Israel is starving Gaza, inflicting a ‘manmade and politically motivated’ famine (UNRWA) on its people. 3,000 trucks of food and medicine are blocked at the border. The WHO says its supplies are gone. Hospitals are running out of medicine. Children are dying.
Israel has turned Gaza into a concentration camp and the response from political leaders in the so-called western democracies? Do and say nothing. In the case of my own UK government, say nothing while acting alongside the USA in support of the slaughter.
No change there.When there were concentration camps in Europe more than 80 years ago representatives of the British and US governments met in Bermuda in April, 1943, reluctantly responding to rising pressure to rescue European Jews.They decided to do nothing. Nothing. A UK Foreign Office memo prior to the conference stated that, “There is a possibility that the Germans or their satellites may change over from the policy of extermination to one of extrusion, and aim as they did before the war at embarrassing other countries by flooding them with alien immigrants.” In plain Engish, the UK government feared that the Nazi regime might halt the genocide, and iexpel European Jewry ‘flooding’ the allied countries.
As the conference commenced, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began. The fighters made a final appeal to the world, “The last 35,000 Jews in the ghetto at Warsaw have been condemned to execution. Warsaw is again echoing to volleys of musketry. The people are being murdered. Women and children defend themselves with naked arms. Save us!”
Similar messages are reaching us from Gaza, and I choose here to quote this from Asma Salama Abu Mansi, children’s literature writer, “In the shadow of war and destruction, which has lasted for so long, we stand on the edge, nearly falling into an abyss without bottom, often plunging into a sea of despair from which survival seems impossible. Does hope remain a choice, or does it become something imposed on the people of Gaza? Perhaps hope here is neither a luxury nor a desire, but rather a form of resistance, known only to Gazans, who lack the luxury of choice. They cling to whatever hope remains, as if it were the last straw that could save them from drowning in a sea of ashes. It is a force that renews itself with every moment, not because Gazans choose to be optimistic, but because we are compelled to survive.”
If you are unable to see the parallels between the past and the present, I leave you with these words from one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, who was addressing the leaders of the Palestinian resistance.
‘To all leaders of Palestinian military, paramilitary and guerrilla organizations; to all soldiers of Palestinian militant groups: My name is Marek Edelman. I am a former Deputy Commander of the Jewish Military Organization in Poland and one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. In the memorable year of 1943 we fought for the survival of the Jewish community in Warsaw. We fought for mere life, not for territory, nor for a national identity. We fought with hopeless determination, but our weapons were never directed against the defenceless civilian population, we never killed women and children. In the world devoid of principles and values, despite a constant danger of death, we did remain faithful to these values and moral principles. We were isolated in our fight, and yet the powerful opposing army was not able to destroy these barely armed boys and girls. Our fight in Warsaw lasted several weeks, and later we fought in the partisan groups and in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. Yet nowhere in the world can urban guerrilla force bring a conclusive victory, but it cannot be defeated by well-armed armies either. And this war will not bring any resolution. Blood will be spilled in vain and lives will be lost on both sides. We were never careless with life. We never sent our soldiers to certain death. Life is one for eternity. Nobody has the right to mindlessly take it away. It is high time for everybody to understand that … to the State of Israel, you have to radically change your attitude. You have to want peace in order to save the lives of hundreds or perhaps thousands of people, and to create a better future for your loved ones, for your children. I know from my own experience that the current unfolding of events depends on you, the Military Leaders.’ Marek Edelman, August 2002
"The earth constricts around us. It squeezes us into the final corridor, forcing us to shed our limbs just to pass through. The ground crushes us; oh, if only we were its wheat, to die and live again. And if only it were our mother, to show us mercy. We wish to be the stones that our dream will carry." Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish
