Beit Hannoun
I am so upset. I want to write to get some of it out, so that maybe I can redirect it into something positive.
At the library this afternoon, I read about 24 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military yesterday throughout Gaza and the West Bank; 19 civilians were killed in a single attack in the town of Beit Hanoun in Gaza. Israeli artillery shelled Beit Hanoun at dawn, hitting six homes as the inhabitants slept. When one family’s home was hit, the family members fled from their house and sought shelter in an alley, huddling together. Another shell killed them.
The Fort Collins Coloradoan reported on these killings in Gaza on page A-7, the last interior page, under the “World” category of quick little paragraphs from around the globe. The headline is “Hamas Calls Off Ceasefire.” Why is the title not “19 Civilians Killed by Israel in Gaza”? Why is this article just a few sentences and stuck away on the last page? There was no mention of the numerous testimonies of ambulances and medical teams being fired upon by the Israeli military. The article did not even mention the more than 50 people wounded in the dawn attack on Beit Hanoun or give any account of Operation Autumn Clouds, as the Israeli government calls the newest attacks. In Operation Autumn Clouds, which began on the first of November, more than 80 Palestinians have been killed and at least 250 wounded. More than 440 Palestinians have been killed since July. A few days ago, a group of schoolchildren was hit by a missile from a jet; one boy was killed and a teacher lost her arm. On November 3, two EMTs with the Palestinian Red Crescent were shot and killed while trying to evacuate another victim of Israeli fire in Beit Lahia.
I do not believe in hierarchies of suffering. Comparisons of pain and tragedy do not bring resolution or healing. But silence supports atrocities.
And now there will be more bloodshed and death. It is so horribly sad.
This morning, I read an email from a friend who lives in Askar, a refugee camp in the West Bank. He told me that the situation is constantly getting worse. He mentioned killings, homelessness from house demolitions, and lack of salaries because of a completely bankrupt government (almost all foreign aid being withheld). He thanked me for the Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen songs that I left him when I was there last year. He said he’s still playing the guitar and it is his only weapon in life. He told me, “I will keep rocking in a free world and you should keep rocking too and you should be like the right guitar and the right voice without fear of anyone even if it was your own government of U.S.”
So, I have to say this now: The United States government is criminal. It is criminal to continuously support, politically and economically, this violent and inhumane occupation; to support a wall that takes land and farms and water, that separates friends and neighbors and communities; to support an ongoing campaign of indiscriminate violence and killing; to support daily humiliations; to support a government that keeps an entire group of people from having hopes and dreams.
I feel around me, in this town and this country, an air of relief and satisfaction now after the elections, this sense that ‘Ah, finally things are okay again’. But things are not okay;
meaningful change will not be brought about by the Democrat Party being in power. Substitution and rotation are not change. In the U.S. system of capitalist hierarchy, imperialism, and “free” trade, foreign policies are virtually indistinguishable from one party to the next. This is particularly true concerning the occupation of Palestine.
Again, the U.S. government is criminal. I do not support its actions or its policies of death, imperialism, and corporate power. Many of us will fight against these policies and help to create alternatives to the systems now in place. We must create change through transformation—of our daily lives, our relationships, and our actions. Our very lives must be the revolution. We all need to have the right guitar and the right voice and fear no one.
At the library this afternoon, I read about 24 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military yesterday throughout Gaza and the West Bank; 19 civilians were killed in a single attack in the town of Beit Hanoun in Gaza. Israeli artillery shelled Beit Hanoun at dawn, hitting six homes as the inhabitants slept. When one family’s home was hit, the family members fled from their house and sought shelter in an alley, huddling together. Another shell killed them.
The Fort Collins Coloradoan reported on these killings in Gaza on page A-7, the last interior page, under the “World” category of quick little paragraphs from around the globe. The headline is “Hamas Calls Off Ceasefire.” Why is the title not “19 Civilians Killed by Israel in Gaza”? Why is this article just a few sentences and stuck away on the last page? There was no mention of the numerous testimonies of ambulances and medical teams being fired upon by the Israeli military. The article did not even mention the more than 50 people wounded in the dawn attack on Beit Hanoun or give any account of Operation Autumn Clouds, as the Israeli government calls the newest attacks. In Operation Autumn Clouds, which began on the first of November, more than 80 Palestinians have been killed and at least 250 wounded. More than 440 Palestinians have been killed since July. A few days ago, a group of schoolchildren was hit by a missile from a jet; one boy was killed and a teacher lost her arm. On November 3, two EMTs with the Palestinian Red Crescent were shot and killed while trying to evacuate another victim of Israeli fire in Beit Lahia.
I do not believe in hierarchies of suffering. Comparisons of pain and tragedy do not bring resolution or healing. But silence supports atrocities.
And now there will be more bloodshed and death. It is so horribly sad.
This morning, I read an email from a friend who lives in Askar, a refugee camp in the West Bank. He told me that the situation is constantly getting worse. He mentioned killings, homelessness from house demolitions, and lack of salaries because of a completely bankrupt government (almost all foreign aid being withheld). He thanked me for the Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen songs that I left him when I was there last year. He said he’s still playing the guitar and it is his only weapon in life. He told me, “I will keep rocking in a free world and you should keep rocking too and you should be like the right guitar and the right voice without fear of anyone even if it was your own government of U.S.”
So, I have to say this now: The United States government is criminal. It is criminal to continuously support, politically and economically, this violent and inhumane occupation; to support a wall that takes land and farms and water, that separates friends and neighbors and communities; to support an ongoing campaign of indiscriminate violence and killing; to support daily humiliations; to support a government that keeps an entire group of people from having hopes and dreams.
I feel around me, in this town and this country, an air of relief and satisfaction now after the elections, this sense that ‘Ah, finally things are okay again’. But things are not okay;
meaningful change will not be brought about by the Democrat Party being in power. Substitution and rotation are not change. In the U.S. system of capitalist hierarchy, imperialism, and “free” trade, foreign policies are virtually indistinguishable from one party to the next. This is particularly true concerning the occupation of Palestine.
Again, the U.S. government is criminal. I do not support its actions or its policies of death, imperialism, and corporate power. Many of us will fight against these policies and help to create alternatives to the systems now in place. We must create change through transformation—of our daily lives, our relationships, and our actions. Our very lives must be the revolution. We all need to have the right guitar and the right voice and fear no one.
posted by matt iv at 10:57 PM
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