What about Jewish terrorism?

[Muhammad Sadiq]

Zionist Terrorism
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What about Jewish terrorism?
By
Feb 7, 2003, 18:57


The recent diabolical murder by Zionists of two Palestinian brothers (the brothers Imad and Adel Awadallah), along with the cold-blooded killing of a Betunya schoolboy, Iyad Karabseh, once again illustrates the brutal ugliness of the Jewish Zionist mentality.
In the case of the Awadallah brothers, the Israeli army not only brutally murder the two Palestinian brothers while in Israeli custody (some say by injecting them with a lethal chemical substance similar to that used by the Mossad on Hamas Leader Khalid Misha'al last year), but went as far as dumping their bodies in some isolated valley and refusing to hand them over to their families for a proper burial according to Islamic practices.
In the case of Karabseh, as usual, the Zionist establishment added insult to injury. The settler, a cloned Jewish brand of the Nazi SS, chased a group of schoolchildren who were returning home, stopping once in a while to reload his gun and firing at the poor creatures.
According to eyewitnesses, the criminal settler was laughing hysterically as he opened fire on the little boys and girls, who were fleeing for their lives, wondering how and why a human being could ever seek to kill little children returning home from school.
But that was not all.
The Zionist "court" before which the criminal settler appeared ruled that "he did nothing wrong" and that he "acted in sheer self-defense".
Moreover, the presiding "judge" actually lauded the settler, describing him as "an exemplary citizen."
Of course, this is not the first time Zionist Jews behaved like this. In fact, the entire Zionist history, at least since the establishment of the malignant Zionist entity called Israel, has been a huge accumulative criminal file. Zionist leaders from Ben Gurion to Netanyahu inaugurated their professional life with murder and ended it with murder.
So, "murder from the cradle to the grave" is par excellence the Zionist slogan and way of life.
In the face of this haunting terrorism, perpetrated by an evil entity intent on destroying the Palestinians and usurping the remainder of their country, what should Arabs and Muslims do?
It is no secret that the Zionist entity thrives on American support. America is Israel's bloodline; without America, Israel will lose its ability to survive. Arabs and Muslims everywhere must, for the sake of restoring their usurped dignity and freedom, convey a message, active rather than passive, that its political, economic and strategic interests along the length and breadth of the Muslim world are not safe.
The masses should not-must not-wait until the impotent rulers change their ways, for this will not happen in a hundred years to come. It is we, the masses, who must wake up and restore, by force if necessary, our arrogated rights from these little despots, the puppets of Zionism and American imperialism.
These despots are protected, and largely sustained, by the rapacious Uncle Sam, who is interested in cheap oil more than democracy.
Nobody pretends that this is not going to be costly. Freedom needs sacrifices. But the price we are paying for not paying the dues of freedom is a hundred-fold.
This means the choice is ours. Either we continue to pay the price of humiliation and enslavement, or rise up to challenge those who torment and enslave us.
Undermining and endangering America's interests need not assume a violent form. American goods should be boycotted in favour of, say, European goods.
The imperative matter is that we must show them that we mean it this time, otherwise they will continue to treat us, as they have been, as sub-humans who can be controlled vicariously, through controlling our despotic rulers.
The White House enslaves our rulers, and our leaders enslave us. This vicious circle must be broken as soon as possible if we truly aspire for freedom and a better tomorrow.
Let us not wait any more, for if we do, the Zionists will humiliate us further, and we, the masses, will bear the brunt because our leaders are insensitive.


© Copyright 2003 by palestine-info.co.uk

[nizamuddin]

Gaza’s Siege – “The Killing Fields”

Interview with Dr Mona El-Farra and Dr Jess Ghannam, Pacifica Radio, July 2004*

(Transcribed and Edited by Anne Gwynne)


“Remind the world - where there is Occupation there is Resistance”


Dr Mona El-Farra (M-El-F) and Dr Jess Ghannam (JGh) spoke with

Johayna Marlow (JM) and John Young (JY)

---

Good Evening. You are listening to Voices from the Middle East and North Africa on Pacifica Radio. This is John Young and Johayna Marlow bringing you a special interview-report from occupied and besieged Gaza on Palestine’s west coast.

In our recent programs, we have been covering the plight of Palestinians locked in and surrounded by Israel’s monstrous and illegal wall. Many people here in the United States are, however, unaware of the desperate and horrific situation in which Gazans are forced by the illegal occupying army of Israel to exist, and to resist, every day. Indeed, Gaza has been fenced in on all sides, virtually like a prison, for some 37 years.

As we speak, Beit Hannoun in northern Gaza is entering the 32nd day (on July 31st- Ed) – over a month – of complete siege by the illegal occupying army of Israel. During this time, at least 14 people have been massacred, with hundreds wounded, most of these children, many of whom are paralyzed from their injuries. Mr. Ibrahim Hamad, the Mayor of Beit Hannoun, this week called the town a “disaster zone”, estimating the losses of the town at over $110 million, due to the large-scale destruction of infrastructures, homes, roads, and 7100 dunnums of arable lands by the Israeli forces for four consecutive weeks (including 1900 dunnums of citrus, olive and fruit trees and 17 wells). Israel has, in fact, turned this fertile, productive agricultural area into a wasteland.

Meanwhile the ethnic cleansing of Rafah continues apace: Yesterday, we received a message from our young friend Mohammad in Rafah in which he wrote: “Jamil Al Farmawi insisted on putting the Palestinian flag amidst the rubble of his demolished home in Block ‘O’ area in Rafah refugee Camp, and an Israeli soldier responded with 7 bullets in different parts of his body. 17 year-old Jamil died, as Israel refused to give permission to the ambulance to bring his body back to his family, and let it stay in the rubble of his house for 24 hours.” And at the Rafah crossing (the only border through which Palestinians might be granted “permission” to leave or enter their own country), over 2,500 residents of Gaza - including sick patients, children, and the elderly - are stranded on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing where many have been waiting for over two weeks in the most desperate of conditions to be allowed to return to their homes or reach medical treatment.

With us today to discuss the siege of Gaza, and the appalling plight of its good citizens, is Dr Mona El-Farra, Deputy Director of the Union of Health Worker Committees, who joins us now from her home in northern Gaza; marhaba, Dr Mona El-Farra, welcome, ahlan wa sahlan…

M-El-F: Good morning Johayna, good morning everybody and thank you very much for giving me this chance to talk to American people about what is going on specifically in Gaza: what is going on now is not new – it has being going on for the last four years and, to remind people, it is not just the last four years – it is now 56 years since the foundation of ‘Israel’ on the ruins of Palestine so this is an ongoing process for the Palestinian people. But the last four years have been very intensive for us.

About what is going on now in Gaza – the main thing now is the siege of Beit Hannoun, a complete village, with a population of 28,000 people, under total siege and that for 26 days now. I work with the Union of Health Work Committees. We run a Hospital in the North of Gaza (al-Awda Hospital), which is only about 4 minutes drive from the village but yet our Ambulance, our medical teams, are not allowed to reach the village.

In Beit Hannoun, it is not only the health problems which is very important – but also the most basic needs of the people. People cannot receive their basic needs like their flour, their sugar (their milk), or any grocery. Even the UNRWA High Commissioner, Mr Hansen, with a convoy tried to get food into Beit Hannoun - food which is distributed by the UNRWA. This convoy was attacked by the soldiers of the Israeli occupation. (Ed: UNRWA is the United Nations Relief and Work Agency which was set up as an interim measure after al-Nakbah, the Catastrophe when 800,000 Palestinians were driven out from their Land by the Jewish invaders who eventually made the illegal declaration of the state of Israel). Actually, it was a sort of intimidation of people who are trying to help normal civilian population of Beit Hannoun. This is simply collective punishment (Ed: In violation of the Geneva Convention as it applies to occupying forces).

The Israeli occupation claims this process under the pretext of ‘security’. The whole Nation in Gaza Strip, 1.5 million people, are under complete siege on the pretext of ‘security’ and this is in blatant violation of Human Rights and all the Geneva Conventions. (Ed: The Right to Education, The Right to Health, The Right to Food, The Right of Freedom of Movement, The Right of Freedom of Communication – UN Declaration of Human Rights, 1948).

JM: That is the voice of Dr Mona El-Farra talking to us from her home in Northern Gaza. She is the Deputy Director of the Union of Health Worker Committees.

We are also joined in the studio by Dr Jess Ghannam, Board Member of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Chief of Medical Psychology at the University of California San Francisco. Marhaba, Dr Ghannam: ahlan wa sahlan!

JGh: Marhaba! It’s a pleasure to be here. And also I want to extend my warm greetings to Dr El-Farra in Gaza, because what Dr El-Farra is doing, along with her colleagues in Gaza, is truly heroic work on the ground, under an extraordinarily horrific situation.

JM: Yes, indeed! Dr Ghannam, after returning from Gaza recently you described this once-beautiful area of Palestine, Gaza, as ‘The Killing Field’. This is indeed a terrible and very resonant image … can you explain to us what do you mean by ‘The Killing Fields’?

JGh: Well, if one can imagine what Palestine was like before 1948 – and it’s an image that all of us Palestinians have in our mind – and then on this recent visit, and after reading and seeing the images of what’s happening in Rafah right now, as well as in Beit Hannoun, all you can see now is utter devastation of every aspect of civil society: homes being destroyed, clinics being destroyed, hospitals being destroyed, schools being destroyed and then, in addition to that, lives being destroyed.

The Israelis and the Israeli occupation forces commit wanton destruction of not only infrastructure, but of people. It is wanton killing; it is savage killing, and it is premeditated killing. One of the most horrific things that happened in Rafah recently was that three to four thousand people were protesting the savage response by the Israeli occupation forces, in a non-violent protest, and an Apache helicopter fired a missile right into the crowd – killing instantly about ten people and wounding over 60 or 70 people.

This is what happens to Palestinians when we protest non-violently.

[nizamuddin]

(2)

So, the image of ‘The Killing Fields’ for me, and for most of us, is a very apt image because nothing is sacred any more in Palestine – the Israelis choose to kill when they want, who they want and wherever they want.


(Ed: at date of writing the total number of Palestinians massacred by the IDF soldiers since September 28 2000 is between 3,600 and 4,000; the number of homes damaged severely or destroyed is in excess of 60,000; over 300 Hospitals have been attacked and damaged; the injured number more than 55,000 and some 1,808 schools have been lost either destroyed or turned into army barracks by the Israelis).



JY: Dr Ghannam, why are the Israelis in Beit Hannoun specifically – does it have something to do with the fact that it is an agricultural area?



JGh: Well I think there are probably two reasons why the Israeli occupation forces are in Beit Hannoun now.

One is that Beit Hannoun is a rich agricultural area and, as part of the Occupation, the methodology of the occupation is to annexe, destroy, and undermine any ability that Palestinians have for self-sufficiency. As you know, we have a long history of living off the land ourselves, and one of the things (among many) that Beit Hannoun is known for is having rich agriculture; so one aspect is to destroy the agricultural basis for being able to be self-sufficient.



Secondly, I think it is just the other aspect of the occupation – psychological intimidation.

They have systematically attempted to psychologically instil fear in every Palestinian: they are trying to do it in Rafah, they are trying to do it in Beit Hannoun. It is just another attempt to intimidate and to create an atmosphere of fear on the ground for Palestinians.



JM: Dr Mona El-Farra, Could you talk to us about the impact of the daily crimes against humanity committed by Israel in Gaza on the health – particularly of women and children.



M-El-F: Yes. First, I agree with Professor Ghannam about the systemic destruction of the Palestinian infrastructure, and including the people’s psychology - is an ongoing process.

Now we can see it is identified in Rafah or Beit Hannoun and this has been going on along the last four years and it is a systematic process - they are destroying everything with the aim of making an Independent Palestinian State, or the claimed Independent Palestinian State in Gaza and The West Bank, impossible - and I believe they have made it impossible now. If you come to Gaza – the infrastructure has been completely destroyed. The people in Gaza are suffering a lot - and we don’t know how many years we need to make amends to these people’s suffering.



The effect of occupation on people – just before I go into that I would just like to let people in America know what’s going on now at the border for example. Gaza Strip is completely sealed. There is no entrance except the Egyptian border, which is called Rafah Crossing. That means, if I need to go to any place in the world, even if I am allowed, I can go only through this Rafah Crossing. This Rafah Crossing has now been closed for nine days (14 on 31st July). And as a result of that there are at least two thousand people who are held at the border. They are not allowed to leave Gaza – and as soon as they get inside the frontier they are not allowed to leave back to their home! (Similarly, from Egyptian side – they cannot enter Gaza and are not permitted to return to Egypt- ed).



So two thousand people (Ed – 2,500) – children, women, elderly people – normal people and, you know, the majority of these people are those who are trying to go out to get treatment so I am sure that there are a lot of sick people waiting at the border for nine days in Sinai desert under very bad circumstances – not allowed to enter Gaza and, of course, nobody is allowed to leave Gaza! And I don’t see anybody talking about those people – just simple people trying to travel to Cairo, living now at this precise moment, under the most difficult circumstances for more than eight days at the border (like animals in pens –ed). This is not security. This is a method of destroying the Palestinian psychology, Palestinian well-being - either Health or other aspects.

(Ed – see "Day 14 of the Rafah Crisis" and the "Petition to the Israeli High Court to End the Dire Situation at the Rafah Crossing" prepared by, among others, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, and the Gaza Community Mental Health Program.)



Going back to the effect of the occupation on women and children, and I am very pleased to be able to talk about this:

Vaccination of children, for example: there has been a campaign for children’s vaccination in the village, which was organised by the Ministry of Health. This campaign was disrupted: for the first three years it was disrupted but after that, with the help of UNICEF and a long process of co-ordination, the team managed to get the vaccination for the children but yet we don’t expect that all the children in the village have managed to get the vaccination – and this is again… another challenge and another burden on Healthcare. These things will not show themselves right now but we are expecting, as Health Workers, problems that will affect the health of the children for years to come as the outcome of this.



For the last four years the economic situation has deteriorated - largely it is destroyed, and more than 50% of the Palestinian population in Gaza is living under the poverty line (ed: that is on $1 a day or $2 for a family). Even the people who still get some income get a very low income, and this has affected the health of children because the family consumption of meat, fruit and vegetables is reduced to the minimum. For example, some families, actually most of the families we see and we meet as patients, hardly anyone of then can afford good balanced meals and this, of course, affects the health of the children. Research published recently by John Hopkins School of Public Health in the USA stated that at least 10% of the Palestinian children at the moment are suffering from one or more of the malnutrition symptoms and diseases of malnourishment. This is, of course, all linked to the occupation itself, to the number of closures and curfews and to the hardship, the economical hardship and state of life we are living under.

[nizamuddin]

(3)


And another thing regarding women – women, of course, are suffering a lot because of the occupation: and the routine programs we are running - some developmental programs for women, like the Reproductive Health Programs including Family Planning and other things, have been largely disrupted because we are obliged to focus our work towards the emergency situation and these programs have been seriously compromised. The number of women who seek advice for normal Consultations, not emergency Consultations, is decreasing (because of the checkpoints which make it impossible to move) in every facility in the Hospital as is the ability of the Health Workers to reach the women in their rural areas.

JGh: Dr Mona, this is Dr Ghannam. May I ask you a question because we have been hearing some reports that the situation of the salt in the drinking water for Palestinians, especially in Gaza, has been causing an increase in medical conditions – are you finding any evidence of this?

M-El-F: Yes, thank you for this question. There is a problem – but there is no evidence or study completed yet though some people are doing studies about this - but we notice it from the increased number of people who seek Consultations in the Renal Department. More people are suffering from it.

JGh: So you think there is more kidney disease - there looks like there’s more renal dysfunction among Palestinians in Gaza

M-El-F: Yes, there is a problem.

(Editor: Dr Jess Ghannam has recently explained that “The Israelis dig deeper into the water table so that all that’s left is salt water for the Palestinians…This causes kidney problems. I’ve seen Palestinian children faint in the classroom because of this. And some pass out just because there wasn’t proper water to drink.” - www.wrmea.com/archives/July_Aug_2004/0407062.html)

JY: Dr Ghannam, what about the psychological impact on women and children in the midst of this horrific occupation (in Gaza)?

JGh: I think Dr Mona spoke very eloquently about that actually, but I would just like to put it in a context and it is something that Dr El-Farra did mention is that we have to understand that the psychological health and well-being, the psychological wellness if you will, doesn’t just start with what is happening in Gaza right now – we have to go back 56 years. And so, if we are to understand the context of the trauma for Palestinians, we have to look at it from three perspectives:

Number One – Trans-Generational Trauma.

We are actually going on now for four generations of Palestinians living in Palestine right now who have been traumatised either from al-Nakbah from ’48 (our Catastrophe), what happened in ’67, the ongoing occupation of our Land, as well as the First and the Second Intifada – so we have what is called Trans-generational Trauma.

Secondly, we have Continuous Trauma. There isn’t a single day in Palestine when a child or a woman is not confronted with a life-threatening phenomenon. When we talk about trauma in the west, it is usually one person experiencing one life-threatening event but in Palestine, Palestinians confront life-threatening phenomena every day so there is a Continuous Trauma.

The third factor is Multiple Trauma. So, you know, someone may have to bear witness to their home being destroyed, see their children be, you know, murdered or assassinated and witness a relative being beaten in front of them all in one day.

So this would be Multiple Trauma.

In this context we have to have a very different and more complex analysis of what it means to have psychological health and wellness within the Palestinian context. Now having said that, the research indicates that, especially when you compare this with children all over the world, the number of children who have experienced at least one symptom, for example, of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is well over 80 per cent.

So, in other words, Palestinian children are exposed, when you compare this to any other war-zone, you know, if you look at Bosnia, if you look at East Timor, if you look at Sub-Saharan Africa where there are other kinds of war-phenomena, Palestinian children actually experience some of the highest rates of traumatic phenomena in the world.

What’s interesting though in terms of all this, and maybe Dr Farra can describe this, is that, even though Palestinian children have some of the highest symptoms of Post-traumtic Stress Disorder, they remain very resilient. How are we to understand this? How are we to understand that these children who are exposed to some of the most gruesome and devastating traumatic experiences that any human being could have at any point in their life yet they remain – they do well in school, they love their families, they have friends, they can still play? We have to be able to explain this phenomenon and I think we can understand more about resilience when we look at Palestinian children, than we can about trauma. So we have this kind of complex situation where they have very high symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder but at the same time they remain very resilient in spite of that.


JM: That is the voice of Dr Jess Ghannam. He is Board Member of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at University of California San Francisco.

[nizamuddin]

(4)

Dr Mona – If we could just return for a moment to some of the physical effects of this terrible siege of Beit Hannoun which is, I believe, now entering its 26th day (on 25th July) - can you tell us about the wounded and the injuries that you are seeing coming in to the Hospital?

M-El-F: Yes, actually something happened in the beginning of the siege when the attack started. The injured were not allowed to leave the village and the Ambulances, al-Awda Hospital Ambulances and the other Medical Providers were not allowed to enter the village: they were under fire constantly under fire but in the end the injured managed to reach the Hospital but some of them have died while waiting to reach the Hospital. And actually we cannot go … nobody is allowed inside the village of Beit Hannoun.

Our Ambulance Driver was waiting with others for six hours and, in the end, he was not allowed to enter the village. This was on the first days and it also is not new: it has been happening for the last four years in different parts of Palestine and when an Ambulance has to go and evacuate cases, and he is prevented by the army, so many Palestinians were killed (died) simply waiting for the treatment. Talking only of this Intifada, 3394 people were killed in the last four years, and we are talking of 40,000 wounded. (ed. see www.palestinercs.org for details on denial of access).

JGh: Dr Mona – one thing that many people may not realise is that, in terms of supply, simply getting ordinary essential supplies into Gaza is not such an easy thing – can you say a bit about what it’s like to just receive the basics in terms of medical supplies to supply clinics and Hospitals – how difficult that may be?

M-El-F: At the moment there are shortages of supplies, especially the emergency supplies in our Hospital and other Hospitals. Yanni, we are working with what we have but we are certain that our supplies might finish all of a sudden. In general it is not easy to get medical supplies into Gaza. The Israeli occupation will not say –we don’t allow things to get into Gaza – but what is happening is that they delay things into Gaza at the borders.

We can’t get our supplies at the time when we need it. For example, once we had a kind donation from some people in the United States. It was vitamins for children. It was not emergency supplies – just vitamin bottles for children who are malnourished and this is purely humanitarian donation – and it was held for at least three months at Tel Aviv airport and after that it was destroyed. We were not allowed to get it into Gaza for the children. (Ed.- Read the report of this illegal action by Israel from October 30th 2003 www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_3151.shtml)

JGh: Yes; and we also have reports from Rafah for example that they delay getting just food and milk and formula for the children and that it is still difficult with no electricity and water in Rafah – it is still very, very difficult.

M-El-F: Yes, in Rafah (especially), but now it is also in Beit Hannoun. For 13 days – the first truck with flour was allowed to enter Beit Hannoun after 13 days. This is inside Gaza, not getting through the borders. (Ed. in violation of the Geneva Convention).

JM: Dr Jess Ghannam you mentioned your recent visit to Gaza and talked about some horrific events that you witnessed yourself in Rafah – why do the Israelis go to Rafah and destroy houses and destroy neighbourhoods and now besiege Beit Hannoun?

JGh: Well, you know, people really have to understand that what is happening in Palestine right now – when we talk about ‘the occupation’ - it is systematic, it is systemic, and it is relentless and the kind of media spin that the Israelis put on it in terms of ‘for security only’ which Dr Mona addresses, is a complete fabrication.

If the Israelis were truly concerned about a tunnel here or someone there, they have the complete ability to go in and arrest people or to take them out if they were concerned about them and at least let them have the opportunity to go through some sort of judicial process. But the Israelis, just as we learned at the International Court of Justice, believe for some reason that they are above International Law, that they do not need to act in accordance with International Law. So rather than acting consistent with the Geneva Convention, consistent with UN Resolutions, they pursue a wanton, extreme, disregard for anything having to do with Palestinian dignity and wellness and well-being, especially in Rafah and now in Beit Hannoun. The occupation is an attempt to systematically dislocate Palestinians from their land, dislocate us from each other and dislocate us from our histories. And what they’re doing in Rafah and what they’re doing in Beit Hannoun,and what they’re doing in Gaza and what they’re doing in the West Bank, is part of this systemic uprooting of Palestinians from our history, from our land, and from each other.

So the statement that they’re doing it ‘for security’ is complete rubbish. It has nothing to do with ‘security’. It has everything to do with removing the land from anything having to do with being Palestinian, removing the land and the people of Palestine, removing the historical connection to the land – that’s what the occupation is and I think that this is missing a lot from the media here.

JY: Dr Mona, many listeners here cannot possibly imagine what it is like to lose one’s home, one’s property, one’s trees, ones olives, one’s citrus - and we wondered … we know that you personally have suffered a loss like that in 2001 when your family home was destroyed. Could you just talk a little bit about that?

M-El-F: ... It is not easy for me to talk about it ... because (…I am ... very distressed). OK, then I will try to talk about it.

JY: I know that it’s very emotional for you.

M-El-F: It is very emotional. It is very emotional although it is now nearly three years.

When you lose your home, your agricultural land… I mean, it is hard to lose life but to see trees that have been uprooted, trees that have been there for 120 years, a tree that held all of your memories there… Something I would like to stress here – it is not the physical loss: it is the sentimental and the emotional. And the Israelis want to deal with us as numbers, as people who don’t have even the least human feelings for losing something sentimental, something emotional. It is a difficult experience, I’ll tell you. It was very difficult for my mother – because it was my mother’s home. It was my childhood home. When you lose your home, you lose your identity, your roots – this…I don’t know exactly how to find the words to say it… they are dealing with us as occupation and I feel sometimes they are dealing with us like animals. We don’t have the right to feel, to experience memories – the basic needs… (at this point Dr Mona broke down…and said) - I’m sorry about it but I can’t go more with this story - but I had this experience and it was a very traumatic experience for me and for my family. And whenever I go there now and see the area – it is difficult for me to even get there (ed– possible only on dangerous rural by-ways on which you can be shot on sight) - we are not allowed to step a foot there -it was not only the home, it was the water well, it was about 40 dunums of very fruitful agricultural land.

It was not only my family – it was 26 families in the area whose homes were demolished and this was the only the first wave of the home demolitions – it happened in Abu Holi Area in the middle of Gaza: this was the beginning. I remember something about this: 10 days after what happened I wanted to go there, I wanted to go there and to see what happened. After 9 days (because nobody was allowed before) I tried, and I remember the soldiers coming to me and shooting over my head – I was just trying to see, to feel that it is real – that nothing will be the same again. And there was shooting above my head, and I was not allowed to set foot on my home – until this moment too, I am not allowed to reach there.

It got worse after this – that was only 26 houses but now we are talking about at least 3,000 homes that have been completely destroyed here since the destruction of the Intifada and that they are going on with this process is, I believe, because the international community is silent, completely silent. And I believe another thing, that Israel has the full support of the United States of America to do this, otherwise they couldn’t do it - they have the support, they have the green light to do this with the support of the United States and here the role of the ordinary American people is crucial – people who refuse to see any injustice inflicted on other entire nations, like what’s happening in Palestine and in Iraq. It is the responsibility of the American people to raise their voice and to say - no, enough of this: it is not for the USA (government) to support such actions by the Israeli occupation.

[nizamuddin]

(5)

JM: Dr Mona, if I might, I just want to quote from a letter that I found that you had written after the loss of your family home, so I hope you will permit me to do this.

M-El-F: Yes, please do, of course. I feel very emotional about this.

JM: Of course! You wrote, Dr Mona -

“The world is always willing to blame the victim, the Palestinians. However, I will not lose faith. During these difficult moments, I remember a very touching poem, written by the most gifted Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish:

‘I came back from the dead, To live

I represent an uncompromising wound,

The brutality of my executor has taught me,

To bite the bullet,

And carry on,

And sing,

I will sing,

I will resist,

I will resist.’”

I wanted to read that, Dr Mona, because I found it very powerful and moving and I would like to thank you so very much for talking to us on Pacifica Radio today. It has been a great pleasure to hear your voice.



M-El-F: Thanks! Thank You.



JGh: And I would just like to thank you also, Dr Mona. We miss you very, very much and I hope to see you soon in Gaza, insha’Allah.



M-El-F: Yes; Thanks. I have something to add – Remind the world - where there is occupation there is Resistance.

People resist if there is occupation. If there is injustice people will continue to resist - And this is my message.


(Ed: Resistance to illegal occupation is legal under the Geneva Convention and UN Resolution 31/34 of 30 November 1976, as well as the Geneva Declaration on Terrorism, 29 May 1987).


And just I would like to add – Professor Ghannam emphasised the ability of Palestinian people to resist –


Yes, there is ability to resist! We are all helping each other There is such social solidarity among us - the Palestinians. But I am afraid and I am warning that the resources -with this continuous aggression against us -
might become exhausted (and then what).



We are talking about four continuous years (of murder, massacre, mayhem and mindless destruction – ed) and fifty-seven long years before.



Thank you very much – and it was a pleasure to be with you on this program.



JM: Thank you very much Dr Mona El-Farra, Deputy Director of the Union of Health Workers Committees. And we also thank you, Dr Jess Ghannam, Board Member of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco. Thank you so much for being with us.



JGh: It was my pleasure.

________________

*Visit www.me-radio.org to hear this complete interview, to view photographs, to learn more about the siege of Gaza, and to find links and further information about the work of Dr Mona El-Farra and Professor Jess Ghannam.

Contact Johayna and John regarding this interview at: [e-mail]

[Sweet Madinah]

The Methods of Israel's Policy: State Terrorism

It is true, that the triumvirate that directs the Zionist Policy of Israel today is a triumvirate of war criminals. Begin's Defence Minister, General Ariel Sharon, at that time Number Two in the Government and the executioner of Lebanon, also has a record which illuminates his present activity. He it was who was given by Moshe Dayan in August 1953 the task of creating and commanding "Unit 101", with responsibility for carrying out reprisals on Arab frontier villages, so as to spread terror and promote the departure of the non-Jewish population, in fulfilment of the first requirement of the doctrine of political Zionism. Sharon and his commandos launched their first raid at Qibya, a small Palestinian village in Jordan, during the night of 14-15 October 1953: 66 of the inhabitants were massacred, three-quarters of them women and children. In their report to the Security Council the U.N. military observers who reached Qibya two hours later testified:

"Bullet-riddled bodies near the doorways and multiple bullet-hits on the doors of the demolished houses indicate that the inhabitants had been forced to remain inside until their houses were blown up over them ... Witnesses were uniform in describing their experiences as a night of horror, during which the Israeli soldiers moved about in their village blowing up buildings, firing into doorways and windows with automatic weapons and throwing hand-grenades."

Among the provocative acts which preceded the first war in Sinai, the massacres at Khan Yunis and Bani Suheila, in Egyptian territory, during the night of 31 August 1955, were directed by Sharon in person, and he also led the "punitive" raids into Syrian territory on the eastern shore of Lake Tiberias, an action condemned on January 1956 by the Security Council of the United Nations.


During the 1967 war Sharon commanded that part of the army which attacked in Sinai. He is personally responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Egyptian Soldiers whom he refused to take prisoner in the last days of the campaign, Dayan's order being: "Take no prisoners, but destroy the Egyptian forces in Sinai".

On 26 July 1973 Ariel Sharon wrote in Yediot Aharonot: "Israel is now a military super-power ... All the forces of the European countries are weaker than ours. Israel could conquer in one week the whole area from Khartoum to Baghdad and Algeria." As Defence Minister he had Nuclear Missiles at his disposal which would have enabled him to put into effect that boast.

It was Ariel Sharon who, in an interview, boasted of his crimes:

We must hit, hit and hit them incessantly. We must hit them everywhere: in the country, in the Arab States and overseas. It can be done. In this matter I have already seen hopeless situations that have found a solution. We must not act against them after they hit us, but every day and everywhere. If I know they are in a certain country in Europe, we must do it despite all the difficulties and limitations. Not by means of a large-scale war. Suddenly someone disappears there, someone is found dead here and somewhere else someone is found stabbed to death in a European night club."

[islamispeace]

It was Ariel Sharon who, in an interview, boasted of his crimes:

We must hit, hit and hit them incessantly. We must hit them everywhere: in the country, in the Arab States and overseas. It can be done. In this matter I have already seen hopeless situations that have found a solution. We must not act against them after they hit us, but every day and everywhere. If I know they are in a certain country in Europe, we must do it despite all the difficulties and limitations. Not by means of a large-scale war. Suddenly someone disappears there, someone is found dead here and somewhere else someone is found stabbed to death in a European night club."

..... AND THE WORLD LOOKS AWAY AND TURNS A BLIND EYE, BUT THIS IS THEIR HEAVEN!

THE SHAHEED WILL RISE AGAIN IN JANNAH

[zahidali]

zionism is terroirsm