sat 9 dec
Hadiya Nassar (born 1944) was killed outside her front door in Gaza today by Israeli sniper. She was older than Israel.
Assassinating those who make their voice heard above the ‘hasbara’ (propaganda) attempting to justify the unjustifiable.
The US has blocked a UN Security Council demand for humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The US vetoes this call and the UK abstains. Who vetoes or abstains on ending a genocide? US and UK arms sales and shipments continue.
Save the Children place a blue plaque outside the Houses of Parliament:
‘History will not forget inaction. THE UK GOVERNMENT failed to call for a lasting ceasefire.’
But the failure is more than that. A complicity that corrupts. “Our arms export system is based on the principle of avoiding the risk of UK weapons being used to commit serious violations of international law - which is what we have in spades with Israel’s welter of indiscriminate attacks in Gaza. With every weapon and every piece of military kit the UK sends to the Israeli war machine, the UK is deepening its complicity in Israel’s war crimes in Gaza. Enough is enough - we need to stop the flow of UK arms, push for a sustained ceasefire and help bring the carnage in Gaza to an end.” Sacha Deshmukh,Amnestry International UK’s chief exec.
Dr Ben Johnson. North American Medical Doctors states “We are reaching the point of no return. Where blatant disregard for international humanitarian law scars our collective consciousness.’
No. Return.
No. This is not like defeating the Nazis by bombing Dresden.
No. This is not like fighting Isis.
No. This is not about capturing/destroying Hamas.
No. This is not about targeted military attacks.
No. This is not about rescuing hostages.
No. This is not self-defence.
No. This is not a war.
This is a rogue state getting away with continued and intensifying crimes against humanity with impunity, backed up by the US, UK and EU, given cover and excuse by western media and the constant refrain of antisemitism levelled at anyone standing against this.
Netanyahu declares ‘when the international court investigates Israel it is pure antisemitism.’
No. it is not.
The ominous wail of sirens reverberates across the Spanish city of Guernica – calling out for the first time in 86 years in solidarity with Gaza. In 1937 the Nazis carpet bombed the Basque city killing 16,000 people. Hundreds of people wore the colours of the Palestinian flag to create a symbolic human mosaic - A protest and parallelism to the genocide happening today. In the UK the Met police would arrest them for making this equivalence. Calling out a genocide happening in front of our eyes is not antisemitic.
Poet scholar Rafaat Alareer was murdered today. - founder of ‘We Are Not Numbers’ organising English writing courses for young Palestinians in Gaza, writer and editor of ‘Gaza writes back’, ‘Gaza Unsilenced’ and ‘Light in Gaza: Writings born of Fire’ - imagining the future of Gaza beyond occupation and apartheid and committed to breaking the ‘intellectual blockade.’ Publishers Comma Press write - ‘live by the pen, die by the pen. He did both. Murdered for his words. We are heartbroken.’
Assassinating those who make their voice heard.
The words of his last poem have been translated into languages from Macedonian to Mandarin. These words appear scratched into New York subway walls and read out and written on placards at marches for ceasefire. Proof that, as he said “writing is a testimony, a memory that outlives any human experience and an obligation to communicate with ourselves and with the world. We lived for a reason - to tell the stories of survival, of loss and of hope.’
If I must die
You must live
To tell my story
To sell my things
To buy a piece of cloth
And some strings
(make it white with a long tail)
So that a child, somewhere in Gaza
While looking heaven in the eye
Awaiting his Dad who left in a blaze-
And bid no farewell
Not even to his flesh
Not even to himself –
Sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up
Above
And thinks for a moment of an angel there
Bringing back love
If I must die
Let it bring hope
Let it be a tale
There is a vigil outside Downing street. Bring kites and candles. And they do. Light and flight. Illumination and freedom. Kites have flown for generations above the skies of Gaza, a tradition of kite making passed down through families - a pastime, expression of hope and act of defiance. Airborn firestarters defying walls and borders. Kites as weapons thwarting the iron dome. Kites inscribed with messages. Paper resistance shot out of the sky.
A 2014 documentary ‘‘Flying Paper’ by Nitin Sawhney and Roger Glenn Hill charts Gazan children’s preparations for the UN organised Kite festival and a bid for the Guinness book of records for the most kites flying together. The children recount traumatic memories of the 2009 ‘Operation Cast Lead’ – a weight of experience the opposite of flight. “When I fly it, I feel like I’m raising my country and my flag up, up in the sky.” – Rawia, 11. “I feel like I have rights and that I’m like everyone else in the world.” Nadia. 13. Rising up. Dreaming of freedom.
