21 February 2009
Palestinian researcher, specializing in detainees' affairs, Awni Farawna, stated that the Zionist gangs have kidnapped a total of 7600 Palestinian children, males and females, since the year 2000; 246 children are still behind bars, International Middle East Media Center reported.
At least 200 of the kidnapped children were detained under administrative detention, without charges or trial. Some of the children were as young as 12 years old.
One detainee is now 13 months old as he was born behind bars. His mother, Fatima Al Zoq, was kidnapped while pregnant, and gave birth in prison while she was handcuffed and her legs were tied to the hospital bed.
Farawna stated that Israel's targeting of children is a policy that targets childhood and a healthy growth, and expressed concern over the fate of the detained children as they are subjected to different sorts of violations, including torture and isolation, which affects their growth, physical and psychological conditions, in addition to affecting their education.
Hundreds of children were cut off schools due to being imprisoned; hundreds of detainees were kidnapped when they were children and grew up behind bars. Many of them have spent more years behind bars than with their families.
Several detained children were sexually abused and violated by interrogators and soldiers, while a number of Israeli prisoners, held for criminal violations, also attacked them.
Farawna stated that international law and treaties regarding children forbid barring children from their freedom, forbid torturing and violating them.
Many children were arrested more than one time before they reached the age of 18; others were kidnapped as children, and grew up to be young men and women while they were in prison.
Several children who grew up in prison and were released later on are having difficulties in coping with the outside world; some became violent and tend to seek vengeance.
Farawna demanded international human rights groups to intervene and put pressure on Israel in order to oblige Israel to comply with international law and the fourth Geneva Convention.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Poem: Hands
HANDS
by L.Hashim-AlBayaa
small hands
smudged by hazelnut-filled chocolates
impatiently reach toward the neck of Sittu’s thobe
a leathery henna-stained hand emerges
with unhurried precision
tissue -- all but dissolved in salty wetness is unfolded
revealed
a shekel moist with old woman’s musk
a silent exchange ensues
one calloused hand (were there three fingers or four?)
claims its prize
while the other (this one has five) pours
dark liquid
its dizzying sweetness shocking the nose
flows into a glass no longer clear after three hours of customers
a moment long awaited
the kharoob feels syrupy and thick on the tongue
the day’s heat having leeched out the possibility of refreshing coolness
(that’s okay when life is not known to be refreshing)
(yes, it is four fingers!)
the four-fingered hand retrieves the glass
now not only cloudy, but decorated by chocolate finger prints
(a few more customers’ hands will rub them off)
Sittu smiles
her slow hand reaches down the neck of her thobe to pull out a hard caramel
small hands
in their never-ending search for sweetness
struggle to release the wrapper welded to the caramel by Sittu’s heat
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬-------------------
trembling leathery hands wipe tears
flowing down a face creviced by memories of small hands
now hidden from sight beneath a white shroud.
by L.Hashim-AlBayaa
small hands
smudged by hazelnut-filled chocolates
impatiently reach toward the neck of Sittu’s thobe
a leathery henna-stained hand emerges
with unhurried precision
tissue -- all but dissolved in salty wetness is unfolded
revealed
a shekel moist with old woman’s musk
a silent exchange ensues
one calloused hand (were there three fingers or four?)
claims its prize
while the other (this one has five) pours
dark liquid
its dizzying sweetness shocking the nose
flows into a glass no longer clear after three hours of customers
a moment long awaited
the kharoob feels syrupy and thick on the tongue
the day’s heat having leeched out the possibility of refreshing coolness
(that’s okay when life is not known to be refreshing)
(yes, it is four fingers!)
the four-fingered hand retrieves the glass
now not only cloudy, but decorated by chocolate finger prints
(a few more customers’ hands will rub them off)
Sittu smiles
her slow hand reaches down the neck of her thobe to pull out a hard caramel
small hands
in their never-ending search for sweetness
struggle to release the wrapper welded to the caramel by Sittu’s heat
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬-------------------
trembling leathery hands wipe tears
flowing down a face creviced by memories of small hands
now hidden from sight beneath a white shroud.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
"Worse Than an Earthquake"
Worse Than an Earthquake
by Kathy Kelly
January 21, 2009
Rafah--Traffic on Sea Street, a major thoroughfare alongside Gaza's
coastline, includes horses, donkeys pulling carts, cyclists,
pedestrians, trucks and cars, mostly older models. Overhead, in stark
contrast to the street below, Israel's ultra modern unmanned
surveillance planes criss-cross the skies. F16s and helicopters can
also be heard. Remnants of their deliveries, the casings of missiles,
bombs and shells used during the past three weeks of Israeli attacks,
are scattered on the ground.
Workers have cleared most of the roads. Now, they are removing
massive piles of wreckage and debris, much as people do following an
earthquake.
"Yet, all the world helps after an earthquake," said a doctor at the
Shifaa hospital in Gaza. "We feel very frustrated," he continued.
"The West, Europe and the U.S., watched this killing go on for 22
days, as though they were watching a movie, watching the killing of
women and children without doing anything to stop it. I was expecting
to die at any moment. I held my babies and expected to die. There
was no safe place in Gaza."
He and his colleagues are visibly exhausted, following weeks of work
in the Intensive Care and Emergency Room departments at a hospital
that received many more patients than they could help. "Patients died
on the floor of the operating room because we had only six operating
rooms," said Dr. Saeed Abuhassan, M.D, an ICU doctor who grew up in
Chicago. "And really we don't know enough about the kinds of weapons
that have been used against Gaza."
In 15 years of practice, Dr. Abuhassan says he never saw burns like
those he saw here. The burns, blackish in color, reached deep into
the muscles and bones. Even after treatment was begun, the blackish
color returned.
Two of the patients were sent to Egypt because they were in such
critical condition. They died in Egypt. But when autopsies were done,
reports showed that the cause of death was poisoning from elements of
white phosphorous that had entered their systems, causing cardiac
arrests.
In Gaza City, The Burn Unit's harried director, a plastic surgeon and
an expert in treating burns, told us that after encountering cases
they'd never seen before, doctors at the center performed a biopsy on
a patient they believed may have suffered chemical burns and sent the
sample to a lab in Egypt. The results showed elements of white
phosphorous in the tissue.
The doctor was interrupted by a phone call from a farmer who wanted to
know whether it was safe to eat the oranges he was collecting from
groves that had been uprooted and bombed during the Israeli invasion.
The caller said the oranges had an offensive odor and that when the
workers picked them up their hands became itchy.
Audrey Stewart had just spent the morning with Gazan farmers in Tufaa,
a village near the border between Gaza and Israel. Israeli soldiers
had first evacuated people, then dynamited the houses, then used
bulldozers to clear the land, uprooting the orange tree groves. Many
people, including children, were picking through the rubble, salvaging
belongings and trying to collect oranges. At one point, people began
shouting at Audrey, warning her that she was standing next to an
unexploded rocket.
The doctor put his head in his hands, after listening to Audrey's
report. "I told them to wash everything very carefully. But these are
new situations. Really, I don't know how to respond," he said.
Yet he spoke passionately about what he knew regarding families that
had been burned or crushed to death when their homes were bombed.
"Were their babies a danger to anyone?" he asked us.
"They are lying to us about democracy and Western values," he
continued, his voice shaking. "If we were sheep and goats, they would
be more willing to help us."
Dr. Saeed Abuhassan was bidding farewell to the doctors he'd worked
with in Gaza. He was returning to his work in the United Arab
Emirates. But before leaving, he paused to give us a word of advice.
"You know, the most important thing you can tell people in your
country is that U.S. people paid for many of the weapons used to kill
people in Gaza," said Dr. Saeed Abuhassan. "And this, also, is why
it's worse than an earthquake."
----------
Kathy Kelly (kathy@vcnv.org) is a co-coordinator of Voices for
Creative Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org) She and Audrey Stewart have been
in Gaza for the past six days.
by Kathy Kelly
January 21, 2009
Rafah--Traffic on Sea Street, a major thoroughfare alongside Gaza's
coastline, includes horses, donkeys pulling carts, cyclists,
pedestrians, trucks and cars, mostly older models. Overhead, in stark
contrast to the street below, Israel's ultra modern unmanned
surveillance planes criss-cross the skies. F16s and helicopters can
also be heard. Remnants of their deliveries, the casings of missiles,
bombs and shells used during the past three weeks of Israeli attacks,
are scattered on the ground.
Workers have cleared most of the roads. Now, they are removing
massive piles of wreckage and debris, much as people do following an
earthquake.
"Yet, all the world helps after an earthquake," said a doctor at the
Shifaa hospital in Gaza. "We feel very frustrated," he continued.
"The West, Europe and the U.S., watched this killing go on for 22
days, as though they were watching a movie, watching the killing of
women and children without doing anything to stop it. I was expecting
to die at any moment. I held my babies and expected to die. There
was no safe place in Gaza."
He and his colleagues are visibly exhausted, following weeks of work
in the Intensive Care and Emergency Room departments at a hospital
that received many more patients than they could help. "Patients died
on the floor of the operating room because we had only six operating
rooms," said Dr. Saeed Abuhassan, M.D, an ICU doctor who grew up in
Chicago. "And really we don't know enough about the kinds of weapons
that have been used against Gaza."
In 15 years of practice, Dr. Abuhassan says he never saw burns like
those he saw here. The burns, blackish in color, reached deep into
the muscles and bones. Even after treatment was begun, the blackish
color returned.
Two of the patients were sent to Egypt because they were in such
critical condition. They died in Egypt. But when autopsies were done,
reports showed that the cause of death was poisoning from elements of
white phosphorous that had entered their systems, causing cardiac
arrests.
In Gaza City, The Burn Unit's harried director, a plastic surgeon and
an expert in treating burns, told us that after encountering cases
they'd never seen before, doctors at the center performed a biopsy on
a patient they believed may have suffered chemical burns and sent the
sample to a lab in Egypt. The results showed elements of white
phosphorous in the tissue.
The doctor was interrupted by a phone call from a farmer who wanted to
know whether it was safe to eat the oranges he was collecting from
groves that had been uprooted and bombed during the Israeli invasion.
The caller said the oranges had an offensive odor and that when the
workers picked them up their hands became itchy.
Audrey Stewart had just spent the morning with Gazan farmers in Tufaa,
a village near the border between Gaza and Israel. Israeli soldiers
had first evacuated people, then dynamited the houses, then used
bulldozers to clear the land, uprooting the orange tree groves. Many
people, including children, were picking through the rubble, salvaging
belongings and trying to collect oranges. At one point, people began
shouting at Audrey, warning her that she was standing next to an
unexploded rocket.
The doctor put his head in his hands, after listening to Audrey's
report. "I told them to wash everything very carefully. But these are
new situations. Really, I don't know how to respond," he said.
Yet he spoke passionately about what he knew regarding families that
had been burned or crushed to death when their homes were bombed.
"Were their babies a danger to anyone?" he asked us.
"They are lying to us about democracy and Western values," he
continued, his voice shaking. "If we were sheep and goats, they would
be more willing to help us."
Dr. Saeed Abuhassan was bidding farewell to the doctors he'd worked
with in Gaza. He was returning to his work in the United Arab
Emirates. But before leaving, he paused to give us a word of advice.
"You know, the most important thing you can tell people in your
country is that U.S. people paid for many of the weapons used to kill
people in Gaza," said Dr. Saeed Abuhassan. "And this, also, is why
it's worse than an earthquake."
----------
Kathy Kelly (kathy@vcnv.org) is a co-coordinator of Voices for
Creative Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org) She and Audrey Stewart have been
in Gaza for the past six days.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Open Letter to Pres. Obama from Former Malaysian PM
Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad writes an open letter to Barack Hussein Obama
1st January 2009
Dear Mr. President,
I did not vote for you in the Presidential Election because I am Malaysian.
But I consider myself one of your constituents because what you do or say will affect me and my country as well.
I welcome your promise for change. Certainly your country, the United States of America needs a lot of changes.
That is because America and Americans have become the most hated people in the world. Even Europeans dislike your arrogance. Yet you were once admired and liked because you freed a lot of countries from conquest and subjugation.
It is the custom on New Year's day for people to make resolutions. You must have listed your good resolutions already. But may I politely suggest that you also resolve to do the following in pursuit of Change.
1) Stop killing people. The United States is too fond of killing people in order to achieve its objectives. You call it war, but today's wars are not about professional soldiers fighting and killing each other. It is about killing people, ordinary innocent people by the hundreds of thousands. Whole countries will be devastated.
War is primitive, the cavemen's way of dealing with a problem. Stop your arms build up and your planning for future wars.
2) Stop indiscriminate support of Israeli killers with your money and your weapons. The planes and the bombs killing the people of Gaza are from you.
3) Stop applying sanctions against countries which cannot do the same against you.
In Iraq your sanctions killed 500,000 children through depriving them of medicine and food. Others were born deformed.
What have you achieved with this cruelty? Nothing except the hatred of the victims and right-thinking people.
4) Stop your scientists and researchers from inventing new and more diabolical weapons to kill more people more efficiently.
5) Stop your arms manufacturers from producing them. Stop your sales of arms to the world. It is blood money that you earn. It is un-Christian.
6) Stop trying to democratize all the countries of the world. Democracy may work for the United States but it does not always work for other countries.
Don't kill people because they are not democratic. Your crusade to democratize countries has killed more people than the authoritarian Governments which you overthrew. And you have not succeeded anyway.
7) Stop the casinos which you call financial institutions. Stop hedge funds, derivatives and currency trading. Stop banks from lending non-existent money by the billions.
Regulate and supervise your banks. Jail the miscreants who made profits from abusing the system.
8) Sign the Kyoto Protocol and other international agreements.
9) Show respect for the United Nations.
I have many other resolutions for change which I think you should consider and undertake.
But I think you have enough on your plate for this 2009th year of the Christian Era.
If you can do only a few of what I suggest, you will be remembered by the world as a great leader. Then the United States will again be the most admired nation. Your embassies will be able to take down the high fences and razor-wire coils that surround them.
May I wish you a Happy New Year and a great Presidency.
Yours Sincerely,
Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad
(Former Prime Minister of Malaysia)
1st January 2009
Dear Mr. President,
I did not vote for you in the Presidential Election because I am Malaysian.
But I consider myself one of your constituents because what you do or say will affect me and my country as well.
I welcome your promise for change. Certainly your country, the United States of America needs a lot of changes.
That is because America and Americans have become the most hated people in the world. Even Europeans dislike your arrogance. Yet you were once admired and liked because you freed a lot of countries from conquest and subjugation.
It is the custom on New Year's day for people to make resolutions. You must have listed your good resolutions already. But may I politely suggest that you also resolve to do the following in pursuit of Change.
1) Stop killing people. The United States is too fond of killing people in order to achieve its objectives. You call it war, but today's wars are not about professional soldiers fighting and killing each other. It is about killing people, ordinary innocent people by the hundreds of thousands. Whole countries will be devastated.
War is primitive, the cavemen's way of dealing with a problem. Stop your arms build up and your planning for future wars.
2) Stop indiscriminate support of Israeli killers with your money and your weapons. The planes and the bombs killing the people of Gaza are from you.
3) Stop applying sanctions against countries which cannot do the same against you.
In Iraq your sanctions killed 500,000 children through depriving them of medicine and food. Others were born deformed.
What have you achieved with this cruelty? Nothing except the hatred of the victims and right-thinking people.
4) Stop your scientists and researchers from inventing new and more diabolical weapons to kill more people more efficiently.
5) Stop your arms manufacturers from producing them. Stop your sales of arms to the world. It is blood money that you earn. It is un-Christian.
6) Stop trying to democratize all the countries of the world. Democracy may work for the United States but it does not always work for other countries.
Don't kill people because they are not democratic. Your crusade to democratize countries has killed more people than the authoritarian Governments which you overthrew. And you have not succeeded anyway.
7) Stop the casinos which you call financial institutions. Stop hedge funds, derivatives and currency trading. Stop banks from lending non-existent money by the billions.
Regulate and supervise your banks. Jail the miscreants who made profits from abusing the system.
8) Sign the Kyoto Protocol and other international agreements.
9) Show respect for the United Nations.
I have many other resolutions for change which I think you should consider and undertake.
But I think you have enough on your plate for this 2009th year of the Christian Era.
If you can do only a few of what I suggest, you will be remembered by the world as a great leader. Then the United States will again be the most admired nation. Your embassies will be able to take down the high fences and razor-wire coils that surround them.
May I wish you a Happy New Year and a great Presidency.
Yours Sincerely,
Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad
(Former Prime Minister of Malaysia)
Monday, January 19, 2009
Poem: For Maha
For Maha 19 January 2009
You, from Gaza should have known better
As your homes were destroyed and you cried
Before doing something no better
As you destroyed a home and you lied
You are no better than they are
As a once happy family’s no more
A destroyed family’s the same world over
But this one, YOU breached the door
Deer El-Balah sent a cunning girl
To steal my family away
From the string she pulled just one pearl
And the whole thing was rendered astray
They say what goes around comes around
And I fear for you for that day
When what you did to me comes to town
And you feel your life slipping away
You said my opinion mattered
If I objected then you’d go away
Instead you left my life shattered
As you rushed to your wedding day
Let this poem always remind you
Of the cunning lies you two told
May the damage you did always haunt you
As the two of you grow to be old.
You, from Gaza should have known better
As your homes were destroyed and you cried
Before doing something no better
As you destroyed a home and you lied
You are no better than they are
As a once happy family’s no more
A destroyed family’s the same world over
But this one, YOU breached the door
Deer El-Balah sent a cunning girl
To steal my family away
From the string she pulled just one pearl
And the whole thing was rendered astray
They say what goes around comes around
And I fear for you for that day
When what you did to me comes to town
And you feel your life slipping away
You said my opinion mattered
If I objected then you’d go away
Instead you left my life shattered
As you rushed to your wedding day
Let this poem always remind you
Of the cunning lies you two told
May the damage you did always haunt you
As the two of you grow to be old.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Poem: The Thorn
The Thorn (by L. Hashim 10 Jan. 2009)
I have a thorn in my hand - that cannot be pulled out
no matter which way I turn - there is nothing but doubt
ache without pain - deaf, dumb and blind
cannot get away - cannot leave it behind
all lies exposed - the bare ugly truth
the thorn in my hand - is really a tooth
bit by the creature - that feeds off my soul
where once was a heart - now exists just a hole
© 2009 Lamyaa Hashim
I have a thorn in my hand - that cannot be pulled out
no matter which way I turn - there is nothing but doubt
ache without pain - deaf, dumb and blind
cannot get away - cannot leave it behind
all lies exposed - the bare ugly truth
the thorn in my hand - is really a tooth
bit by the creature - that feeds off my soul
where once was a heart - now exists just a hole
© 2009 Lamyaa Hashim
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Poem: The News (El-Khabr)
The News
by L. Hashim
I should have known by the sudden onslaught of love letters and poems
they were not a manifestation of love
rather a sad attempt at redemption for an undeclared assault
an assault that neither did I see coming nor knew when it had hit
the aim could not have been more direct
in one blow destroying the infrastructure of my life
the timing could not have been more perfect, my love
as I watched Gaza burn in agony
my past obliterated by mortar rounds
you brought your own rounds of mortar and finished the attack
upon my very soul they fell
do I know where Gaza ends and I begin?
Oh cruelest of cruel – is it you or them – or are you the same?
do I know how I feel or how to feel?
my eyes and heart are empty now
do you know your part in this scheme or are you truly so dense?
there is no difference between heart and home
Gaza and I are the same
© 2009 Lamyaa Hashim
by L. Hashim
I should have known by the sudden onslaught of love letters and poems
they were not a manifestation of love
rather a sad attempt at redemption for an undeclared assault
an assault that neither did I see coming nor knew when it had hit
the aim could not have been more direct
in one blow destroying the infrastructure of my life
the timing could not have been more perfect, my love
as I watched Gaza burn in agony
my past obliterated by mortar rounds
you brought your own rounds of mortar and finished the attack
upon my very soul they fell
do I know where Gaza ends and I begin?
Oh cruelest of cruel – is it you or them – or are you the same?
do I know how I feel or how to feel?
my eyes and heart are empty now
do you know your part in this scheme or are you truly so dense?
there is no difference between heart and home
Gaza and I are the same
© 2009 Lamyaa Hashim
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