Arab World Reacts to “Gaza Massacre”

People from across the Arab world are lamenting the fate of Gazans, after a wave of Israeli aerial attacks, which have killed more than 200 Palestinians and wounded more than 700.

The silence of Arab governments in particular is hitting a raw nerve.

Ayhamjzzan from Syria writes in Arabic:

نصف الشهداء ال200 نساء وأطفال

100 طن متفجرات من 100 طائرة أطلقت على غزة اليوم

أين العرب والشعب العربي هل هذه حرب ضد حماس أم إبادة لأهل غزة

أين الكرامة العربية ولماذا نقف متفرجين كما الأنظمة العربية البائسة تتفرج ولاتفلح إلا بالتنديد

Half the 200 martyrs are women and children. A 100 tonnes of explosives from a 100 air crafts was fired. Where are the Arabs? Is this a war against Hamas or the extermination of the people of Gaza? Where is the Arab dignity and why are we standing on the sideline watching like the futile Arab regimes which are only ready to condemn.

Still in Syria Qunfuz says that the massacre was easy to foresee. The blogger adds:

This is a deliberate, cruelly organised crime. And nobody notices.

This morning, with children in school, people on the streets and in offices, policemen at a graduation ceremony, the sky screamed and roared. There are reports of general panic, and of streets clogged with corpses.

I know the writing becomes a whine when these simple sentiments are expressed: but, again; imagine you are living, or dying, with your children, in such a place. And imagine that the world ignores you.

We are all Gaza

Jordanian Mohammed Badi posts this image and writes:

Gaza… Don't Cry, We Are With U

Label Ash [fr], a Moroccan from Barcelona, is swamped by a sense of doom:

La ligue arabe dit qu'elle va se réunir lundi pour contrer l'offensive israélienne. Ils arrivent à garder un sacré sens de l'humour.
La ligue va juste condamner avec des joutes verbales stériles.Y a-t-il quelque chose à faire? Non.

Pardon pour la froideur sentencieuse de la formule, mais cela ne sert plus à rien. La Palestine s'éteint, petit à petit, mais elle s'éteint.

“La Palestine appelle le monde, mais ça sonne occupé” (Amazigh Yacine)

The Arab League says a meeting will be held on Monday to counter the Israeli attacks.
They sure keep a sense of humor. The League will only condemn the attacks with sterile talks. Is there something we can do ? No.
Sorry for the coldness of this word. But it's of no use now. Palestine is dying, little by little.
“Palestine calls the world, but the line is busy” (Amazigh Yacine)

Jordanian SimSim is also appalled with Arab and international reactions to the suffering of Palestinians. The blogger says that every time such a tragedy strikes, history seems to repeat itself – with the same reactions and statements.

On Arab government reactions, SimSim notes:

الدول العربية تدعو الى عقد قمة عربية طارئة والتي من المعروف مسبقا ما سيتمخض عنها من قرارات حاسمة:
– طلب السماح والعفو من الصهاينة ورجائهم بوقف قتل المدنيين والا بنزعل منهم
Arab countries will call for an urgent Arab summit where the important decisions which would be made will be known in advance. They will ask for forgiveness from the Zionists and beg them to stop killing civilians or else we would all be unhappy with them.
طبعا لن يتم اتخاذ اي اجراءات و العياذ بالله الا بعد ان تنتهي الحملة العسكرية كاملة وذلك بسبب الاحتفالات و الأعياد الرسمية
And of course, they will not take any action until the military campaign ends because they are busy with celebrations and official holidays.

Turning his attention to the international arena the blogger says:

كل الدول الها نفس الاسطوانة ….. لو ما حماس القت باسلحتها لما هاجت اسرائيل

ليش اسرائيل متى هدت اللعب ؟ ولكن الآن تقتل بموافقة الأغبياء العرب … طبعا بحجة توحيد الصفوف وايجاد حكومة واحدة لفلسطين

احلى اشي البيت الاسود ….. تدعو اسرائيل الى تركيز ضرباتها بعيدا عن المدنيين ….. هاي الحنان ولا بلاش

All the countries playing the same record: If Hamas had surrendered its weapons, Israel would not have attacked.
When has Israel stopped? It is now attacking with the approval of the stupid Arabs, under the excuse, of course, of unifying our ranks and establishing a single government for Palestine.

The best thing is the Black House, which has called on Israel to focus its attacks far from civilians. This is what I would call compassion.

SimSim also describes Arab people as follows:

متعاطف … منكسر … لا حيلة له … سيحزن …. سيتابع قنوات التلفزة …. سيبكي …. ولكن !!! راس السنة قربت لذلك حفلات رأس السنة كفيلة بالتخفيف عنه و الحمد لله
Sympathetic..heart broken..can't do anything about the situation … will be sad .. will follow news channels .. will cry … and then!!! New Year's Eve is around the corner and this will be enough to lessen the strain on them.

A fitting finale to this round up can be found at On Olives and Sake, where Syrian blogger Yazan Badran posts a headline which reads:

Happy Bloody New Year.

For more reactions, stay tuned to Global Voices Online.

36 comments

  • If they’d stay face to face, they’d see that they are the same…

  • civax:
    Your solution sounds quite good for the Israel side, but it doesn’t address any of the grievances that the PPalestinian side has. But that is all that Israel has done so far, make “fair” offers that would be given between two countries at war, or during a civil war. Then western governments and media can say “that’s fair”, and when Hamas or whoever doesn’t accept the agreement, or breaks it soon after, everyone can easily blame them for breaking a “fair” agreement. And if Israel breaks it they always give a good excuse, like some small amount of violence against Israel or an election that choeses someone Israel doesn’t like, to start the violence again.
    So unless you deal with what the Palestinians want and not just paying lip service in the guise of making Israel more secure, then no long-term changes will happen.
    Do you even know what Palestinians want?

  • Leaders lie, civilians die, and lessons of history are ignored ….

  • Thanks! A few follow-ups:

    > Do you even know what Palestinians want?

    Do you mean Hamas? Or Fatah, or third parties?

    Hamas wants to deal with Israel on par, which is not realistic. Why? Because it is just a dream, separated from realities. The cost is Palestinian lives.

    Hamas wants “the right of return”, forgetting that this “right” is a human construct.

    Hamas wants an islamic state in all what is now Israel, where Jews, Muslims, and Christians would live happily together…. Is it realistic?

    I am not sure about Hamas’es current interpretation of the right to respond militarily at will to Israel’s actions that they deem hostile, but it appears to me that they want this right to be written in any possible document with Israel if any.

  • Thanks! A few follow-ups:

    “Do you even know what Palestinians want?” Do you mean Hamas? Or Fatah, or third parties?

    Hamas wants to deal with Israel on par, which is not realistic. Why? Because it is just a dream, separated from realities. The cost is Palestinian lives.

    Hamas wants “the right of return”, forgetting that this “right” is a human construct.

    Hamas wants an islamic state in all what is now Israel, where Jews, Muslims, and Christians would live happily together…. Is it realistic?

    I am not sure about Hamas’es current interpretation of the right to respond militarily at will to Israel’s actions that they deem hostile, but it appears to me that they want this right to be written in any possible document with Israel if any.

  • Manus

    @civax
    Nobody masters the art of sophism and rhetoric like our friends from Israel. However, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig”. Change that record as people can see through this masquerade. Israel as the occupying power under article 55 of the Geneva Convention “has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate”. Israel failed to do so and used it as a bargaining political instrument for oppression. In fact, 1.5 million inhabitants are effectively prisoners. Israel strategy is to cut the blood supply to create an environment of chaos and destabilise the Hamas regime in Gaza. Israeli internal politics struggles also had a major influence on how the military campaign will be directed. Kadima and Avodah would have lost the elections handsomely if they have not shown that they are tough and a successful campaign in Gaza seriously improves the leftists’ chances in the elections. Also, a political readjustment with the arrival of a new American administration in few weeks was necessary. This kind of cynicism is nothing new to Israeli politicians and their miserable calculations.

  • Manus

    @Andry
    There is a very important principal your argument is missing. The occupied territories are not a state and do not operate like one. Also, the situation is created by Israel not just responding to it. The solution is clear and there are UN resolutions clearly providing an answer to your questions. I have been looking at the American blogs and media and they seem totally disconnected from reality. The Arab street and media know the score as there is nothing to rationalise or analyse. Israel commits war crimes. The American administration that is disproportionately represented by the Jewish Diaspora and the Israel friendly Evangelical religious right will stop any International condemnations and use its veto if necessary. The embedded American media who is an integral part of the real powers running the State will spin and use all type of propaganda techniques to distort the facts for the local American public. The rest is business as usual.

  • Where is the human rights after we can say where is the Arab people ,where is the international consience,really it is a terrible massacre ,and Israeli doesn’t have any atom of humanity ,the Israeli government should judge from the high court .

  • @manus (damn, this twitter jargon gets everywhere these days…)

    1. Israel continue (even now) and had been supplying electricity and fuel to Gaza even whule the Hamas was shooting rockets daily trying to hit the Poer station Ashkelon that supplys them with this exact electricity. (…)

    2. Israel allowed trucks with aid most of the last years into Gaza, even while getting rockets on it – beside during times the Hamas attacked the crossings themselves (… 2)

    3. Israel sent in 52 trucks with aid on Friday, a day before the attack. Today around 100 trucks with food and medical aid was sent in from the Israeli side and the Egyptians (with coordination with Israel) allowed more trucks getting in from their side. So even during this attack now, Aid is sent in from Israel.

    4. Don’t you find it weird that the Israeli governments are fighting with the Hamas in Gaza ever since it took power, while the same governments have talks with Abbas and the Palestinians in the West Bank?

    I mean, Abbas and Israel still have a lot of issues they disagree on, but they TALK. and people from the West Bank are not under siege, they are not starving, they go places freely, they move in and out of Israel (not easily but they do). So, why can Israel and Palestinians in West Bank talk while Israel and Palestinians in Gaza can’t?

    Don’t you think it has anything to do with Hamas officially calls for the destruction of Israel and the establishing of an Islamic caliphate? That they are part of the Muslim Brotherhood that is radical Islam that threats secular Arab regimes? That they are linked to Hizbulla, financed and trained by Iran?

    Hamas is a radical Islam, terror group which prefer to have all Palestinians die as mujaheedin (holy fighters) rather than live in peace.

    That is why Gaza suffers. Not Israel – Hamas.

  • […] response to this thread: 1. Israel continues now and had been supplying electricity and fuel to Gaza even while the Hamas […]

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