Gaza Mourning
Mon 3 Mar 2008Is this the road to peace?
I don’t think so.
Palestinian relatives of the Atallah family mourn during the funeral of six family members on March 2, 2008, after they were killed during an Israeli air raid in Gaza City the day before.
Photo: Mahmud Hams, AFP - via abc.net.au
I have a Facebook friend, Sana Ahmed who lives in the Gaza strip. A week ago I asked her this question…
We see such terrible things in the conflict between Palestine and Israel. I’d like to hear what you or any of your friends would answer to this question:
“What has to happen before Palestinians and Israelis can live side by side in peace?”
Sana’s immediate response…
Hello
thank you so much for your message
belive me inside this siege i can’t talk about us and the israeli people
i fep up belive me
our life is misy, now i’m so happy because the elctricity has just come. now it’s 7 pm from morning untill now it has been cut, imagine your self living without electricity, without the most important necessary needs
let me enjoy my moments with the electricity” now this is peace”
i feel uggy to talk about them and their occupation for us
there is only one fact thats i belive , we will never forgive them about their crimes toward our people, they can do any thing kill destroy shell, the only power for us our strong belive and faith in God , then our land
thank you so much “peace” is my dream we need it so much
all the people talk about us but no one realize the fact that we are fighting for survival
you have’nt visited palestine yet i wish you come here and visit it now to give us much support we need so strongly in these critic moments
so sorry if i disappointed you with my message may be you are waiting other different words
thank you so much
keep in touch with me
Sana
I then asked Sana’s permission to publish her words and this is her message to the world…
Hello…. Mike
thanks for your supportive message, it’s so kind of you
i hope my and my people’s voice ‘ll reach all the ears all over the world
you have all the permission to spread my message
if i want to talk about my family’s situation i won’t stop”poverty and unemployment” this is how most of the people here live, the most dangerouse thing our patients at hospitals they are dying every hours due to the completly siege the israeli impose on Gaza
if i want to talk about our needs” we need the human needs”
it’s the time that all the people have to raise their hands up and say” stop the occupation” we are the only state under the occupation, i’m a refugee girl give me my right at least to visit my native land.
sometimes i feel i’ll lose my mind
” people have to act by their conscience, they need to judge their respect for others dignity”
thanks my new friend
Sana
Thinking about the road to peace must be difficult when basic human survival is at stake.
Since Sana’s last message, there have been rocket attacks on Israeli villages followed by five days of Israeli ground and air attack on Palestinian civilian areas. Thinking about the road to peace must be impossible when your friends and relatives are being killed.
As the Palestinian death toll passes 100, our Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith has expressed Australia’s concern about the Gaza humanitarian situation and has urged the Palestinian Authority and Israel to resume peace talks.
Is there hope?
Yes there is.
As the Israeli air strikes were at their peak, on Australian TV we saw this uplifting story of Munir Darwish, a Palestinian farmer whose friend was shot in 2004 by an Israeli settler. Munir said to a Canadian journalist that while he despised the shooter he didn’t hate all Israelis. He had through all the years of violence and bloodshed retained fond memories of his strong friendship with Moshe Shinaar, his Jewish employer and his family. Through the efforts of the journalist, we were then treated to a heart-warming reunion of Munir and Moshe at a West Bank roadside cafe. Watch it here; and you will believe there is hope.
Is this the road to peace?
I don’t think so.
On both sides of this wall, a generation is growing up believing that the other side is populated by monsters, not humans. Not humans with hearts like Moshe and Munir.
In such an environment, it’s easy to think violence is the only solution. And while either side uses violence, there will be no peace.
So what is the solution?
Clearly whatever the world’s political leaders are doing today isn’t working. It’s time to stop, re-think and look for a radical new approach.
Stop asking: Who is to blame?
For starters, we need to stop asking who is to blame for the latest outbreak. The answer to this question will only lead back to the previous outbreak, then to the one before that and so on, past the Six-Day War, past the Holocaust, into antiquity. There is no solution in history.
Stop asking: Who is right?
While we are setting aside history, we may also need to set aside religion. We are looking for achievable peace. We are not deciding whether the law of my God is any better than the law of your God.
One Lateral Thinking Solution
When Edward de Bono was in Brisbane a couple of years ago, he offered a radical solution: Let each side vote in each others elections. Let Israelis vote in Palestinian elections and let Palestinians vote in Israeli elections. That way, only constructive people would get elected. Extremists on both sides wouldn’t stand a chance.
Admittedly, obstacles to this proposal may be numerous. However, I’ll put it forward as an example of the type of solution that our planet’s leaders need to be exploring.
Who can pull this off?
Thanks to George W Bush’s efforts in the Middle East, the US is not even remotely seen as a neutral party in this conflict. The world now more than ever needs help from the UN, backed by the European Union, the Arab League, Russia and as many neutral parties as possible. Perhaps, in this Olympic year, it is time to ask even China to help?
We cannot afford to do nothing
We must explore the radical solutions now! Otherwise this conflict will continue to foment global terrorism. We will then waste all of our planet’s resources on warfare and responses to terrorism, bringing closer the day when our species ceases to exist.
It’s not just a problem for Israel and Palestine. It’s a problem for ALL of us.
———————
Update: Tue 4 Mar 08
I followed a link from Eyal Dor-Ofer’s photo essay to The Parents Circle (www.theparentscircle.org), Palestinians and Israelis who lost loved ones during the conflict but have joined together in a call for peace. Visit their website and you will believe there is hope.
———————
Update: Fri 7 Mar 08
A gunman has opened fire in a Jewish religious school in west Jerusalem, killing eight students and injuring nine others.
Is this the road to peace?
I don’t think so. It just gives the hardliners ammunition to justify the next round of reprisals.
———————
Update: Sun 9 Mar 08
Via Sana’s Facebook page, we have kept in touch…
Sana Ahmed at 8:36pm Mar 7.
thank you for these meaningful words
we need strongly these supportive messages
believe me there are a lot of criminal acts while the last Israeli military operation in Gaza but it’s cover, no one knows any thing about , what they do in the occupied Palestine is anti peace , Zionism, massacres against the humanity.
more than 150 Palestinian persons have been killed in a weak , no one condemn that, all the people even the Arab kept silence
and as reaction for these crimes, the Palestinian resistance killed 8 Jewish settlers yesterday , this event took a place inside a settlers school teaching and preparing them how to participate killing the Palestinian innocent children , all the people knows much about the Israeli settlers , their hatred, spite, racism and murder of the Palestinian people.
now the Israeli have to know that even to don’t have tanks and weapons, we have all the will to force them leave our Occupied Palestine , they also must know that what was taken by force can b…
Mike Fitzsimon at 11:47pm Mar 7
Salaam Aleykum, Sana.
There have been many supportive comments at my original blog bost (http://mike.brisgeek.com/2008/03/03/gaza-mourning) which I have updated to include recent events.
I have to say, as an outsider, killing Israelis doesn’t make any more sense to me than killing Palestinians. Worse, it just gives the zionist hard-liners more ammunition to justify the use of excessive force in their next over-reaction.
To answer my own question “What has to happen before Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in peace?”…
1. The strong must stop oppressing the weak both militarily and economically.
2. Ordinary citizens on both sides need to talk and understand each other.
3. Both sides must be prepared to put their differences behind them, forget the past injustices and prepare for the future.This is my prayer for you, your family, your people, your land.
Peace — Mike
Sana Ahmed at 3:41am Mar 8
Waalikom Alsalam
thank you
The peace strategies are just an elusion
Do you know why?
Because no one can understand one fact that Palestine is a country for the Palestinians, we are under Israeli occupation, there is nothing to share, and there is nothing to forget.
How can you can forgive someone who attacks and kills you every day.
We don’t want to live beside them, we want them to leave our land
Those strategies may help if they don’t kill us every day … 150 person a weak
peace.. Sana
Mike Fitzsimon at 8:37am Mar 8
Aleykum As-Salaam Sana,
Yes the killings must stop before anything else can happen. It must be impossible to think of peace while your family and friends are dying.
But I will still pray for your peace.
Best wishes, Mike
Clearly, while Israel continues to respond with disproportionate force, Peace is “just an elusion” - elusive and illusionary.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:53
I would also recommend a book by an Australian Jew, called “My Israel Question”, it poses the really tough questions and he has actually copped a lot of flak for it from the Jewish community - it helped me stop sitting on the fence with my opinion about this situation.
I’m praying for both sides -
March 4th, 2008 at 13:04
Thanks for the tip, Kathleen.
I see Antony Loewenstein’s book, My Israel Question has met both condemnation (review by Philip Mendes) and praise (review by Peter Rodgers). A good sign.
March 4th, 2008 at 20:59
No one really hates an enemy, they just think they do. Even worse is the impact of peer groups. Most do not even know their enemies. If you really get to know someone, how can they remain an enemy.
Sana, be encouraged, and be safe.
March 6th, 2008 at 20:28
Wow. Brilliant post, Mike.
I asked a similar question of my Israeli friend, who lives in Tel Aviv. He was surprisingly neutral… he was certainly sick and tired of the conflict but there were old wounds there, you could tell, as everything came down to the fact that as sick and tired as he was, there’d be a rocket attack and that starts up hostilities fresh. Of course, those rocket attacks are in retaliation for previous Jewish attacks so… I just don’t know how they’re going to stop.
March 7th, 2008 at 10:13
Fantastic post.
I agree that now, more than ever, the world needs the UN, along with the support of the EU and as many neutral powers as possible. I do think China needs to step up- there was a bit in the media recently regarding their stance (or lack of) on Darfur, and I think the conflict in the Gaza Strip is just as important. So often the people are forgotten, and it all becomes Palestine against Israel, forgetting the real people, like Sana.
It just seems to be an endless cycle, and I don’t know how to stop it. The suggestion to have each group vote in the other’s elections is an excellent one, but would it really ever work in reality?
March 7th, 2008 at 11:01
G’day Wile, I hope you don’t mind that I edited your comment down a bit (to emphasise the important parts, of course
)
Thanks, Dune. Maybe your friend in Tel Aviv and Sana should be talking? To learn that there are real people, not monsters on the other side of the wall. And these attacks are the work of a fanatical minority.
Hi Amanda. It will stop when there is change in the hearts of men.
To all, how can we as individuals, as outsiders help? Perhaps by introducing people across “the wall”? If they cannot meet face to face, perhaps they can meet Facebook page to Facebook page?
(When I was young, I never imagined that the Berlin wall would fall.)
March 7th, 2008 at 15:21
I still have a hope that this conflict will come to an end. For 800 years the Irish have been torn apart and finally they have come, possibly through exhaustion, to a peace. While I hope it won’t take 800 years, I hope that eventually there will be a peaceful ending to the violence in Palestine/Israel. Even if it does come through total exhaustion.
March 7th, 2008 at 23:10
G’day Archie, Yeah the Irish Troubles are a good example of the resolution of a conflict that was based on religion. In the end, the resolution had nothing to do with religion. Rather, the strong stopped oppressing the weak long enough for both sides to start talking.
I think, in Israel/Gaza, the strong need to stop oppressing the weak.
March 9th, 2008 at 12:31
Hi Mike
This is so polarising. I’ve not written anything about it because, frankly, you need a pretty thick skin to take some of the abuse that will be hurled at you irrespective of what position you take.
For interest, though, try and get hold of “The other side of deception” (amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Other-Side-Deception-Exposes-Mossads/dp/0060176350 ). Then follow up some of the stuff you will find about this guy on the web.
There seems to be a completely disproportionate response by the Israelis: the Palestinian death toll is typically 3 to 10 times higher, and has been this way for many years. It seems “an eye for an eye” has become “3 to 10 eyes for an eye”. Similarly, the subjugation of the Palestinians, the long waiting at border checkpoints, the cutting off of food and electricity. All these things are designed to “put pressure on”, but what they achieve is to ramp up the hatred and intolerance, through desperation.
Look around a bit more and you will find that there seem to be deep rooted Israeli attitudes (I’m not making this up, search a bit and you will find it), that the Palestinians are somehow sub-human. And as a consequence, they can be treated like animals. Fine for brain-washing, not so good for trying to find harmony.
Until attitudes change on both sides (and the US takes a genuinely neutral point of view) there will be no improvement. This will take a long, long time. Constant rockets fired into Israel provoke responses that are degrading and de-humanising, if not just killing many more people.
A wall won’t end the madness.
March 9th, 2008 at 22:13
Thanks Ashleigh,
So I gather from some of this that Mossad deliberately provoke conflict because while it continues, so does their material support from the US.
Subsequent to your comment, I’ve updated the post with my recent communications with Sana. As Sana says How can you can forgive someone who attacks and kills you every day?
While Israel continues to respond with disproportionate force, Peace is “just an elusion” - elusive and illusionary.
March 10th, 2008 at 23:12
Frustration.
That is my main emotion about Israel and Palestine.
I spend some time being ear bashed by both sides of this conflict. I am now watching the effectiveness of the Israel lobby at the Federal Government level. Cringeworthy is the only way to describe most material available on this conflict, as it is clearly riddled with the baggage of decades of bitter warfare.
We do what we can to pull humanity in a positive direction, but our own nature fights us every inch of the way. Fear. Revenge. Greed. Group think. Occasionally, I stare into our own nature, and it terrifies me. Peace is always an illusion, a delicate balance that could descend into anarchy in the bat of an eyelid.
I am still thinking about how to make de Bono’s voting concept to work. Perhaps it is suited to a Senate like upper house, the weight of half of the votes irrespective of population.
“An eye for an eye, and soon the whole world is blind.”
- Mahatma Gandhi
March 10th, 2008 at 23:47
Thanks for your comment, Stuart. I bet Gandhi never imagined the Israeli version: “Thirty to 100 eyes for an eye.”
March 12th, 2008 at 18:39
What about stopping the flow of weapons and materials? People making profits off the instruments of war… ok so its not the weapon that kills its the user, but what if the user did not have the weapon?
Did mass bombings of Berlin / England residential areas to demoralise them encourage the people to hand over their leadership and despair? or did it rally them… firing indescriminately into an area kills the innocent. The ratbags always seem to wriggle away. It is just not an effective excuse / and method of attack. Most people do not want retaliation against innocent people. They want to get the ratbags.
The thing is the rockets are never fired anywhere near where they are made, or the rocket makers are based. they are transported into highly concentrated residential areas, assembled and fired… so the retaliation strike at the firing site kills innocents. WAKE UP!!
Talking settles disputes… not guns… the way to peace is to allow Pallestinians to form a strong leadership which can weed out its own militants. Israel must turn away from its hatred, as many of its people have. A puppet Pallestinian government will not gain the respect of the people of Palestine, so Israel and the USA must back off and let the Palestinians find their way. If that happens, then Palestine will emerge into a self sustaining system. Every one outside must stay outside and let it come together, however it comes together. There are some really really smart people in there, who if left to it will find the way.
Pallestinians will rally together, as a people. The militants will be driven out, by sheer weight of numbers wanting peace. Leaders must earn respect, and in Palestine, that will be hard won. But won it will be, and when it is, it will be upheld, and pushed like tar over potholes across the disputes and bitterness. It will not be any one man, but it will be a committee charged with respecting each other first.
Every post here has said retaliation is bad… the addage is those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Peace will be won with words.
March 16th, 2008 at 11:45
Mike
Re that book. To attribute a simple motivation to anybody (Mossad in this case… “eliberately provoke conflict because while it continues, so does their material support from the US”) is too simplistic.
The book describes one such incident… remember Kurt Waldheim - president of Austria or some such, who was suddenly and surprisingly found to be an ex-Nazi. His denials were ignored. Turns out it was all a fabrication. To what end… hard to say.
Organisations tend to acquire groups who like having power and don’t want to lose it. Whether used for good or bad is a separate matter, and the motivation behind decisions can be plain or obscure, important or unimportant.
There are too many simple solutions being suggested for a complex problem. Sadly, I have no answers, only observations.
March 20th, 2008 at 19:18
Hi Ashleigh, Yep, no easy answers. The state of Israel has just celebrated 60 years. Watching the celebrations, it appears part of the problem is the three generations of American Jews who have been brainwashed to support Israel, no matter what.
April 10th, 2008 at 14:45
This is simply one of those situations that will never be resolved. Israel was created by uprooting the existing residents. Granted there was sufficient reason to create Israel in the first place, but in attempting to rectify one wrong, another was done. Palestinians have been uprooted from their homes in order to give another displaced group back theirs. This could never work, and pitting muslims against jews is a recipie for disaster at the best of times. This is a religious fight, a land fight, a race fight, and has 60 years of revenge and payback added to the mix.
Now you cant even undo the damage. To remove the Israelis would be to do to them what was done to the palestinians. Two wrongs dont make a right. The Israelis do have a habit of overreacting and over-retaliation. However Palestinians are also largely known to bear a grudge and feel wronged in a disproportionate amount.
Unfortunately, these two groups have almost zero chances of reconciling their differences alone. The US have clearly taken sides (long before the current middle-east situation) and the UN have long proven themselves to be an ineffectual patsy. Not only are there no other bodies currently in a position to step in and assist, both sides would see that as an unwelcome intrusion.
It may seem harsh, unfortunately reality often is, but the only solution is for long-held intrinsic values on both sides to be given up by those who hold them, for human nature itself to change. Not a likely scenario.
Some people on each side are capable of putting the greater good above their own personal situation, and can refrain from the “eye for an eye” mentality. This is the same throughout all society, some can, some cant (or wont). Peace will only happen when the vast majority on BOTH sides value it more than they feel their pain and losses. When they can rise above the natural and understandable human reaction of retaliation, when they can rise above the “poor me” emotions of what has happened today and in the past. When enough people decide that enough is enough.
When enough people can accept the hurt, the loss, and the blame for all that has happened, and decide that its time to move on, to make the best of a bad situation, to cut their losses and carve out a new, better future for themselves, and LET GO.
Surely this is one of the hardest things for any individual to do, and here it is needed for individuals to do the same en masse and in unison. Perhaps in the mean time there are lessons we can all learn from? The situation needs humanity as a whole to rise up. And shouldn’t that involve each of us in our comfy chair too?
April 10th, 2008 at 15:47
Thanks, Melissa, for one of the best (accurate and dispassionate) descriptions of the problem and solution.
I often wish the UN could be stronger here. But you are right, the solution cannot be imposed from the outside; it has to come from within, from the hearts.
I feel very uncomfortable in my comfy chair.