I am a Palestinian-American. It gives me great pride to call myself Palestinian and be from a nation that will never give up and will never surrender.
I am proud to be an American, but I am dismayed at our government sending at least $3 billion of our tax dollars to Israel each year. I am ashamed and appalled at the stance taken by our government to excuse the actions of the Israelis as self-defense, but to condemn the Palestinians doing the same as terrorism. I am aghast at our government justifying the murders of Palestinians at the hands of the Israelis. I am horrified at our government that refuses to step in and stop the killings in Gaza and further sickened that, instead, our government continues to send monetary and military aid to Israel as it maintains its siege upon Gaza, the most densely populated area in the world with over 1.5 million inhabitants.
At the time this column was being written, the Israeli strikes against Gaza had entered the 16th day. In just over two weeks, the death toll has reached a staggering 888 Palestinians and the injured has hit 4,080, and rises by the hour. The death toll on the Israeli side has reached 13, soldiers accounting for 10 of them. They say, in war, numbers don’t matter, but the sheer difference in numbers is not indicative of war. They are indicative of genocide.
The vast majority of Americans are misconstruing the Palestinian standpoint about the conflict in Gaza. This is not about Hamas. This is not about who has the rightful claim to the Holy Land. This is about the state of Israel illegally and sadistically denying the Palestinians in Gaza their basic human rights: their right to freedom, their right to justice, their right to equality and most importantly, their right to life.
I read reports and see newscasts of the deaths and conditions in illegally occupied Gaza and it literally hurts my heart. People dying from bombs, shootings, lack of medical attention, starvation and disease inside an area sealed off on one side by an Israeli-enforced partition reminiscent of nothing short of apartheid, and on the other by a political barricade enforced by the corrupt Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who, like so many other fraudulent leaders, neglects to follow the wishes of the masses they represent.
As I watch these images, I’m chillingly reminded of another time in history when an entire population of an ethnicity was herded into an undersized prison and suffered unspeakable circumstances.
The current situation in Gaza is no different from the agony of the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto. The only difference is this is 2009. Nearly 70 years later, the world clearly has not learned its lesson of history repeating itself.
In its simplicity, this issue is not Palestine versus Israel. It is purely an issue of humanity. It is a challenge for those of us who are sensitive to the reality that so mistreats the most desolate among us to watch the atrocities in Gaza and remain silent. That is the Palestinian standpoint. It is the humanitarian standpoint.
Across the world, from South America to Europe, we are raising our voices and standing up for Gaza because no one else will. In essence, the Palestinian people are fighting for freedom, as once did the American people. And in the illustrious words of Patrick Henry, simply give us liberty, or give us death.
