Eyewitness Report from Barbara Lubin in Gaza (a must read)

[Zeynab]

Barbara Lubin, a Jewish American woman who founded the Middle East Children's Alliance.  She contributes to the blog "Anna's Eye-Witness Reports from Palestine" that consists of stories & photographs from a Jewish American's peacework documenting human rights abuses & supporting non-violent direct action in the West Bank with the Int'l Women's Peace Service.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Sophie's Choice

I am sitting in an internet cafe in Beirut trying to concentrate, but I just can't. There are hundreds of heartbreaking emails to read through, each one worse than the last. The carnage did not stop with the so-called "ceasefire" (I use quotations because the slow massacre of starving an entire population of basic human necessities -- sufficient food, water, medical supplies, heat -- continues). Everyday on television we watch new bodies being dug out of the rubble. And now that a few international reporters and humanitarian workers have been allowed into Gaza, we hear more of the stories that had previously been left untold.

I received the following letter written by my friend Barbara Lubin, a Jewish American woman who founded the Middle East Children's Alliance.  Her account turned my stomach:

------

January 23, 2009

Dear Aamir,
I entered the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night with my friend and fellow activist Sharon Wallace after waiting ten hours at the Egypt/Gaza border. The destruction and trauma is even greater than I expected.
...
Out of all the devastation I have seen so far, there is one story in particular that I think the world needs to hear. I met a mother who was at home with her ten children when Israeli soldiers entered the house. The soldiers told her she had to choose five of her children to "give as a gift to Israel." As she screamed in horror they repeated the demand and told her she could choose or they would choose for her. Then these soldiers murdered five of her children in front of her. The concept of "Jewish morality" is truly dead. We can be fascists, terrorists, and Nazis just like everybody else.
...
In Zaytoun, I saw families gathering wood from charred trees. The almost two-year blockade of Gaza has deprived people cooking gas, so these terrified families build fires to keep warm and cook the little food they can get. I talked to people on the street who told stories of wild dogs coming to eat their dead neighbors, relatives bleeding to death because Israel would not allow emergency workers into the area, and Israeli soldiers entering homes to beat and kill.

But despite the immense mourning and devastation, people are starting to put their lives back together. Sabreen, a young woman from Rafah, told me, "We are a strong people. No matter how many times Israel bombs us we are not leaving. We will keep trying to live as normal a life as possible."

Sincerely,

Barbara Lubin
Gaza City, Gaza, Palestine


Source:  Blog - Anna in Palestine

[Heba]

O my dear Allah! 

My head is reeling as my eyes fill up.

Indeed the world gives so much freedom to some and is so tolerant toward them.  Is this the new free world?

There's just so little one can do here but to be firm on Faith and be consoled by the inevitable - Divine Justice on the Day of Judgment.

Praise be to Allah Who leaves nothing unfinished.