Yesterday, I had the distinct pleasure and privilege of hearing Dr. Mustafa Barghouti speak about his recent visit to Gaza. Dr. Barghouti is a medical doctor, President and founder of the Union of Palestinian Relief Committees, and came in second place in the 2005 Palestinian national elections. He has been a continuously humane, clear, and articulate voice for Palestine in the recent years, presenting the kind of Palestinian face not often seen in American press. It was a pleasure to hear such an eloquent, and human response to the Palestinian reality. It was reminiscent of Edward Said...who Dr. Barghouti remembered at the beginning of his talk. The talk is supposed to become available online soon, at which point I will post it, but for now...some notes...forgive the length.
Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, "The Gaza War Crime: 12.27.08-1.18.09
Dr. Barghouti recently visited Gaza, and is speaking about what he saw and experienced there "out of a sense of duty and obligation." Israel wouldn't let him into Gaza, so he had to go to Egypt and cross through Rafah-- a trip that should have taken him an hour or two from Ramallah became an international trip. He said, for the first time in his life, he was so shocked by what he saw in Gaza, he could not speak about it for 4 days. The violence in Gaza "was not a war, it was unilateral actions" highlighting the vast imbalance of power between Gaza's military might and that of Israel. He noted that the media "describes civilians as women and children, as though men cannot just be civilians." He showed that, based on population sizes, the ratio of Palestinians who were killed in Gaza would be equal to nearly a quarter million Americans being killed (1,345 Palestinians in Gaza=247,489 Americans), and that on September 11, 2001 3,500 Americans were killed, and we all saw the reaction to that.
357 of Gaza's factories were destroyed. But, Dr. Barghouti pointed out, most were purposefully destroyed in the last 2 days of war, as Israeli soldiers were leaving the Gaza Strip. They laced the factories with dynamite and blew them up, "And I thought the Americans supported the private sector!" he quipped. Dr. Barghouti showed a series of photos of patients who had been burned by phosphorous bombs--at which many people could not look. One photo was of charred corpse of a baby maybe 8 months old. It didn't have any limbs. The remnants of the phosphorous bombs are still all over, reigniting at a touch. He commented on the new weaponry Israel has been testing on the people of Gaza (to be sold later to other countries if they prove "effective"). New bombs and bullets are chemically enriched. Here, he asserted, he was speaking as a physician. The DIME bombs work by eating the flesh and tissue of a person upon contact, eating through until it reaches the bone. "Dom Dom" bullets and bombs release a spray of chemical powder that burns the flesh upon contact and is released in such a manner that the powder lands on your skin each particle only a centimeter apart from the others, making it difficult to escape mass burning. They are still investigating whether Israel used depleted uranium or tungsten.
Dr. Barghouti showed a map of the buffer zone Israel has implemented inland of Gaza--a strip of land which runs all along Gaza's borders usurping 10-15% of land--a significant amount of which is agricultural land. Palestinians who enter this area (like farmers) are shot.
He revealed a heartwrenching strategy Gazan families used to minimize their casualties. As we know, many Gazans lost their homes and became homeless--taking refuge in schools and with relatives' whose homes were still functional. When these Gazans left their homes-- they would split up their children among different places of refuge, so that if one of the spots was hit not all of the family's children would die. He showed us slide after slide after slide of what Gaza looks like now-- which is literally a garbage dump. It looks like heaps and piles of garbage and rubble.
"This is what Gaza is left with," Dr. Barghouti remarked.
Regarding reconstruction, Israel is letting in neither cement nor glass--only food and medical supplies. When he asked why Israel would not let in glass (this is very needed as all the windows in buildings have been blown out...and the cement need is obvious) he was told "it is considered a strategic material"--meaning it could be used to make weapons, not windows.
Dr. Barghouti said he speaks so that "Nobody should say, 'We didn't know...'" He warned that a sewage flood was imminent. Of Israel's policies, he said, "This is not a move to the right, this is a move towards racism" and warned that these actions were not good for Palestinians OR Israelis. He asserted that "We, the Palestinians, will never accept to be slaves to an Occupation, or slaves to an Apartheid state." When asked what kind of government he would like to see in Israel, he half-joked he'd like Obama's government. He seemed cautiously optimistic by Obama's team, especially Mitchel's appointment, and said change won't come from Israel itself, it must come from outside pressure, namely the US.
On the Palestinian side, he noted that we need leadership, not government...that the rift between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority is "a stupid fight for an Authority that doesn't have any authority because it is under Occupation." He said the Palestinians need to go back to unity, but they need to go back to democracy and hold another election (Abbas' term expired on Jan. 9--over a month ago, during the war).
In response to the question "What do you think Israel's proper response would have been to the 8000 rockets that hit Israel from Gaza?" Dr. Barghouti responded that he does not support in any way the rocket attacks, and he does not want the Israelis to be bombarded, but that he expects Israelis also to say they don't want Palestinians to be bombarded with F-16s--and that if Israelis are entitled to social and economic security, then Palestinians are too. These are human rules. Gaza has been under siege for 2 years-- isn't this also an act of war? He restated that Israel broke the ceasefire on Nov. 4th.
He argued strongly for the effectiveness and necessity of boycott and divestment movements around Israel-- noting that Hampshire College, again, is leading the way in this movement (Hampshire was the first US school to divest from Apartheid South Africa).
When asked about a two vs. one state solution, Dr. Barghouti was torn in that, "My heart says two states, but my head says one." Explaining that he feels one state is just, but very far off, and he wants two states so his daughter can stop living under apartheid as soon as possible.
He said that he understands, very much, psychologically that for Jews now, after enduring centuries of persecution--from the Holocaust to Russian pogoms to the Spanish Inquisition, "it is so difficult to accept that they are sitting in the chair of the oppressor. It is time to look in the mirror. It is you."
He ended by postulating, "Are we equal human beings entitled to equal rights? This is the only question. It is a human issue."
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