Please read this paper…. Kitties are worth more than babies??
By Guest Post • Jan 11th, 2009 at 20:42 • Category: Analysis, Children's Corner, Counter-terrorism, No thanks!, Features, Israel, Mary's Choice, Newswire, Opinions and Letters, Palestine, Resistance, War, Zionism
WRITTEN BY Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza on January 9, 2009:
Take some kittens, some tender little moggies in a box", said Jamal, a surgeon at the Al Shifa, Gaza's main hospital, while a nurse actually placed a couple of blood-stained cardboard boxes in front of us. "Seal up the box, then jump on it with all your weight and might, until you feel their little bones crunching, and you hear the last muffled little mew." I stared at the boxes in astonishment, and the doctor continued: "Try to imagine what would happen after such images were circulated. The righteous outrage of public opinion, the complaints of the animal rights organisations…" The doctors went on in this vein, and I was unable to take my eyes off those boxes, sitting at our feet. "Israel trapped hundreds of civilians inside a school as if in a box, including many children, and then crushed them with all the might of its bombs.
What were the world's reactions? Almost nothing. We would have been better off as animals rather than Palestinians, we would have been more protected."
At this point the doctor leans towards one of the boxes, and takes its lid off in front of me. Inside it are the amputated limbs, legs and arms, some from the knee down, others with the entire femur attached, amputated from the injured at the Al Fakhura United Nations school in Jabalia, which resulted in more than fifity casualties. Pretending to be taking an urgent call, I took my leave of Jamal, actually rushing to the bathroom to bend over and throw up.
A little earlier I'd been involved in a conversation with Dr. Abdel, an ophtalmologist, regarding the rumours that the Israeli Army had been showering us with non-conventional weapons, forbidden by the Geneva Convention, such as cluster bombs and white phosphorous. The very same that the Tsahal Army used in the last Lebanese war, as well as the US air force in Falluja, still violating international norms. In front of Al Auda hospital we witnessed and filmed white phosphorous bombs being used about five hundred metres from where we were, too far to be absolutely certain there were any civilians underneath the Israeli Apaches, but so terribly close to us all the same.The Geneva Treaty of 1980 forbids white phosphorous being used directly as a war weapon in civilian areas, allowing it only as a smoke screen or for lighting.
There's no doubt that using this weapon in Gaza, a strip of land concentrating the highest population rate in the world, is a crime all on its own. Doctor Abdel told me that at Al Shifa hospital they don't have the medical and military competence to say for sure whether the wounds they examined on certain corpses were indeed provoked by white phosphorous bullets.But on his word, in twenty years on the job he had never seen casualties like those now being carried into the ward.
He told me about the traumas to the skull, with the fractures to the vomer bone, the jaw, the cheekbones, tear duct, nasal and palatine bones showed signs of the collision of an immense force against the victim's face.
What he finds inexplicable is the total lack of eyeballs, which ought to leave a trace somewhere within the skull even in case of such a violent impact. Instead, we see Palestinian corpses coming into the hospitals without eyes at all, as if someone had removed them surgically before handing them over to the coroner. Israel has let us know that we've been granted a daily 3-hour truce, from 1:00 to 4:00 PM.
These statements from the Israeli military summit are considered by the people of Gaza as having the same reliability as the Hamas leaders' declarations that they've just provoked a massacre of enemy soldiers. Just to be clear on this point, the soldiers of Tel Aviv's worse enemy are the very same who fight under the Star of David. Yesterday a war ship off the coast of Gaza's port picked out a large group of alleged guerrilla fighters from the Palestinian Resistance, moving as a united front around Jabalia. They shot their cannons at them. But as it turned out, they were their own fellow soldiers, with the shooting resulting in three being killed and about twenty injured. No one here believes in the truces that Israel declares, and as it happens, today at 2:00 PM Rafah was under attack by the Israeli helicopters.
There was also yet another massacre of children in Jabalia: three little sisters aged 2, 4 and 6 from the Abed Rabbu family were slaughtered. Just half an hour earlier in Jabalia, once again the Red Crescent hospital's ambulances were under attack. Eva and Alberto, my ISM colleagues were on board that ambulance and managed to film everything, passing those videos and photos on to all the major media.Hassan was kneecapped, fresh from mourning the death of his friend Araf, a paramedic who was killed two days ago as he came in aid of the injured in Gaza City. They had stopped to pick up the body of a man languishing in agony in the middle of the road, when they were under fire by about ten shots from an Israeli sniper. One bullet hit Hassan in the knee and the ambulance was filled with holes.
We're now at a death toll of 688, in addition to 3,070 injured, 158 dead children and countless missing. Only yesterday, we counted 83 dead, 80 of which were civilians. Thankfully, the death toll on the Israeli side is still only at 4.Travelling towards Al Quds hospital, where I'll be working all night on the ambulances, as I raced along on board one of the very few fearless taxis left, zig-zagging to avoid the bombs, on the corner of one street I saw a group of dirty street urchins with tattered clothes, looking exactly like the "sciuscià" kids of the Italian afterwar period. They threw stones towards the sky with slingshots, at far away and unapproachable enemy who was toying with their lives.
This is a crazy metaphor, which could serve as a snapshot of the absurdity of this time and place.
Stay human
Vittorio Arrigoni
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Tell your Hammas friends that as soon as they stop shooting missles, I srael will stop bombing the launch areas and if Hammas shoot from under civilian skirts then they target their own civilians. for 8 years they are shoting missles and finally my impotent government is doing something. too little, too late. I am an Ex left wing supporter that used to beleive that their can be a nd should be peace between Jews and Arabs but no more. There can be no peace. Even the Arabs inside Israel are the enemy within. This coming election I will vote for avigdor liberman and hopefully we will have a strong right winged government that will be able to talk to the Arabs in a language they understand, and that language is brute force. There is a reason why almost all of the Arab nations are totaliterian regimes. Democracy is not suitable to all and defintly not suited for arabs.
Hermosos gatitos!!!!
Hasta los animales sufren con esta guerra.
Freedom for Falestine!!!!
Yaary – Another one of those who thinks this is just about the last 8 years, not the last 42 or 61 years (or even further back!). It's a shame that some people are going to think like this but fortunately not everyone. Some of us still have some humanity and hope left in us. We are the real humans in the world. Peace is not impossible but if people like Yaary are in power, it will never be reached because those in charge are too busy worrying about themselves. They don't care about Gaza, they don't even care about Israel, just themselves and their position of power.
to the guy who balmes Hamas.. What a joke! How timid and cowardly of you. YOu cannot even stand by your own acts. I know who is killing.. It is Itrael and I know what your nature is. It is murderous. Because of this attack onto Gaza I have identified your true nature and the wickedness is echoed in you call to cay.. if they stop we'll stop. that is a lie.. they did stop and you punished then lies do not hold one thing.. you are exposed and your nation is dead to ,me I never speak that name again.. you lost your name.. I call you IT. ITrael because I see how ruthless and murdoerous you are.. and then lie besides and say you are victim..
you are zero. you love the death as I can tell by you snide remark . I see you . You are death. you pray to a cow to please the devil. I learned that when I saw what you have done..
I saw you bomb Lebanon. I saw what was not on our news. You cannot hide all that blood. It smells. Its on your hands. It will be around you when ever you turn to god and he will say" you are unclean. Talk to me when you are clean.." You are now filth to rival Hitler and trauma and death to rival the killing fields. You make Idi Amin look like a nice man. Sharon alone is enough for god to abandon you. He was just hoping you would turn from evil ways.. but now he knows you are the leader of evil ways..
I know who you are. You have made that clear to all the world.. The PR has failed. You forgot, most people are not as impressed by horrific bloody deeds. Stay away from me. I want nothing to do with you I do not forgive you. I blame you. the curse is automatic I don't have to curse or hate you . I only hate to know your truth.is death.
When god has had enough of your arrogance, then the bombing will stop. Hamas.. is jsut your battle cry to make us pay for your filth.. Palestine Lives no matter how you try to blame Hamas.. I heard Mossad started Hamas I have seen pics with Hamas men wearing the star of David.. Did he forget to take it off? Mossad bombed Mumbai too. There is no polite language to adress you with.. you have chosen murder and you live with that.. dont go pointing to make you feel better. you will never feel better even if I believe you for you know you r own truth that is not for show.
To Yaari,
Your talk is just a talk of an ignorant, a person whose ideas got easily converted by the media. How dare you compare Hamas’s missiles, which were shot after the Zionists started killing civilians, to the most atrocious bombs the killers, you are defending, use? You can not pretend to be a partisan of any kind. You are just a lost soul, still not knowing right from wrong. Imagine that the newborns and the kids murdered were from your family, what would you say? Imagine you were on the unarmed side? Imagine your lands were taken by an occupant, who also chose to kill your entire population….Imagine, and then take a stand!
Just for your information, Arabs understand much more than you can imagine. The problems are the Zionists who can only speak brutal language, which is unfortunately the language of the weakest!! You must know, although you chose not to admit, that the party who can only defend its view by brutal force, proves to be weak. The Zionists may have the most modern arms, but they have proved, over the times, that they are indeed coward and chickenhearted people!!!
We know, for sure, that the truth will rise and we will watch you, sooner or later, in great DEFEAT, but you must know, you Zionists, that as much as you are cowards, Muslims are not afraid of death…
[...] Boycott the supporters of Zionist war criminals and racism McDonald’s and Starbucks, announced yes… [...]
Bismillah
As salaamu alaikum from Spain.
I do understand the despair in the surgeon words, he is right. Anyway, I'd like to make a little point here.
It's not that kittens are worthier than children _but I volunteer here with my husband with homeless people, most of them whole families. They have pets and we fight for they can find homes or shelters without leaving them back, or finding a volunteer veterinary. Animals not only have rights to life, according to our Beloved Prophet (SAS), and furthermore, Gazan families do need to recover their lifes and dignity. And this include supplies, water, freedom to travel, secure homes, schools and toys, and also their pets.
There is a hadith that tells how a prostitute woman entered Janna' because in all her life, in all her troubles, one day happened to found a wounded dog and fed him with her own food, and brought water for him with her last sandal.
LIBERTAD Y JUSTICIA PARA PALESTINA