli border and were killed when missiles struck a car and a minibus near Shamaa, hospital sources said. The children were aged between 7 and 12.
An officer with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), who was involved in the evacuation operation, told AFP that his team removed most of the burnt bodies.
"Some of them were thrown on olive trees and even on haystacks," said the officer, who declined to be named.
An AFP correspondent saw the blackened bodies of five of those killed, a father and his four children, at the hospital in Tyre.
The father of two of the other children killed, Mahmoud Ghannam, 55, who was not with the targeted convoy, broke down when he arrived at the hospital.
"My God, my God. I can't make out the faces of my children. They are burnt black... Which ones are my children?" he cried, repeatedly hitting his head with his hands.
"My God, Israel is the enemy of mankind," he wailed.
Ten other people were transported to hospital for treatment for burns and fractures, medics said.
Initial reports had put the number of children killed at nine and said the missiles had been fired by an Israeli helicopter gunship.
One of the survivors, nine-year-old Batoul Aatrissi, said from her hospital bed: "There was a plane over our heads. My father parked on the side of the road. There was an explosion, the car was picked up and knocked over and we were thrown around the place."
Her 13-year-old cousin Sadeq, badly peppered with shrapnel, added: "I remember only one thing, finding myself alone in the car with its wheels in the air. I called out but there was nobody. Then I found myself here."
The deaths of the 18 in the convoy contributed to a total of 30 civilians killed in a series of Israeli raids across Lebanon on Saturday. Another 45 people were wounded.
A Lebanese army soldier was also killed in an Israeli military strike on the coastal city of Batroun, north of Beirut.
At least 92 civilians have been killed and 252 wounded in Lebanon since Israel began its assault on Lebanon after the capture of two soldiers and the killing of eight others by the Syrian-backed militant group Hezbollah early Wednesday.
The Israeli army said it regretted the deaths of civilians, but said Hezbollah militias were to blame for putting their lives in danger.
It said in a statement that it had targeted the area near Tyre because it was "used as launching grounds for missiles fired by Hezbollah terror organisation at Israel".
"The IDF (Israeli Defence Force) regrets civilian casualties while targeting the missile launching area," it said.
"Responsibility for endangering the civilian population rests on the organisation which operates and launches missiles at Israel from populated civilian areas," the army said.
Guerrillas have fired over 100 rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel over the past three days, killing four Israeli civilians.
Three people were also killed in another raid Saturday when Israeli jets struck the road leading to the main crossing of Masnaa between Lebanon and Syria, blocking passage across the border, police said.
And another three civilians were killed when Israeli jets fired missiles near a bridge on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Hermel on the border with Syria.
An Iraqi was killed and three other workers were wounded in an attack at a fuel station near the southern coastal city of Sidon, police said.
[URL=http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,19806454-5005961,00.html#]http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...005961,00.html#[/URL]
Anonymous;
Actually.. I have a great deal of compassion for the average Palestinian and to watch their power get shut off and to see them live in fear and everything else they are going through sickens me. I pray that this will end peacefully in my lifetime. I was just trying to show that their are two sides of the story! I did not state the Palestinian side / facts because I thought they where already stated in this discussion and Blog. I was just trying to show that there is another side to this situation.
On the matter of voting.. The Palestinians can vote for who ever they want. But the rest of the world does not have to go along and agree and send aid and put money in the hands of Hamas, that is sworn to the destruction of Israel and refuses to denounce that. I believe the world community was looking for away to get the money around Hamas and give it directly to the people. But now that things have escalated to full blown war, with the chaos that brings, I'm sure this will be harder now.
Adrienne
anonymous 2:29... Do you really think Hamas was observing a truce? Were they observing a truce because their suicide bombers were arrested before making it to the destination?
Were they observing a truce when they tunneled out of Gaza into sovereign Israeli territory and gunned downed two soldiers and kidnapped a third?
If they were as afraid of the big mean Israelis as this blog makes them out to be, then the last thing they would have done is pick a fight. Instead they yanked the sleeping lion's tail. Now the poor oppressed Palestinian will likely have his arms ripped off by a very justifiably angry lion... and even the other Arab states are too fed up with Hamas behavior to care much.
السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته.. بكل فخر واعتزاز دخلت مدونتك وقرأت بعض المواضيع، لاني غير متمكن في اللغة الانكليزية ،ويسعدني ان اتواصل مع أهلي وشعبي داخل فلسطين ، ويشرفني ان نتعاون بما يخدم قضايانا العادلة انا وزوجتي نهديكم اجمل تحية وندعوكم لزيارة مدوناتنا والتعليق عليها واعطاء رأيكم ومقترحاتكم التي نعتز بها والمدونات هي :
http://www.maktoobblog.com/chams02
http://www.maktoobblog.com/najat-dinar
مع تحياتنا وتقديرنا لكم
yes Adrienne there is the side of the invader/supressor who has invaded stole the land and keeps the natives in open air prisons and shoots at them just to show their supioriorty! so westren and cultured and civilized!
rest easy Adrienne israel is murdering for you
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7760/1663/320/israeli%20girls%20indoctrinated%201.jpg
here some israeli children sign some missles before they are shot at children in Lebanon
does it make you proud Adrienne?
is this how you were raised?
actually anonymous 2:29 yes hamas was observing the truce until the gaza beach massacre
bet that one makes you real proud too huh? wiped out a whole family
in fact that seems to be the lastest...wiping out whole families in gaza and lebanon
proud israeli killers
no god has chosen you
satan's children
for your info: IT'S CALLED RESPECT FOR CIVILIANS:
Hizbullah is preventing civilians from leaving villages in southern Lebanon. Roadblocks have been set up outside some of the villages to prevent residents from leaving, while in other villages Hizbullah is preventing UN representatives from entering, who are trying to help residents leave. In two villages, exchanges of fire between residents and Hizbullah have broken out. (Hanan Greenberg)
OK, Laila, the important questions:
Are you OK?
Is Yousuf OK?
Are your parents OK?
Are Yassine's parents OK?
Do you have enough chocolate?
(Hey, I said these were the important questions. )
Dear Anonymous,
Don't worry--Hizbollah is launching hundreds of hundreds of rockets at Israel (probably over a thousand by now), many of them loaded with shrapnel. They really are doing their level best to kill us Jews. Just think how many people would have died if all of the bombs hit their intended targets? (hmmmm...I wonder if you would be calling that murder?) I realize it is a disappointment for you when they miss, but try to keep a good attitude.
Incidentally, the prime minister of Lebanon requested a cease fire, and Hezbollah refuses to go along. Don't any of you have a problem with that--that a rogue force has basically taken over Lebanon's ability to declare war and peace?
Hi Laila. Your son is beautiful! My first is due in August. I want to bring him to Palestine as soon as he can understand it. I'm not sure if I've met you in Durham/Duke, but I've heard a lot about you from mutual friends. Stay safe and know that many people are thinking of you and your family and everyone who is being brutalized by these horrible attacks.
my thoughts are with you, I wish I knew a way to make it stop.
In the midst of all this chaos, let us remember that Gaza is not an international border and is not recognized as such by anone else but Israel. They control who gets in and out, the air space, and all electronic technology. Israel can keep saying its an international border and that they have no responsibility but it doesn't make it so.
When I saw Fida in New York, she struck me as a strong women. Only in her early twenties herself, she was worried about the Palistinian children lozing hope for the future. I try to grasp why this person, who tries hard to school children, had to sneek back into the country through a hole in the border. Hopefully she will hold on to hope herself.
Nolly,
First of all, I live in Israel--I am one of those innocent Jews you speak of. As for Uncle Sam's alleged support, even he could not protect me from a Palestinean suicide bomber who did her level best to murder me. As it was, I was seriously injured, along with about 60 others, and 6 were killed. I don't think that it was quite the goal of those who sent her to achieve peace. Incidentally, the bomber stuffed the explosives at her belly, and pretended to be pregnant--remember this the next time you hear about pregnant women being searched and are shocked and horrified.
I fail to see why you feel the need to snark on someone else's blog nearly crowing about how proud you are the IDF is murdering Gazans and Lebanese.
Particularly to Laila who has family who are under those Israeli (well, American manufactured and bought) bombs.
May I suggest oh, say, israpundit?
I imagine they are having quite the party over there.
أتمني ان نتبنى جميعا كمدونين كلمه واحده بتاريخ واحد نحدد فيه رأينا للعالم اجمع
اتمني ان ندون مدونه واحد بتاريخ 27/07/2006
كلنا كمدونين نكرر عباره واحده
كلنا مع لبنان وفلسطين ضد اسرائيل والمحتلين
ولننشر كلماتنا القليله في جميع المنتديات والمواقع ليكون هذا اليوم يوم احتجاج
بالعربي بالانجليزي المهم نسمع صوتنا للعالم
وان لم نستطيع حمل السلاح فالنحمل الكلمه
وبأي لغة نستطيع نشرها
بالإنجليزية
We are with Lebanon and Palestine against Israel and occupiers
والفرنسية
Nous sommes avec tous le Liban et la Palestine contre l’Israel et les occupants
والألمانية
Wir sind zusammen mit dem Libanon und Palästina gegen Israel und Besatzer
والإسبانية
Somos todos con Líbano y Palestina contra Israel e inquilinos
والصينية
我们都是同黎巴嫩和巴勒斯坦对以色列占领者
واليابانية
私達はイスラエル共和国および占有者に対してレバノンおよ
びパレスチナとのすべてである
تحياتي للجميع
to C. Brown: I thought that Gaza has a border with Egypt also.......and who knows why the Egyptians to not let the Palestinians take refuge in Sinai?.....Maybe because hamas is an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that killed President Assad...........the same as Hizbollah is an arm of Syria and Iran, but just Shiite
I pray for all the children in Gaza.
Daphna,
Please believe me when I say I am truly sorry to hear of what has happened to you. Some people advocate against this war only looking at the dying children, saying that they are innocent, why should they have to die. There are many adults and older people that fall into this boat as well, but are often neglected and we must make mention of them too. Suicide bombings are not sanctioned by any body, be it political or religious. Life is precious, this rings through in any religion. A person who blows themselves up in hopes to take a few Israelis with them, is not in the proper state of mind. But this is a reaction, and not religious zeal. The Palestinians and others living in the occupied territories (including Jews) have had, and are still having their land taken away from them. The Israeli army was told to rip the wall down but didn't, citing security concerns. The problem exploded when the army stopped following the green line and started building the wall deep into Palestinian territory, a claim no one can justify, a reason why the army barely talks about it. The inroads made by this illegal building on Palestinian land went against the original security concerns and now serves only to make sure that there is a constant supply of Palestinians who have nothing left to live for, that are angry, that are sad, and are furious at these illegal actions that go unpunished. IF the IOF stopped this action, they would take a huge step towards actual peace, something Israelis want and need. However, the needs of the Israeli civilian and that of the power hungry army, are not one in the same. The media doesn't care to tell the world of this story, and this will ensure that there are an unlimited numbers of Palestinians and Muslims alike who will stop at nothing until their voices are heard. I'm not here to absolve the bombers, because what they're doing is wrong, but I do want people to know why they think their actions are justified.
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