Four Months. 247 Palestinians dead [1]. 155 of them, “official” civilians. 57 children. 996 wounded. 337 of them are children. Naseem Tarawnah [2] wonders if the world can hear Gaza scream at all anymore.
Eman vents out similar frustrations [3] especially with the lack of Arab reaction, while Al Falasteenyia [4] is calling on Arabs to protest:
“…we have to mobilize, all of us who are hurting- palestinians, arabs, muslims, every single human being that wants to see this end- for those of you who are sad endlessly glued to the news, get up off the couch and organize a vigil, a protest, anything, anywhere.”
What has happened on the small strip of land [5] is indeed, as Haitham Sabbah put it, a tsunami [6].
And in the middle of the night a massacre unfolded in Beit Hanoun [7]; an entire family killed in their sleep…
Desert Peace feels the latest images of the Beit Hanoun [8] massacre are eerily similar [9] to Krystalnacht; is history repeating itself?
There only a few voices from the blogosphere emanating from Gaza but Mona El-Farra's diary posts [10] keep us updated [11] on the situation in Gaza [12], including shocking images [13] of the children injured in Beit Hanoun.
Adam Khalil in Gaza has similarly disturbing images [14] of the victims and the names of the eleven members from the Al-‘Athamneh family that disappeared in a single night.
Naj says: [15] “After the massive attacks on Beit Hanoun…i m scared, but really want, to go see what remained from this miserable town.”
With so many innocent civilians dead there have been calls for investigations. Laila El-Haddad [16] is sick of hearing the regrets, apologies and empty promises to investigate:
“Instead of apologizing, STOP YOUR WAR against us. So much energy and enthusiasm devoted to death and destruction and debilitation and asphyxiation and occupation-so little devoted to ending it all.”
Laila offers her readers a Mahmoud Darwish poem [17], whose work so often articulates the voice and emotions of all Palestinians. Um Khalil also uses poetry in this photo essay [18] that accurately depicts the Beit Hanoun massacre. Shakespeare's Macbeth seems fitting for this tragedy:
“Macbeth does murder sleep, the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast” (act ii; scene ii)
Meanwhile, in the Balata refugee camp where approximately 350 martyrs have died since the second intifada began, Katie Miranada [19] tries to finish a mural to commemorate their sacrifice. But the project was dependent on the Israeli Occupational Forces and their terrorizing sweeps through the camp. Art was put on hold as Ibrahim, an unarmed 16 year old trying to protect his wounded brother, was shot by an Israeli sniper.
“As I was finishing the mural, I photographed some young kids as they put up the new martyr posters of Ibrahim. I recognized him in the photo as one of the kids who was watching me paint the day before. He asked me if I’d seen someone, I said no I hadn’t, and then he left. Now he’s dead.”
Photo: Courtesy of Katie Miranda
Although age seems to be irrelevant for Israel when it comes to the Occupied Territories as Aiysha [20] (which in Arabic means ‘life’), a 2 year old born in an Israeli prison, has just been released in to her father's custody as her mother stays behind under ‘administrative detention’, which technically means there are no charges and no trial; just more nothingness [21] to ponder.
In other realms, Ibrahim Oweis [22], while Flickering ‘Palestine’ came upon AnomalousNYC and his little project of graphics and posters using manipulated and altered photos of Palestine. It is a collection worth checking out [23]. Ibrahim will be starting his own project in the near future.