(no subject)
On a humid afternoon, an hour or two after lunch, Nadi al-Attar, 12, set off on a donkey-drawn cart with his grandmother Khariya and two of his young cousins to pick figs from a small orchard near their home in northern Gaza.
Ahmed, 17, one of the cousins, remembers the moment when the shell struck, but pauses as he tells his story to nervously rub the muscles at the top of his thighs. The shell that hit their cart that afternoon sliced off his left leg just above the knee and his right leg halfway up his calf. He still has an aching pain in his bandaged stumps.
They had stopped the cart and two of the boys jumped off. "They went to collect something, some metal bars, and then they came back to the cart," he said. The boys hoped to sell the strips of metal for scrap. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) later determined that the metal came from a launcher for a Qassam, one of the crude rockets launched by Palestinian militants from Gaza into Israel. Qassams had been fired from the area that morning, though the militants had since left.
"Then the shell struck. I saw my mother [Khariya] dead and Nadi killed. I saw them dead on the ground," Ahmed said. "I looked down and then I saw my legs were cut away."
Human rights field workers believe an artillery shell, fired from an Israeli military position not far away at the border with the Gaza Strip, hit the cart. Several were fired that day, July 24 - one day in a long and damaging Israeli military operation.
"I think it happened because of the metal we were collecting," Ahmed said. "But we were just going to the farm." He was taken to hospital with another cousin, Shadi, who was wounded in the stomach by shrapnel. Nadi and Khariya, 58, were killed instantly.
"We had lunch together," said Nadi's father, Habib, 36. "Then he went with his grandmother and never came back."
The deaths are not an isolated case. For the past two months, while the world's attention in the Middle East has been focused on the conflict in Lebanon, the Israeli military has led a wave of intense operations along the length of the Gaza Strip. It began after the capture of an Israeli soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit, by Palestinian militants on June 25. The Israeli military said its operations were intended to free Cpl Shalit and to halt Qassam rocket fire. Early on the Israelis bombed Gaza's only power plant and they have kept Gaza's crossing points to Israel and Egypt closed for most of the time.
(read the full article in The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1866460,00.html
Two days later there was another incident in Shujaiya, when again a group of children were watching the fighting. Either a tank shell or a large chunk of shrapnel flew at them and hit Muhammad al-Ziq, 14, on the head. He died instantly. "I think sometimes they just want the Palestinians to pay," said his uncle, Ziad al-Ziq, 36. "He was with children wanting to see what was happening. There was no excuse for what happened."
All of the dead and most of the injured pass through the Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Staff photograph the bodies of the dead - they call the victims "martyrs" - and document their injuries. Juma'a al-Saqqa called up a picture on his computer screen of Muhammad al-Ziq, an appalling image of the boy lying on his side on a metal morgue table, the side of his head sliced away. In the past two months the hospital's doctors have dealt with 1,280 injured from the military operations, a third of whom were children. The doctors performed 60 amputations.
Dr Saqqa flicks through the photographic record, images of bodies charred beyond recognition, flesh no longer human in form. Many of the figures were young children, at least one in a shredded blue school uniform. "We have passed through the worst situation we have ever come across in our years of work," he said. "But this is our situation. What can we do? We raised our voices to the world, but nobody moves."
and why is it that nobody moves? why are indigenous lives worth LESS? why is it business as usual to incinerate *brown* children but if its american/israeli/european children then its front page-end of the world news?!?
we pay for this. we are responsible.
the blood on our hands will never wash off because we sit comfortably ensconced in our SUV's, watching our endless series of entertainments and 4 basillion cable channels, drinking, drugging, shopping-NUMBING ourselves to the screams of the suffering beings, human and nonhuman all around us.
IS our cheap gas, our unchallenged affluence, our walmart and reality tv REALLY worth what we allow in order to have it?
its no wonder I can never sleep, a million murdered brown children lie just behind my eyes, their suffering ready to drown me as soon as i begin to dream......
Native kids for uranium
Iraqi,Palestinian, Lebanese, Afghan and African children for oil,
Mexican kids for cheap commodities and cheap food,
Central American kids for Dole and other agribusiness giants-more cheap food drenched in blood
Its so much more comfortable to drown ourselves in denial, fast food and television-shut out the voices of truth as crazy, or annoying, or traitorous. ITs too much effort to read Chomsky (or similar) and find out the facts, (or even listen to someone who has put in the work) its too much work to click a mouse a few times to sign an online petition, or spend 5 minutes calling your COngresspeople. God forbid anyone should go out and publically protest-thats for those "crazy hippies" who actually care about someone outside of themselves.
Churchill was right. Little Eichmanns everywhere.
To all of you endlessly beautiful people who are NOT silent little eichmans "just doing your job propping up the sordid system" you have my undying gratitude, respect ,admiration and love. To those of you living in the midst of ongoing attempted genocide and STILL working and fighting to create the better world-you have all that and my awe as well. Ive seen some of you post knocking on yourselves and feeling bad about where your lives are-but you havent taken into account when you feel that way, the strength of your words, your conviction, your courage ,your art and your dreams and unbowed heads-to change things inside others, to change the world.
You are my heroes/heroines, you give me the hope to keep fighting to stay alive and create change.
as you can see, i got a working keyboard;-) so hopefully soon i shall catch up back email/comments and coments in friends journals. Ive been reeeally ill so it prolly wont be speedy-but it will be attempted;-)
Ahmed, 17, one of the cousins, remembers the moment when the shell struck, but pauses as he tells his story to nervously rub the muscles at the top of his thighs. The shell that hit their cart that afternoon sliced off his left leg just above the knee and his right leg halfway up his calf. He still has an aching pain in his bandaged stumps.
They had stopped the cart and two of the boys jumped off. "They went to collect something, some metal bars, and then they came back to the cart," he said. The boys hoped to sell the strips of metal for scrap. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) later determined that the metal came from a launcher for a Qassam, one of the crude rockets launched by Palestinian militants from Gaza into Israel. Qassams had been fired from the area that morning, though the militants had since left.
"Then the shell struck. I saw my mother [Khariya] dead and Nadi killed. I saw them dead on the ground," Ahmed said. "I looked down and then I saw my legs were cut away."
Human rights field workers believe an artillery shell, fired from an Israeli military position not far away at the border with the Gaza Strip, hit the cart. Several were fired that day, July 24 - one day in a long and damaging Israeli military operation.
"I think it happened because of the metal we were collecting," Ahmed said. "But we were just going to the farm." He was taken to hospital with another cousin, Shadi, who was wounded in the stomach by shrapnel. Nadi and Khariya, 58, were killed instantly.
"We had lunch together," said Nadi's father, Habib, 36. "Then he went with his grandmother and never came back."
The deaths are not an isolated case. For the past two months, while the world's attention in the Middle East has been focused on the conflict in Lebanon, the Israeli military has led a wave of intense operations along the length of the Gaza Strip. It began after the capture of an Israeli soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit, by Palestinian militants on June 25. The Israeli military said its operations were intended to free Cpl Shalit and to halt Qassam rocket fire. Early on the Israelis bombed Gaza's only power plant and they have kept Gaza's crossing points to Israel and Egypt closed for most of the time.
(read the full article in The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1866460,00.html
Two days later there was another incident in Shujaiya, when again a group of children were watching the fighting. Either a tank shell or a large chunk of shrapnel flew at them and hit Muhammad al-Ziq, 14, on the head. He died instantly. "I think sometimes they just want the Palestinians to pay," said his uncle, Ziad al-Ziq, 36. "He was with children wanting to see what was happening. There was no excuse for what happened."
All of the dead and most of the injured pass through the Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Staff photograph the bodies of the dead - they call the victims "martyrs" - and document their injuries. Juma'a al-Saqqa called up a picture on his computer screen of Muhammad al-Ziq, an appalling image of the boy lying on his side on a metal morgue table, the side of his head sliced away. In the past two months the hospital's doctors have dealt with 1,280 injured from the military operations, a third of whom were children. The doctors performed 60 amputations.
Dr Saqqa flicks through the photographic record, images of bodies charred beyond recognition, flesh no longer human in form. Many of the figures were young children, at least one in a shredded blue school uniform. "We have passed through the worst situation we have ever come across in our years of work," he said. "But this is our situation. What can we do? We raised our voices to the world, but nobody moves."
and why is it that nobody moves? why are indigenous lives worth LESS? why is it business as usual to incinerate *brown* children but if its american/israeli/european children then its front page-end of the world news?!?
we pay for this. we are responsible.
the blood on our hands will never wash off because we sit comfortably ensconced in our SUV's, watching our endless series of entertainments and 4 basillion cable channels, drinking, drugging, shopping-NUMBING ourselves to the screams of the suffering beings, human and nonhuman all around us.
IS our cheap gas, our unchallenged affluence, our walmart and reality tv REALLY worth what we allow in order to have it?
its no wonder I can never sleep, a million murdered brown children lie just behind my eyes, their suffering ready to drown me as soon as i begin to dream......
Native kids for uranium
Iraqi,Palestinian, Lebanese, Afghan and African children for oil,
Mexican kids for cheap commodities and cheap food,
Central American kids for Dole and other agribusiness giants-more cheap food drenched in blood
Its so much more comfortable to drown ourselves in denial, fast food and television-shut out the voices of truth as crazy, or annoying, or traitorous. ITs too much effort to read Chomsky (or similar) and find out the facts, (or even listen to someone who has put in the work) its too much work to click a mouse a few times to sign an online petition, or spend 5 minutes calling your COngresspeople. God forbid anyone should go out and publically protest-thats for those "crazy hippies" who actually care about someone outside of themselves.
Churchill was right. Little Eichmanns everywhere.
To all of you endlessly beautiful people who are NOT silent little eichmans "just doing your job propping up the sordid system" you have my undying gratitude, respect ,admiration and love. To those of you living in the midst of ongoing attempted genocide and STILL working and fighting to create the better world-you have all that and my awe as well. Ive seen some of you post knocking on yourselves and feeling bad about where your lives are-but you havent taken into account when you feel that way, the strength of your words, your conviction, your courage ,your art and your dreams and unbowed heads-to change things inside others, to change the world.
You are my heroes/heroines, you give me the hope to keep fighting to stay alive and create change.
as you can see, i got a working keyboard;-) so hopefully soon i shall catch up back email/comments and coments in friends journals. Ive been reeeally ill so it prolly wont be speedy-but it will be attempted;-)