Barbara Lubin, a former President of the Bereley Board of Education and the Founder and Executive Director of MECA (the Middle East Children's Alliance, which lists Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Noam Chomsky, Maxine Water, Ramsey Clark and Pete Seeger among its founding advisors — I'm just telling you how classy they are), this month embarked on a humanitarian trip to help try to get necessary goods into Gaza for the needy kids there. She finally did get into Gaza, and this is the e-mail she wrote to supporters of MECA. She has a story she things the world needs to hear (see her third paragraph), and after hearing it, I can't help but agree.
Many people will find the comparison with the pivotal event in William Styron's novel Sophie's Choice chilling. The idea of forcing a mother to choose which of her children will be killed and which will be saved is an iconic example of Nazi sadism. It may not prove possible to verify that this particular incident actually happened in Gaza, and it will be easy for anybody who wants to deny it to do so. For all we know at the moment, the whole thing may even be a piece of propaganda dreamed up by Hamas to make the Israeli Stormtroopers look bad.
Oh, we already knew that the Israelis are not averse to assassinating their adversaries along with anyone unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity from 10,000 feet, or to letting the sick and the pregnant die at checkpoints through lack of medical care, or to bombing buildings crowded with refugees, or to burning old ladies and babies with white phosporus, but surely, we surmised, there are limits to the depths of their cruelty. They wouldn't actually toss a baby up in the air and impale it on a bayonet, shoot old people in the head as they lay in bed, or kill children in front of their parents, would they? Well, nowadays, in all honesty we can no longer put such potential attrocities beyond the bounds of possibility.
For those loud-mouthed defenders of Israel's status as a paragon among us who thought that running over Rachel Corrie with a bulldozer was just a one-off, you've got a Complete-Works-of-Freud's worth of denial to work through and a subprime mortgage of bad karma to pay off. You can start by joining in with the vital effort of cataloging the crimes that are reported to have taken place during the Gaza offensive and making sure these suspected top-of-the-foodchain war criminals get a fair trial.
January 23, 2009 Dear Jerrold,
I entered the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night with my friend and fellow activist Sharon Wallace after waiting ten hours at the Egypt/Gaza. The destruction and trauma is even greater than I expected.
In just two short days I met with families who were given minutes to evacuate their homes and are now living in overcrowded UN schools; I saw the ruins of bombed greenhouses; I looked out the window at fields and roads torn up by the tread of Israeli tanks; and I visited two universities where MECA supports students with scholarships- severely damaged by Israeli bombs.
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.
I spent the first morning visiting Rafah then drove north to Nuseirat Refugee Camp where our partner organization Afaq Jadeeda Association is buying food a delivering cooked meal to displaced families with funds MECA provided. Then to Gaza City.
Today I visited Jabaliya Refugee Camp and the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City, two of the areas hardest hit by Israel's brutal attacks. Pharmacies, schools, and homes were indiscriminately hit in Jabaliya. Mohammed, one of our volunteers in Gaza, and his family were forced to evacuate their home because of intense bombing in their area.
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 email: meca@mecaforpeace. org
UPDATE FROM MECA (JANUARY 26):
Barbara Lubin and all of us at the Middle East Children's Alliance believe that we should have confirmed the story about the Gaza woman who was told by an Israeli soldier to choose which five of her ten children should die, and then witnessed their murder. We are doing everything we can now to verify the story, but have been unable to do so. We ask that you do not publish or post this story on the Internet. If you have already done so, please post this statement, as well.
Barbara Lubin went to Gaza to deliver four tons of medicine and other aid to the people there. When she arrived in the immediate aftermath of the Israeli assault the scene she encountered was chaotic and the people traumatized. She heard and retold many horrifying accounts, and saw for herself the devastation to homes, schools, businesses, land and lives. In these catastrophic circumstances, it’s not difficult to see how Barbara would find this story credible. Unfortunately, we sent it out before taking the time to verify it.
We know that several hundred children lost their lives in the assault, and that some appear to have been shot at close range. There are reports of family members being shot in front of each other. Israeli forces entered Gaza homes and apparently used people as human shields. Israel is now being investigated for using unconventional weapons like white phosphorous and dense inert metal explosive (DIME).
All of us at MECA are committed to accuracy as we relate the stories of what we see when we travel to Palestine. We will keep you informed about what we learn.
Doctors at a hospital near Gaza are almost overwhelmed by the number of Palestinian children needing treatment for bullet wounds to their heads.
“The enemies of intolerance cannot be tolerant." • "If it is an offense to justice to hold people who may have been victims of mistaken identity or of vendettas by other factions, then it is also an offense to justice to release psychopathic killers who believe that they have divine permission to throw acid in the faces of girls who want to attend school." • "Don't be such a lesbian!
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