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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/kelly01202009.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/kelly01202009.html<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000">January 20,
2009<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>A Report from
Gaza <br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">The
Strongest Weapon of All
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By KATHY
KELLY<br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2><i>Gaza City. <br><br>
</i></font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">D</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>r. Atallah Tarazi, a General Surgeon at Gaza
City’s Shifaa Hospital, invited us to meet him in his home, in Gaza City,
just a few blocks away from the Shifaa Hospital. <br>
<br>
Early this morning, he and his family returned to their home after having
fled five days earlier when the bombing attacks on Gaza City had become
so fierce that they feared for their lives. “Believe me, when I
would drive from the hospital to the place where my family was staying, I
prayed all the way,” said Dr. Tarazi, “because the Israelis would shoot
anyone on the roads at night.”<br>
<br>
Dr. Tarzi has been practicing medicine as a General Surgeon all of his
adult life. Now, at age 61, he says he has never seen such terrible
and ugly wounds as he saw during the past three weeks when he and a
surgical team tried to help numerous patients with broken limbs, shrapnel
wounds, and severe burns. Neurosurgeons, vascular surgeons,
orthopedic and general surgeons worked together on patients, as a team,
trying to save them, but there were many whose lives they couldn’t
save. He described patients with shrapnel wounds in their eyes,
faces, chests, and abdomens, patients whose legs were amputated above the
lower limbs. Most, he said, were civilians. <br>
<br>
“These are strange ways of destroying the human body,” said Dr. Tarazi.
“Please, come tomorrow to the Burn Unit, and you will see patients
suffering from the use of white phosphorous.”<br>
<br>
Dr. Tarazi said that he began to understand the extent of the trauma and
danger by listening to the stories of wounded and injured patients.
<br>
<br>
“Some were sitting in their houses when a tank bomb hit them. They
didn’t know what happened to them,” said Dr. Attalah. “Survivors
would reach the hospital after many of their relatives had been
killed.” <br>
<br>
Patients from Beit Lahia told him that in one home, an extended family of
25 people had been attacked while inside their home. When relatives
came to help them, Israeli snipers shot eight of them. Many of the
wounded were left to die. Ambulances and Red Cross relief workers
weren’t allowed to enter the area. <br>
<br>
At one point, Israel announced a lull in the fighting, but then bombed
the Palestine Square, near the municipal offices. Four people came
to the hospital, severely injured. “We couldn’t save them,” said
Dr. Tarazi. “Seven others were injured, and they survived.”
<br>
<br>
“In Gaza City, all of the important buildings necessary for maintaining a
city have been bombed,” said Dr. Tarazi. “From ministries to
civilian police stations, all have been destroyed. Some were Hamas
buildings, but not all.”<br>
<br>
We had just walked through the area where the buildings housing
ministries of justice, education, and culture were completely
destroyed. Driving into Gaza City we saw mosques, factories, houses
and schools reduced to rubble. We asked Dr. Tarazi to tell us why, in his
opinion, the Israelis had attacked Gaza so fiercely.<br><br>
He believes that the attacks are essentially irrational but that a main
cause for the timing and the magnitude of these attacks is that certain
Israeli candidates for upcoming elections want to assure the Israeli
public that they are willing to use military force to insure security for
Israelis. “Palestinians all the time pay the taxes in blood,” said
Dr. Tarazi. <br>
<br>
“One of the worst aspects of this war,” says Dr. Tarazi, “is the lack of
respect for the UN. Three United Nations Relief and Works Agency
(UNRWA) schools were bombed. In Jabaliyah, more than 45 people were
killed at a UN school; F16s bombed UNRWA supplies and stores.”<br>
<br>
“In Shifaa Hospital, we saw plumes of smoke for day and night. All Gaza,
every day, was covered with smoke and chemicals. We don’t know how
it affects the health.”<br>
<br>
“Yes, 'rocklets' did go out,” says Dr. Tarazi, referring to Hamas rockets
fired into Israeli towns, “and we felt sympathy for any Israelis hurt by
the rocklets. But, if someone hurts you with a pin, you don’t cut
off his head. You ask WHY the person tried to prick you with a pin.
Consider that people here are trapped in a prison and there is a shortage
of everything. No one can repair anything. People wanted
borders opened so that goods could come and go. After six months of
closed borders, people are frustrated. Now, one side declares a
cease fire, they say nothing about opening the borders, nothing about
withdrawal, and yet they want NATO to help tighten the siege.”
<br>
<br>
“I hope President Obama will be much better than George Bush
concerning these things,” said Dr. Tarazi. “Human beings that have
such a strong army should be civilized and not behave like a terrorist
group. Fanatics can be expected to use terror, but a democratic
state shouldn’t use fallacious statements as an excuse for massive
killing. A state which does this should be brought before an
International Court of Justice.”<br>
<br>
“And yet,” he said, “we must experiment with ways of love. We are trying,
with Jewish people…by feelings and actions. We need to
succeed. We need to live together. We are trying to be in
good relations with all the partners, all the views.”
<br>
<br>
“The strongest weapon all over the world is love,” says Dr. Tarazi,
adding that he has always believed this and has said this to his
colleagues, whether Muslim, Christian or Jewish, throughout his
career. He recalled declaring this same belief at the Eretz border
crossing, shortly after the Israelis launched “Operation Cast
Lead.” He had been among the 200 Christians who were chosen (800
had applied) to cross the border and celebrate the Orthodox Christmas
holiday with family members in the West Bank. When the attacks began, he
ended his holiday and hurried to the border, knowing he must return to
his work and his family. At the border crossing, he greeted
soldiers, “Merry Christmas.” Soldiers answered, “Do you have
weapons?” “Yes,” Dr. Tarazi replied, “I have the strongest weapon
of all, the weapon of love.” <br>
<br>
<b>Kathy Kelly</b> is a co-coordinator of
<a href="http://www.vcnv.org/">Voices for Creative Nonviolence</a>. She
has refused to pay all forms of federal income tax since 1980. She is the
author of
<a href="http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/CounterPunch_Books.html">
Other Lands Have Dreams</a>, published by AK / CounterPunch Press. She
can be reached at
<a href="mailto:kathy@vcnv.org">kathy@vcnv.org</a><br><br>
<br><br>
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