Letter from One Mother to Another (Palestinian to Israeli)

Update: click here to read the BBC update from both mothers.

Thanks Sharaf. This was worth an immediate post, as is, with out any commentary:

A letter from a mother in Gaza to a mother in Sderot.
Najwa Sheikh writing from occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 13 March 2008

I spoke with him a little, but when he sees me he begins to cry ... the situation in Sderot in general is very difficult, and I do not know how we can continue, how we can stay in the city.
- Sderot resident Rima Haimov, whose ten-year-old son Yossi was wounded by a Qassam rocket. ("Doctors save hand of Sderot boy hurt by Qassam; 4 Palestinians killed in Gaza," Haaretz, 26 February 2008)

Dear Rima Haimov,

When I read your words the only thing I can say is that I feel sorry for your son, and that I can understand you as a mother and the traumatic events that your child is experiencing. I cannot deny the fact that life becomes very difficult in such circumstances when you realize that you and your family are in danger at any moment; I fully understand your worries, your feelings and concerns. I am addressing this letter to you with the hope that you will understand my pain too.

Like I feel sorry for your son, I feel sorry for my Palestinian children who are born and will die in Gaza, unable to have the chance of seeing other worlds, and who have to face F-16s, Apache helicopters and the Israeli army's brutal invasions into Gaza. However, my children are not fortunate enough to have the excellent medical care that your son has. My children do not have the chance to run to a shelter and there is no alarm to tell them that there is a strike coming. My children cannot be guaranteed the love and care that your son found because all of their family might be killed in one strike, they might witness the death of their parents, or any of their dear family members as the Palestinians are targeted everywhere, even in their homes and among their children.

My children cannot find the counseling that your child will have to help him deal with his appalling experience. They have to keep their pain inside them, and recall it day after day. Even in their dreams they suffer from remembering the things they have witnessed.

My children are not children anymore; they lost their innocence and are forced to act like adults so they can protect themselves. They no longer cry to their parents because they realize that even adults are scared and also need comfort and security. Instead they swallow their pain and deal with it on their own.

When your child is sick or injured he has the chance to go to the best hospitals to receive treatment while my children have to live with their pain and injuries because they cannot go to a good hospital like you have in Israel. In Gaza, they can only wait for the pain to pass or count the days waiting for the end. They have learned how to face death fearlessly, because they hope to find justice and a better life in heaven.

While your child enjoys his new schoolbooks, my children have to use old, disreputable books because the borders are closed and even schoolbooks cannot be brought in.

My children have to face the extreme temperatures because of the electricity cuts. They cannot enjoy sitting in front of the electric heater in winter or the fan in summer. While you as a mother can plan for your child's future, I cannot because my child is locked in a prison called Gaza, and he cannot dream of having the chance to receive a better education and work outside of Gaza.

While you as a mother can give your child all the promises of a better life, I can not give my child these guarantees, simply because we are both eligible to die in any moment by an Israeli strike, without any plans, dreams, nothing.

After all of this do you think that my children deserve their pain only because they are born to Palestinian parents? Do you think it is fair that they are treated in this way? Is it fair to be subjected to the sanctions that your government has imposed on us? I hope you can understand my pain too.

Sincerely,
Najwa Sheikh

Najwa Sheikh is a Palestinian refugee from al-Majdal located just north of the Gaza Strip. Shiekh has lived in refugee camps in Gaza her entire life where she is married and has three children.

Dedicated to All Students Fighting For Justice

This week, many universities will see their Muslim Student Associations, Arab Student Unions, Students for Justice and Peace, International Solidarity Associations, etc. hosting events dedicated to exposing the injustices that are occurring on a daily basis to Palestinians and Arab Israelis at the hands of a theo-democracy aided and supported unconditionally by the United States government.

There will be lectures by intellectuals from all different ethnic and religious backgrounds speaking out for justice, for fairness, for equality, for humanity.

There will be supporters from all different groups, religious and non-religious, who believe that all people, no matter what their faith tradition, ethnic background, political preferences, or physical features, should be treated as humans. They will urge their classmates to listen to the message of tolerance, equality, and respect.

There will also be protestors – Zionists who believe that the “Holy Land” is the birthright of the Jewish population and that Israel, as a nation, has a right, not only to exist, but to expel non-Jews, namely Muslim and Christian Palestinians from their homes and establish settlements that have been deemed by the international legal community to be illegal.

These protestors don’t see Palestinians as human beings, with families, birthdays, soccer balls, toys, goals, aspirations, first loves, favorite ice cream flavors, glowing smiles, memories, family photos, keepsakes, role models, corner markets, tea cups and saucers, music and dancing, shining eyes.

They dehumanize the Palestinians, take away their dignity and their dreams, take away their history and their future, take away their education and their careers and their families and turn them into animals, unfeeling, spiteful, hateful, barbaric, vicious, as if every Palestinian who has ever walked the face of the earth is a slobbering, rabid dog, destined to attack, feared, loathed, spat upon, abandoned and left to wander and die.

This is the way with all supporters of injustice. They are all the same, no matter who they are persecuting. This is not just unique to the Palestinians. The Native Americans were savages, as were the Africans. The Asians were mysterious and sly, conspiring and not to be trusted. The Italians, the Irish, the Eastern Europeans, the Russians, the Aboriginees, the Hispanics. They have ALL been dehumanized.

The Jewish population has also been stripped of their humanity in the past. After the Holocaust, however, the Jewish population made sure that they would not fall prey to oppression ever again. They remind us in magazine advertisements, in lobbyist groups, in the creation of the Anti-Defamation League, in Holocaust Remembrance Day. They remind us of their humanity, of their daily suffering at the hands of brutal oppressors.

They remind us that the world sat by idle while they were stripped of their livelihoods, their families, birthdays, soccer balls.... In an attempt to recapture some of that humanity , members of the Jewish community around the world read the names of those who lost their lives in the Holocaust, to give their life a voice, a heartbeat, a soul.

However, their slogan, “Never Again” cannot be monopolized by the Jewish population. “NEVER AGAIN” is for us all. I pray to God that the Jewish people of this world never experience the oppression and deadly scourge of hate that they dealt with prior to and during World War II. I pray that they never experience ANY oppression or injustice at all. But they also can’t dish it out on anyone else. At all. Ever. Especially since they know what it’s like.

This week is not just about Palestinians. It’s about right and wrong. It’s about humanity. It’s about every human being given the chance to allow his heart to sing and his soul to take flight and his mind to extend past the bounds of imagination. It’s about supporting the idea that NO ONE should be able to take ANYONE’S humanity away from them, ever.

To all the students and organizations sponsoring this week’s events, I dedicate my prayers to you. You are the lights in the darkness, the beacons of hope for the future, the strength in this time of global weakness and temerity. Stand firm and never waver.

To all those who come out to show your support for justice and humanity in Palestine, I applaud you for being bold enough to stand up for what is right in a world that blurs the lines and allows hypocrisy to plague the landscape of our world and policies.

To all those who come out in protest of these events, I quote our current President, “Bring it on!” Every time you protest events that seek only justice, equality, and the freedom to live without fear, torture, terrorism, and dehumanizing policies, you show your true colors – the blackness of your soul.

Keep protesting, keep dehumanizing, keep supporting injustice – it only makes our job that much easier. To quote Eminem (wow, I’m on a role), “I’m glad cuz they feed me the fuel that I need for the fire to burn, and it’s burnin’” and we will continue to return until justice reigns supreme for all and humanity is a staple for every person on the face of the earth.

Trail of Tears, Yom Hashoah, Manzanar and the Armenian Genocide

Time passes and things happen. A friend of mine gave me a quote which I think is quite appropriate:

The best history is the history that is being made, and that is in the present.

As April comes to an end, please take the time to reflect and learn about these pivotal historical events and also remember that history is not a thing of the past but most often repeated tragic play, like an infomercial it can play on and on in the far off distant corners of the globe far away from you or me, but none the less recurring.


April 23, 1838 Trail of Tears

Ralph Waldo Emmerson writes to president Martin Van Bruen pleading him not to commit an "outrage on the Cherokee nation". In a move to try to bring the Union together and to take Georgia's claim off of western states, Harding agrees to remove the Cherokee Indians from their lands, striping the nations claim to large swaths of land. What followed was the sad forced removal of the Cherokee nation to the Kansas. It is estimated that 4000 people died during this forced trek.

In 2004, Senator Sam Brownback (Republican of Kansas) introduced a joint resolution (Senate Joint Resolution 37) to "offer an apology to all Native Peoples on behalf of the United States" for past "ill-conceived policies by the United States Government regarding Indian Tribes." The United States Senate has yet to take action on the measure.

There were many other forced migrations of and you can read them at wikipedia.

April 27, 1942 Internment of Japanese Americans

Quite similar to the times we live in today, where Glenn Beck on CNN discussed how "a year from now 'American Muslims' will be staring back at us from behind barbed wire fences" tirade. I encourage other interested people of conciseness to join me in visiting Manzanar the site of one of the internment camps this coming weekend. You can read more here or on Hussam Ayloush's website.


April 24, 1915 Armenian Genocide

On the night of April 24, 1915 the Turkish Ottoman government ordered a swift order to arrest 250 key Armenian leaders. This would begin the spiral of what is argued to be the Armenian Genocide. Present day Turkey refuses to acknowledge it as genocide along with the US.

This was followed by the May 14 law that required the forced deportation of Armenians from the border of Turkey and Russia. The law and the genocide came from a historical animosity displayed by the Ottoman Turks toward the Armenians. However, in this situation Ottomans being at war with Russia and the allies- on the side of Germany- the Armenians were considered a 5th column and a danger to the war time efforts, all of which occurred after one of the most devastating losses to the Turkish army against the Russians near Baku.

It is estimated that 600,000 to 800,000 ethnic Armenians were killed in the camps, death squads, and the march through the Syrian desert. The events are quite controversial and very much in need of open and honest debate in the Muslim community. I recognize that there was a travesty done against the Armenian people, now its time to develop this in a conversation. Please check out the information at wikipedia on the genocide, however, it is not neutral and its good to develop points of reference so please share any books that are on this topic.

April 27, 1943 Yom HaShoah

The lack of a public prosecution of the organizers behind Armenian Genocide by the Allied powers was said to have largely influenced Nazi Germany's fascist leader Adolf Hitler. Among the most closest advisers and friends to the future German dictator was Scheubner-Richter, the vice-consul from Erzerum. In the aftermath of the war, Hitler and Scheubner-Richter sought to blame many of the ailing troubles Germany was suffering against the central government and Jews. Scheubner-Richter called for a "ruthless and relentless" attempt to "cleanse" the Jews out of the country. In 1923, when Hitler and his followers in the Nazi Party failed to seize power in a Munich beer hall, Scheubner-Richter was shot and killed by the police.

The extent of Hitler's knowledge of the Armenian Genocide is unclear, but he referred to their destruction several times. He first addressed their plight in 1924 and referred to them as "cowards".^[50] The most notable quote attributed to Hitler on the Armenians was in a August 1939 conference with German military commanders prior to the invasion of Poland:

“

Our strength consists in our speed and in our brutality. Genghis Khan led millions of women and children to slaughter -- with premeditation and a happy heart. History sees in him solely the founder of a state. It’s a matter of indifference to me what a weak western European civilization will say about me. I have issued the command -- and I’ll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad -- that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formation in readiness -- for the present only in the East -- with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space [Lebensraum] which we need. Who, after all, speaks to-day of the annihilation of the Armenians?

”

This quote has been fiercely contended by Turkish scholars and historians who claim that the quotation is a fabrication and does not in fact exist. Yom Hashoah is in memory to the millions who perished at the hands of this despicable man.

However, its important to remember that Anti-Zionist religious Jews do not celebrate Yom Hashoah, instead remembering the victims on days that were already days of mourning before the Holocaust, such as Tisha b'Av in the summer, and the Tenth of Tevet, in the winter. Since I stand against Zionism, I do not find myself opposed to Yom Hashoah, since the day should not be politicized, however, I think many of you doing your research might disagree with me.

While you reflect on this: American injustices, German or Turkish, please remember that its not limited to a specific group of people, that it really isn't the fault of one person or that it is an issue of how history will be written. The fact is if you go back in Muslim history you will find Timur murdering hundreds of thousands of fellow Muslims in his bloody conquests across the Muslim world, as well as the British murdering millions, or the forced slavery of millions of Africans.

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