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TITLE: Greetings from Gaza |
AUTHOR: Dr. Mona El-Farra |
DATE: January 26, 2001 |
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I woke up this morning to hear the shocking news of my mother's house demolition. The Israeli Buldozers demolished the water well adjacent to the house, as well as tens of houses in the area. They also uprooted vast areas of fruitful agricultural land including orange, olive and guafa groves. Many families in the area are homeless at the moment; the Red Cross supplied them lately with tents. I cannot explain to you how bad I feel; all my childhood memories, our family's proud moments when water was pumped from that well for the first time. I still remember my late father's rare photos, the minute I drank that water out of his hands. I still remember the joy, relatives, friends and neighbors coming to celebrate this moment with us. The olive, orange and guafa trees, and many other trees do not carry symbolic value only, but also they have great economical value. They are the lifelines for many families in the area. To these people, agriculture is their main and only income. Besides all that, this is a big blow to the environment. Some of the trees, especially what we call "Jummaiz" trees, are very rare species.The Israelis aim to devastate our already devastated economy, to uproot us, to destroy our culture and to deny our very existence on this land for thousands of years. It is worth mentioning that the Israeli army did not give any warning to us, or to the rest of the families, prior to the house demolitions. The houses were demolished with the furniture inside. As you know my mother lives in that house, but recently I had invited her to live temporarily with me to be able to take care of her during this difficult time. My mother feels so bad about what happened. Our thoughts are with our neighbors who are very poor and have no alternative homes. What is happening is a big violation of human rights, economy environment and peace. I feel angry, helpless, devastated and abandoned. The sad fact is that despite all these crimes against humanity, the Israelis do not care. They know that they will, once again, get away with it. The support for the Palestinians is extremely weak. 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, which was written by the most gifted Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish: I came back from the death, 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 can assure you, that one day, we will replant these trees, rebuild our houses and water will be flowing again, even stronger than before, hopefully it will wipe out in its way the horrific memories of long decades of Israeliaggression. We may be weak, but justice is on our side and one day it will prevail. END |