Temporary life, temporary security
The streets are alive again. The Jundi park was humming with boisterous children and families, makeshift sheesha cafes, and peanut and corn vendors Thursday.
The fruit vendors, too, have resumed marketed their produce on donkey carts via megaphone along the city streets.
But overshadowing it all is an uncertain feeling that this sense of security, like everything else here, is temporary. The "interim" agreement is temporary. The refugee issue is "temporary". Our legal status is "temporary".
You can sense it in people's tones; the fear of the unknown; of abandonment; of complete and total catastrophe and implosion. Even the head of Rafah's preventive security branch. "How can I serve and protect our society if I can't even protect myself?" he confided. "Forget about a two-state solution. Forget about everything. We'd do well to just stay alive now."
Meanwhile, Israeli executions and attacks continue unabated. OCHA reports that a total of 53 Palestinians- including five children- have been killed and 185 injured from May 16 to June 1.
This does not include two young brothers, 11 and 12, searching for scrap metal to sell this week, when they were gunned down by Israeli snipers positioned near the border. The soldiers said they thought they were planting a bomb. The reality is-soldiers are authorized to shoot at any moving object that comes within 700 metres of the border.
Over the same period, two Israeli soldiers were injured in Gaza, and two Israeli civilians killed.
posted by Laila @ Saturday, June 02, 2007
7 Comments:
Hey Laila! Glad to hear you are okay... just wanted to let you know that there will be a protest here in Washington DC on June 10th (next week). We are rallying to for Israel to end the military occupation. Hopefully we'll get enough people curious and thoughtful about this issue that affects you guys so much. US pressure seems to have worked miracles abroad... it just needs enough attention. Hopefully this *might* be a start to get that attention here in DC where people are blah on foreign affairs. Israeli soldiers... they piss me off so much. anyhoo.
here's the info:
http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?list=type&type=162
take care and best wishes as always
our prayers go out to Gaza... so that one day this "Temporary" issue goes away... at least in Gaza... a Free Gaza ojalá [spanish for "god willing"... sound familiar? =)]
I too am glad to see you are okay, in spite of a sharp feeling of anger at reading this post. I wish there was more that could be done from our end.
i'm so relieved to see you posting again, i was believing that one of those missiles made you a mark. i check your blog daily and, if i were to pray, i would pray for you.
in reality the in-fighting of Palestinians is a far greater threat than the Israeli threat. why is this not mentioned in your blog?????
When I was in Rafah I saw and heard many incidents of brave Israeli soldiers shooting at children.
I heard the story of a woman whose eighteen month old child was killed, shot in the head playing in her back yard, just a few meters from the infernal Israeli occupation force tower on the border.
But then, maybe he was planting a bomb.
You are brave Laila . I cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like to live in constant terror and tension .
Wow Sister Laila, that was moving. Many du'as for all Palestinians.
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