[News] Why I vowed not to have children in Gaza

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  Why I vowed not to have children in Gaza

Omar Ghraieb <http://electronicintifada.net/people/omar-ghraieb>
*http://electronicintifada.net/content/why-i-vowed-not-have-children-gaza/13614* 

22 July 2014

Israel said the ground invasion into Gaza 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gazaunderattack> would be limited, 
which makes you think that the tanks would only advance a few meters in. 
That was the case for the first two days. Little did we know that Israel 
planned widespread ethnic cleansing 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/ethnic-cleansing> and massacres. 
Israel's goal was to wipe out an area, and the people who reside in it too.

Things started escalating at around 10 pm on Saturday. Israeli drones 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/drones> swooped down lower and 
started buzzing loudly. Tanks advanced. Apache helicopters and F-16 
warplanes bombed and also provided cover. And then, the eastern Gaza 
City <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza-city> neighborhood of 
Shujaiya <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/shujaiya> started getting 
hit hard.

Non-stop shelling. I heard it all from my house. I couldn't even keep up 
with the number of explosions and artillery rounds.

Hundreds and hundreds of families evacuated, leaving their homes and 
lives behind, seeking refuge in any calmer place, even though nowhere is 
safe in Gaza.

They walked in the streets, holding nothing but their kids, trying to 
escape death. Some even climbed into the shovel of a bulldozer. Many 
were just wandering in the streets with no destination in mind or 
nowhere to go.


    Huge ball of fire

Many ended up gathering at al-Shifa Hospital 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-shifa-hospital>, only to see the 
bodies of their relatives, neighbors and friends arrive.

I don't know how to describe that night. I am at loss for words and out 
of breath. Gaza looked like a huge ball of fire as Shujaiya was being 
burned.

All of Gaza was under darkness. Power outages have reached twenty hours 
per day, or even more. We could hear the merciless attacks on Shujaiya, 
people screaming and fires burning.

All we had was a radio to let us know what we already knew but wanted to 
deny. We kept holding onto the last thread of hope until we had to face 
the truth: the people of Shujaiya were being butchered.

Every night we count down the hours, waiting for dawn to start breaking 
through, lighting up the sky and pumping Gaza with sun. But not that 
night. We were hoping the sun would take its time so we could delay 
seeing what the light would reveal.

We expected what had happened, but what the light showed was beyond 
devastation.


    Beyond natural

We couldn't recognize Shujaiya. It was like a tsunami of bullets had 
struck the area. Or a blazing earthquake. Something natural but 
disastrous. But what really happened was beyond nature or even humanity. 
It was like the 1948 Nakba <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/nakba> 
all over again, with scenes similar to the 1982 Sabra and Shatila 
massacre 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/sabra-and-shatila-massacre>. There 
were flashbacks to the Cast Lead massacre 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/operation-cast-lead> of 
five-and-a-half years ago, too.


    civilians-flee-shujaiya-ashraf-amra.jpg
    <http://electronicintifada.net/sites/electronicintifada.net/files/civilians-flee-shujaiya-ashraf-amra.jpg>

Civilians flee from Gaza City's eastern Shujaiya neighborhood, on 20 
July, where more than 70 people were killed and hundreds injured by 
Israeli shelling. (Ashraf Amra 
<http://electronicintifada.net/people/ashraf-amra> / APA images 
<http://electronicintifada.net/people/apa-images>)

The Red Cross 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/international-committee-red-cross> 
proposed a humanitarian ceasefire in Shujaiya so that medics could pull 
out the dozens of dead and hundreds of injured. Israel refused the 
ceasefire at first, then accepted it, and then broke it by bombing the 
area and opening fire on medics and ambulances 
<http://palsolidarity.org/2014/07/human-rights-defenders-under-live-fire-one-dead/>.

Medics managed to pull out seventy-two dead Palestinians, their bodies 
splayed across the streets. More than four hundred injured people were 
taken to the hospital. Medics say that the numbers of the dead and 
injured may increase dramatically.

International and local journalists, medics and doctors were crying in 
pure disbelief. They reported seeing a massacre that can't be unseen.

I guess we are all scarred for the rest of our lives.

Pictures of devastation and destruction were circulating from that 
morning on. But what was very painful, to the extent that I stopped 
breathing, are the pictures of parents carrying their dead and injured 
children while they wept in a way that could move mountains.

When will Palestinians be recognized as people? As humans? As civilians?

When will our children have human rights and be safe?


    Self defense?

Can you imagine the devastation of a father who is holding his child 
dead in his hands? Can you imagine his loss? And how ashamed and guilty 
he feels for not being able to protect his child?

That's why I vowed to never, ever to have children here. I will not 
bring them to this world and fail to protect them. I will not watch my 
children die. It is too painful watching other children die and their 
parents weep; I can't handle going through it myself.

How could the world consider wiping out a whole area and its residents 
as "self defense" and "righteous"? How can children be considered 
"militants" and "terrorists"?

The mosque nearby started calling for a donation campaign, only to make 
me feel more powerless. What can you give to those who lost their loved 
ones, their houses and a life they once knew?

I wished I could give them my heart or ease their pain in any way, but I 
couldn't, so I joined a trivial donations campaign. How can money or 
material things ever make up for the loss of your child?

I spent hours feeling numb, paralyzed, breathless and stunned. I 
couldn't shed a tear.

And then, tears started flowing. So abundantly. They were very hot, and 
burned my cheeks.

On Tuesday, the Gaza-based Ministry of Health said 
<http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=715340> that more than 600 
Palestinians have been killed and 3,700 injured since the beginning of 
Israel's ongoing offensive against the besieged Gaza Strip, including 
the 72 killed and 400 injured in the Shujaiya massacre.

People were showered with tank shells while they slept at home in their 
beds. People either fled or died under the rubble.


    Farewell to humanity

As I bid farewell to my humanity and soul today, and mourn them, I bid 
farewell to the dead Arab nation and Arab leaders, but without mourning. 
Human rights organizations, as well --- I bid them farewell; they have 
always failed to protect human rights. Reports and documents do not 
protect innocent children.

I also bid farewell to all aid agencies in Gaza, for using the blood of 
Palestinians as a propaganda stunt to collect millions in "donations." I 
bid farewell to international humanity.

/Omar Ghraieb is a journalist and blogger from Gaza. His blog is 
gazatimes.blogspot.com <http://www.gazatimes.blogspot.com>, and you can 
follow him on Twitter @Omar_Gaza <https://twitter.com/Omar_Gaza>./

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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