in Gaza
I just read the most devastating thing yet about the curent fighting in Gaza.
here's what it's like to be there:
'
http://contemplating-from-gaza.blogspot.com/2007/06/i-lost-faith-in-old-patriotic-songs.html#links
Gaza is back to internal fighting between Fateh and Hamas. This time, it is very serious. It is in the form of civil war and I tend to think that one faction is determined to get a military victory over the other. Imagine being imprisoned in your own house in the kitchen with your young kids (both under four yrs.) and with your neighbors and their kids with no electricity for 10 hrs! A military group broke into our very secure and nice six story building ,where I live in the fifth floor, and used the roof for gun shooting and firing missiles at another faction. Terrified, cornered and mute, I watched my two little girls; one clinging to the blanket covering her face with her doll attached to her in silence with a petrified look in the eyes- and the other thumb-sucking in anxiety relaxing to my steady strokes in her hair. My neighbors, a spouse with three children fled their apartment that was more in the direction of fire and stayed with us embarrassed, stressed and tongue-tied .We spent 24 hrs in fear and the sounds of shells and bullets felt like coming from our own bedroom. Each time, the children startled and we said "it's OK" till it was dawn. Imaging putting 5 children, all under 4 yrs old in the kitchen without allowing them to move for 10 hrs, having no words to answer a question like “mama will we die “? or unable to tolerate simple demands such as taking them to the bathroom, while bullets are very close to all of your house windows. In the early morning, as soon as we saw light, we fled the house to my parents’ house and took our neighbors with us, who also left to their cosine’s house. Currently, very little hope is left in me that factions will bridge their differences or will come to a stable consistent settlement. Now I think, as any other societal change, the violent fighting will take its course for a while, that could be years, I’m afraid. So good bye for the Palestinian national case and the Palestinian Dream ,which is just like other nations dreams, one of liberty, honor, unity and success .Does it have to be that ugly? Does it have to be that bloody? How did ideological and moral changes take place without us noticing? How did military troops reach the limit of killing each other in cold blood jeopardizing the life of innocents? I am clueless. Lies fill radio channels in which channels talk of the enemy, who is supposed to be now Palestinians. What an irony..! So much of a scattered political agenda and prioritization that we are about to lose faith in the old patriotic songs.
here's what it's like to be there:
'
http://contemplating-from-gaza.blogspot.com/2007/06/i-lost-faith-in-old-patriotic-songs.html#links
Gaza is back to internal fighting between Fateh and Hamas. This time, it is very serious. It is in the form of civil war and I tend to think that one faction is determined to get a military victory over the other. Imagine being imprisoned in your own house in the kitchen with your young kids (both under four yrs.) and with your neighbors and their kids with no electricity for 10 hrs! A military group broke into our very secure and nice six story building ,where I live in the fifth floor, and used the roof for gun shooting and firing missiles at another faction. Terrified, cornered and mute, I watched my two little girls; one clinging to the blanket covering her face with her doll attached to her in silence with a petrified look in the eyes- and the other thumb-sucking in anxiety relaxing to my steady strokes in her hair. My neighbors, a spouse with three children fled their apartment that was more in the direction of fire and stayed with us embarrassed, stressed and tongue-tied .We spent 24 hrs in fear and the sounds of shells and bullets felt like coming from our own bedroom. Each time, the children startled and we said "it's OK" till it was dawn. Imaging putting 5 children, all under 4 yrs old in the kitchen without allowing them to move for 10 hrs, having no words to answer a question like “mama will we die “? or unable to tolerate simple demands such as taking them to the bathroom, while bullets are very close to all of your house windows. In the early morning, as soon as we saw light, we fled the house to my parents’ house and took our neighbors with us, who also left to their cosine’s house. Currently, very little hope is left in me that factions will bridge their differences or will come to a stable consistent settlement. Now I think, as any other societal change, the violent fighting will take its course for a while, that could be years, I’m afraid. So good bye for the Palestinian national case and the Palestinian Dream ,which is just like other nations dreams, one of liberty, honor, unity and success .Does it have to be that ugly? Does it have to be that bloody? How did ideological and moral changes take place without us noticing? How did military troops reach the limit of killing each other in cold blood jeopardizing the life of innocents? I am clueless. Lies fill radio channels in which channels talk of the enemy, who is supposed to be now Palestinians. What an irony..! So much of a scattered political agenda and prioritization that we are about to lose faith in the old patriotic songs.