All the articles Ive read today are about the ceasefire that didnt happen. Sophisticated analyses have been made about what went wrong, which parties asked for what, who was most stubborn, who had the biggest stick and who had the most to lose. Yesterday I predicted - somewhat hopefully - that we were on the home stretch, but obviously I was wrong...with things worse than ever. I shared a rare, quiet moment yesterday with my friend Ramy while the shelling had stopped. (He was the one I posted about last week who had lost his best friend.) Its in those in-between moments when I think the truth really comes out. I asked Ramy why his government appeared to be so intractable and he said to me: Gisele, we have lost too much blood to go back to the way things were before...just so that Israel can have peace and quiet. All those people died. For what? So we can go back to our miserable lives? Despite losing his best friend and also some extended family, he bore no hate or malice - he spoke not a word of revenge. I asked him to put his thoughts together in a letter which I have posted below. I must admit I am worried for Ramy. I worry every day of course. He usually checks in a couple of times a day and I have not heard from him since we last spoke. I hope that these words that he shared with me will not be his last. A letter to the world from a citizen of Gaza, Gazans want to end the war with Israel. Both the Israeli attacks on Gaza and the rockets fired from Gaza on Israel must stop. Ending the Israeli siege on Gaza, opening the Gaza port, and rebuilding Gaza’s airport will make this possible. The population of Gaza deserves what everyone else takes for granted in this world. I live in northern Gaza. We have lost way too many families, too many homes. All we want is peace. We want the war and siege to end. We want to be able to breathe, to live. Is this too much to ask? I hope that the world will not remain indifferent to our suffering, to our tragedy. All that the population of Gaza wants is peace with Israel. We have lost our homes and our families. We have lost our freedom. We need to start a new day, we need to start rebuilding Gaza, we need to start rebuilding our lives. We need the attacks to stop and the siege to be removed. Please share our wish with the world. Ramy Balawi
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 09:23:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015