Death threat

To Owen Jones:



Dear Owen

The first time I heard of Owen Jones was when he appeared on Question Time in 2012; a very passionate, energetic, witty smart and articulate young man with an in depth knowledge of the Israeli Palestinian conflict and great convection about justice and socialism.  Since then I have read his column in the Guardian, later I followed his Twitter feed, and last month I have seen him on the Gaza marches in London. On Thursday he took part on the debate on Media Coverage of War on Gaza and I had the pleasure of briefly meeting him afterword.

Owen talked about the colourful collection of death threats he receives because of his stances, he joyfully said that he has his “favourite” ones! I felt that I need to send him one, and I hope that he adds mine to his collection:

Dear Owen, there is so much injustice around us and many people die and many suffer. You speak the truth, your writings and speeches are the voice of the many voiceless, you said that oppression progress through resignation and we know silence is the biggest resignation and it is a consent. If you choose to give in, if you choose to abandon fighting, if you choose to stop shouting the truth, if you do so, many will continue to die, many will continue to suffer, and many more will lose faith and hope of having any change and will stop the fight for justice. if you do not want more injustice then continue to challenge injustice. You receive death threats to silence you, but your silence will result in more and more deaths.
You, me, and many others who believe in a better world might not be able to achieve it, but will give a go, never resigning, always trying...

Regards

Ahmad

انتصار غزة وهزيمة أُحد

غزوة أُحد وحرب غزة..

(كلام قد لا يروق للكثيرين )

درسنا وتداولنا الكثير عن هزيمة جيش المسلمين في غزوة أحد، فلقد قتل المشركون سبعين من الصحابة، وجُرح العشرات وأُصيب الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم في وجهه وكسرت رباعيته. لكننا ننسى أن هدف المشركين كان اجتثاث الإسلام وليس فقط الانتقام لهزيمتهم يوم بدر، وهم لم يحققوا هذا الهدف. وأيضاً قوة المسلمين العسكرية بقيت ثابتة برغم الشهداء و الجرحى، حتى أن الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم وبمجرد عودته للمدينة أمر جيشه( الذي عاد من أحد) بالتحرك لحمراء الأسد، فقد بلغه أن جيش المشركين يريد الاغارة على المدينة. رابط الجيش في حمراء الأسد بضعة ليال ولم يأتي المشركون.

إذا اعدنا النظر إلى نتائج الغزوة - بمنظورنا الحديث - لوجدنا أن المشركين لم ينتصروا لأنهم لم يحققوا ما قدموا من أجله والمسلمين لم ينهزموا لأنهم ورغم الخسائر التي تكبدوها بقوا صامدين ولم ينتهي أمرهم. فلماذا لم يحتفل المسلمون حينها بالنصر ولماذا لا نحتفل اليوم بنصرهم يوم أُحد؟

لا شك أن معركة العصف المأكول حققت إنتصارات لأهل غزة، فصمود المقاومة وتوحدها وتوحد الشعب خلفها ومعها هو إنتصار. والتعاطف الشعبي العالمي وإحياء القضية الفلسطينية وحقوق الشعب الفلسطيني هو أيضاً إنتصار. وفشل إسرائيل ومصر والسعودية ومن على شاكلتهم في القضاء على المقاومة الفلسطينية في غزة هو هزيمة لهم.

حماس وعدت الشعب برفع الحصار وفتح الميناء والمطار، وأهلنا في غزة صمدوا ليتحقق ذلك الوعد. إتفاقية التهدئة التي توصلوا إليها لا تحقق اياً من هذا، ففتح المعابر هو للمعونات الإنسانية و إعادة الإعمار وتحت رعاية السلطة الفلسطينية، أي ليس فتحا كاملاً، والميناء والمطار للتفاوض بعد شهر، وكلنا يعرف معنى ومدى ما تحققه المفاوضات مع إسرائيل! لا أريد أن أقول أن المقاومة هُزمت، ولا أريد أن أقول أن غزة هُزمت، ولكني أجد مبالغة في تسميته انتصار، ورغم ذلك سأسميه انتصار.

يحق لأهل غزة بأن يفرحوا بصمودهم، ويحق لهم أن يتباهوا بثبات المقاومة، ويحق لهم أن يحتفلوا بفتح المعابر وتوسيع نطاق الصيد البحري، قاتلوا وقتلوا وقُتلوا والآن انتصروا فلهم أن يفرحوا. لكن هل حقاً "انتصرنا"؟ هل  يحق لنا أن نحتفل بهذا الانتصار؟ أنا أعني هنا أمثالي ممن تابعوا ما يحدث في غزة عبر شاشات التلفزة ولم يخسروا في هذه الحرب وهذا الحصار الإسرائيلي على غزة شيئاً. هل لنا أيّة حصة أو نصيب في هذا؟ نحن لم ننهزم، ولكننا لم ننتصر بعد، وهذا ليس وقت الإحتفال.

لك الله يا غزة، فوحيدة انت في صمودك، ويوم فرحك الكل له نصيب.

I am not a Palestinian

I am a Palestinian:

My grandparents lost their homes, land and everything

I was born in exile, like the other 7 million living in the diaspora

I have dual citizenship for countries that I cannot call “home”, and they make sure I don’t feel so

I wear Kufyia, have a flag in my car, a badge on my shirt, and many other handicrafts

I am a Palestinian,

I love my country, I take part in all demonstrations, lobbying, talks and campaigns

I know the history, talk about it to all whom I know

I am a Palestinian,

I have never been shoot at, never had an F16s or Apaches dropping their loads of hell over me, never stopped on a check point for hours, never jailed indefinitely. I have a house, not under threat of demolition, a fence on my garden, not a 28 foot concrete wall. I can travel to wherever I want, I have a job and get paid every month. My wife never gave birth on a check point, my children do not suffer from anaemia, malnutrition, and FEAR. None of my immediate family is a martyr, none has lost a limb or permanently injured.    

I am not a Palestinian, although I like to pretend I am…

From Gaza with love

This is a script produced by Dr Ahmad Hadi Shboul, an Australian writer and academic (published here with his permission):

Conversations with Dr Mona Elfarra, Director of MECA (Middle East Children Alliance), & a prominent clinical physician; Vice-president of Palestine Red Crescent in Gaza Strip; C0-founder of Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, Gaza; founder of several other cultural and humanitarian centres across the Gaza strip.

Dr Mona Elfarra is the author of FROM GAZA, WITH LOVE: popular Blog (Baitelyasmin, Cairo, 2011)

Summary of the transcript of a telephone conversation with Ahmad Shboul, on 7 August

I have hoped to use the recording of this telephone conversation with Dr Mona for one of our fund-raising activities in Sydney this month. Unfortunately, the quality of the phone line was not sufficiently clear. And I had to listen to the recording several times to be able to make this (slightly edited) transcript of what Dr. Mona said.
[I have presented the gist of this to our fundraising even last Sunday 10th August, in my own voice .. I found it difficult to remain composed ..]

Mona's voice reflected both the strength of her character and the strain under which she has been working tirelessly. In the following edited transcript, I have not included what I said to Mona, but kept Mona’s own words in the first person, as I heard her voice and was so moved by what she said:

“First of all, I should like to thank everybody, all of you, for your support. It is very important to us at this time and with this attack on us, which hasn’t yet ended.

As you know, we have been subjugated to long occupation and siege, and now bombardment from the air, land and sea.

We are not alone.. We have friends who support us, despite all the shameful stance .. the shameful silence, of the ‘official’ world.

All human rights have been violated by Israel.
Israeli forces have attacked every neighbourhood in he whole of the Gaza strip.

The worst thing for us as medical people has been that we could not reach many of the injured and wounded to save them.

Many people who died of their injuries could have been saved. But we were prevented, because of the vicious Israeli bombardment, from reaching them.
And the rescuers and ambulances were prevented from transferring them in time. This is inhuman.

What happened in Shuja’iya, for example, was beyond belief.
First there was the destruction of the neighbourhood in the first few days. Then, during a short ceasefire and lull in the bombardment, when people went to the Shuja’iya market to get some essentials, they were viciously attacked by Israeli bombardment.. Many were killed; and many more were injured.

There were also deliberate attacks against whole families".

[We know from other sources that about 70 prominent families were targeted in their own homes by israeli bombardment; and about 570 people were massacred in this delibrately targeted way - Ahmad]

"There is destruction everywhere
People were forced to flee from their homes; and they had to seek shelter in schools and other places.
Three United Nations schools were attacked, although the UN personnel have repeatedly notified the Israelis of the exact locations (coordinates) of the schools. These attacks were deliberate.

Now, of course, the new school year is supposed to start in about 2 weeks. But many schools are not fit for use.

One of the most serious problems we face, despite all our steadfastness, is that our community has been - and will continue to be - deeply traumatised for a long time.
This is particularly more acute in the case of thousands of children.

There is no real ceasefire or truce so far.

We are facing increased psychological problems among families and especially children.

There are so many stories one can tell about the extent of the trauma.
Children suffer from recurring panic attacks. Many of them cannot sleep.

The medical situation and medical care is so complicated.
As it happened we are not able to cater for all the normal daily cases, even without the latest Israeli onslaught on us.

The injured have exceeded 9000 in number.
25% of these are going to have permanent disabilities
We have been working round the clock.
Our teams are exhausted. But we go on working.
We do not have enough medicine for so many cases.
At MECA (Middle East Children Alliance) we tried to get as much medicines as possible from the local markets. But that hasn’t been enough.

Our medical teams have been mostly working under fire with bombs falling on top of them. Exhausted, working long hours ..
Several of our team members suffered personal losses. We lost dear colleagues. At least six of my team lost their homes and members of their families.
I myself [Mona Elfarra] lost 9 members of my family in one attack (in Khan Yunus)
All of us we had to postpone our personal grief.
During the short ceasefires, our medical and psychological support teams visited schools and other locations, which have become places of refuge and shelter.
People were taking shelter everywhere they could find refuge. In schools, mosques, hospitals, and gardens
We had to treat people on the streets as well.

Despite all the work we have been doing to help our people, there have been times when we felt so helpless.
I have always felt strong, but there were rimes when I had to say to myself: what can I offer more?..
What can we do in a situation where more than twenty-two thousand tons of ammunition have been dropped on us?
I feel strong. But then the question keeps recurring: where are we going? ..
So many people have been killed and more people injured..
I may die any minute.
I felt I have crossed the barrier between life and death several times.
The most important thing for us as medical people is to save people, to treat the injured, and to help families and children ..
426 children at least have been killed.
Thousands of children who have survived will keep re-living the terrible experiences that they have gone through.
I could give you so many figures of the civilian casualties, and of the destruction. .

But I like finally to say despite all this we are not victims..
We Palestinians seek justice and human rights.

Let me say: thank you all for your solidarity.

What the Palestinians in Gaza and all Palestinians need is not charity, but SOLIDARITY!" ..

The above is just a glimpse of Gaza experiences as conveyed by Dr Mona Elfarra.
A contribution to efforts to get the World to know the truth about the real situation in Gaza ..

You can follow Dr Mona through her own blog :

The Diary of a Lady Doctor in GAZA

http://monaingaza.wordpress.com/

London Gaza Demo

 a panoramic view in Hyde Park

 Egypt was there

 Morocco was there

 CND was there

 Iran, India, Kashmir, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia were there

 young, old, able, disable, all were there

 Boycott, academic boycott has had many successes..

 Viva Palestina... Latinos were there

 Liberal

 Chile, some officials were there

 Islamic Flags flying along Marxist & Liberal.. all were there

 tired, but will continue

 Oxford street packed with protesters..

 Oxford street both sides

 Viva Ireland, Viva Palestine

 no matter what, all united for Palestine

 Israel: stop killing, Stop Killing, STOP KILLING

 Scots were there

 Turks were there

 my first view of the demo

the demo concluded with the famous Palestinian/ Arabic song موطني My Homeland....

خطوة أخرى وننتصر

بين النصر و الهزيمة انت.. 

نعم، انت - وأنا- من يقف بين النصر والهزيمة، فهل ستجلب لنا النصر أم الهزيمة؟ إن هُزمنا فأنت الملام..

كثير ما يتردد هذا السؤال : ماذا سيقدم أو يؤخر مشاركتي في هذه المظاهرة أو المقاطعة أو أي شيء آخر؟

دائما اجيب بقصتين؛ أما الأولى فهي أن عبدالله بن أم مكتوم أراد أن يخرج مع جيش القادسية، فقالوا له أنت أعمى فماذا ستفعل وقد عذرك الله.. فقال: أُكثّر سوادكم( يعني بالعامية زيادة عدد )، فخرج وحمل راية المسلمين ورزق الشهادة وانتصر المسلمون. ..

والثانية أن امير مدينة طلب من أهلها ان يتبرع كل بيت بقدر كأس حليب في تلك الليلة ويجمعوا ذلك في خزان كبير في وسط المدينة.. في الصباح فتحوا الخزان وإذا هو ماء، فكل بيت وضع ماء بدل الحليب و قال كأس ماء لن يظهر له أثر في كل ذلك الحليب..

ان رحلة النصر هي مسيرة خطوة واحدة، خطوة تفصل بين النصر والهزيمة، خطوة واحدة لكن على كل فرد في المجتمع ان يخطو هذه الخطوة، أن يتقدم إلى الأمام خطوة، ان يسير بالاتجاه الصحيح خطوة، فإن تحمل كل فرد مسؤوليته وخطا تلكم الخطوة انتصرنا... 
.

بالمختصر، تخاذل فرد واحد في المجتمع هو هزيمة لكل المجتمع، فإن لم لم تخطو الخطوة التي عليك فلن نصل، وتكون أنت سبب الهزيمة.. 

عندما تنظر للأمام ماذا تحب ان ترى؟ بشائر النصر الذي كنت ممن صنعوه، ام ظهور الآخرين وهم يتقدمون تاركينك مع الخوالف.

medical aid to Gaza (a visit by PalMed)

To whom it may concern

As the conflict started we at PalMed arranged a group of delegates to travel to Gaza, we sent the names and information to the Egyptian authorities and travelled there. The group consisted of three members of PalMed and another doctor: Mads Gilbert, all are EU citizens.

 After we landed in Cairo on  Friday 11^th of July  we went to the Rafah Crossing (Egypt border with Gaza) in the early hours of the following morning (4am). We were stopped at Balodha (180km from Rafah)  and prevented from going any further. We all returned to Cairo, Dr Gilbert arranged through the Norwegian embassy and flew to Jordan, then Israel where he was allowed through. after further liaison with the Egyptian authorities we went back to the crossing on Sunday 13^th and again we were stopped at Balodha, few hours of later we were allowed to proceed and were blocked from entering at Rafah crossing till the evening of the same day.

It is beyond words to describe the devastation and destruction we have seen as we entered Gaza, but I will focus only on describing the medical situation that needs urgent attention.

Prior to the conflict Gaza has stopped all elective surgeries due to sever shortages in supplies, 150 essential –including many anaesthetic- drugs were out of stock. Now this list has grown and as well as drugs, many essential supplies, and more importantly, medical specialities are not available in Gaza hospitals to treat the injured.

Almost 90% of severe trauma causalities brought to Gaza hospitals are dying due to these sever shortages.

At Al Shifa Hospital, the staff have been working day and night trying to treat these sever and complex injuries presented to the hospital. I have witnessed two or three surgeries taking place in the same theatre, many operations are carried out in the corridors, many children and others are dying because of lack of capacity, lack of specialities and lack of supplies.

The director of Shifa hospital (Dr Al Tahir) went to his home in the morning to find it a pile of rubbles, few hours later he was back at the hospital doing his job!

We have visited a few sites and have seen ambulances burnt and damaged on the side of the roads, we have seen clinics destroyed by the shelling, but the most shocking and heart breaking scene was the disability centre that was bombed by Israeli forces. Many patients with cerebral palsy and other complex neurological diseases have lost their lives because of the direct hit the centre received; many more will suffer a slow death as no other centre can provide the same care in Gaza! 

We arranged another European group to travel to Gaza, they were in Egypt on the 18^th of July. After spending days attempting to cross, and despite prior liaison, only two out of 10 were allowed to go through. The two they allowed have dual nationalities: a Palestinian and European citizenship and the Egyptian authorities are now saying they will only allow Palestinians to cross and not any other nationality!

The third delegates are being held at the crossing today. They are all have Palestinian (plus another) citizenship. Egypt is claiming that the Gazan authority is not granting permission which is not true as direct contacts states otherwise.

Words struggle to describe the suffering we have witnessed in Gaza, we hope that our European government can have a meaningful intervention to stop the massacre, but for now we need urgent pressure to allow medical staff and aid to enter Gaza.

Regards

Abdeen Shams

General Coordinator PalMed Europe

a letter to MPs, MEPs about allowing medical aid to Gaza

Dear All,

Today (2.08)the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that the death toll have risen to 1766 and 9320 injured.

Many humanitarian organizations have been trying to enter Gaza to help in relief operations mainly in medical aid, however, they have been blocked by both Israel and Egypt.

Gaza has been suffering sever shortages of medical supplies prior to the conflict. In June all elective surgeries were cancelled due to shortages in medications and equipments, many basic and necessary drugs are out of stock. Staff as well as suffering themselves from bombing and shelling, are working flat out and not getting any rest due to the high number of causalities and the complexities of cases.

Despite any political interpretation of the conflict, medical aid should be allowed to enter Gaza.

We need help in applying pressure on Egypt and Israel to allow medical aid and medical delegates to cross into Gaza.

We are healthcare professionals who made an auth to protect and care for the lives of fellow humans; I hope that you can help in fulfilling that.

Regards

Ahmad Baker