Is this the third time in the last six months? They abducted 21 human rights workers including Mairead Maguire and Cynthia McKinney. These are people working towards change.
Al Jazerra - Israel Stops Aid Ship to Gaza
BBC - Israelis Intercept Gaza Aid Ship
It's the same old story, nothing new... Israelis deserve to have a state to call their own so let's displace a million Palestinians to create one for them; Israelis build settlements despite borders; Israelis enforce embargos on food, water, and fuel; Israelis create blockades; Israelis restrict Palestinian employment; Israelis arrest people for trivial things like breaking the 8:00pm curfew; Israelis rip acres of olive trees out of the ground to make the "green line" for protection - nevermind the destruction to Palestinian economics and heritage; Israelis pound Palestinians in self defense of mortars that have killed 9 people in 5 years; Israelis stop humanitarian aid; Israelis need the outdated U.S. military weapons and ever flowing U.S. financial aid and U.S. international support for genocide labeled "self-defense"... Enough about the Israelis! What about the Palestinians who are trying to live?
Simply, I have mixed feelings about the results of acting out from where I stand, safely in the United States. I refuse to become inured to the violence. Denying people their rights to basic needs of safety, food, and shelter is violence. I hate this feeling of wanting to stop people from treating others like they are nothing, unworthy of being dignified as human beings. I feel my body pulsate with rage and I just want to lash out. I don't know how. It seems nothing I say or do will change anything; I'm acting on such a small scale talking to people I know about this or wearing a stupid sticker for 5 months. And I don't even know half of the b.s. that's gone down over there to be able to communicate with you more. Is 60 years not enough time to sit on our hands and wait?
This is the trying to find a "solution" mentality. I know one person can make a change; that's been proven. Those e-mail petitions to beg for humanitarian aid or for the U.S. to cut off funding, marches and protests, calling Congress... Does any of that do anything? Can it really be so futile? Sometimes I wonder if I even know what justice is. I'm a safe distance away. I'm living off the grid with my consumerist lifestyle, sleeping in a comfortable bed, eating too much food, exercising my right to free speech. I'm able to laugh with my friends without looking over my shoulder for guards or dodging bullets. Part of me feels guilty for living a full life and silly for feeling the way I do sometimes; I really have no idea what emotional strife is compared to what people wake up to every day elsewhere. Or I feel like a coward for not buying a plane ticket to Gaza and risking my life to make some sort of stand. Aren't I being compliant by not moving towards some sort of serious fight against this? Am I contributing in all the ways that I'm able?
I don't even know why the Palestinians have become so dear to me, besides the exposure I've had. There are thousands of other instances of this kind of plight, hundreds of other countries with people in need... I seriously think I can understand why people want to martyr for the sake of some form of justice or recognition or vengeance.
I have to believe that however minuscule I feel the things I'm doing are, some sort of pro-activity is better then only raging within myself. Talk to your children or a neighbor if you want to make them aware. Call or write your Congress person if you're feeling the urge. Call Secretary of State Clinton; The main switchboard for the State Department is 202-647-4000. Sign petitions if you agree with them. Blog to get the word out. Volunteer for the Red Cross or UNRWA or Amnesty International. Make human rights a priority in your mind and in your life. At least the sound will be louder with more voices.
3 comments:
Yeah. Let's all feel bad for a group whose greatest contribution to world civilization has been the murder of Olympic athletes, airline hijacking and suicide bombing school busses.
I don't know about these things. Those people affected deserve remorse too. I wonder what I might be capable of being a second or third generation refugee oppressed under someone's occupation and lying by the wayside of international affection.
"I don't know about these things."
Well, if you're going to cry over the plight of the Palestinians, perhaps you might want to learn what the they and those who commit such acts in their name have been up to in recent years.
Your statement that only a few Israelis have been killed is mistaken. The number is well over 1,000 since 1993 -- over 800 of whom were civilians. Considering the U.S. is about 40 times larger than Israel, that'd be like you losing 50,000 people through terrorist attacks. As I recall, you went apeshit when 3,000 were murdered on 9/11. (By the way, do you know why 1993 is significant?)
But, if you really "wonder what [you] might be capable of" just ask yourself if you'd be willing to strap a vest of explosives to a child or mentally retarded individual and send him (or more recently her) out to murder other children. If so, then you'd fit right in.
The murder of Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympics by Black September (Fatah affiliated) terrorists is widely known. I'm surprised (well maybe not really that surprised) you've never heard of it.
So too the many airline highjackings and suicide bombings carried out in the name of Palistinian "liberation."
Yeah. Nevermind all that. "Israel bad. Palistinians Good."
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