FOCUS ON THE POOL IN GAZA

 

 Artwork by the young artists and children of Gaza. 

Below is a short film showing a way some caring people have found to facilitate the healing the children of Palestine. It is very common sense of course, simple play in fresh air, but because these are Palestinian children, it will possibly end up controversial and exploited. However, these are just children. Children who have seen more death than many of us see in several lifetimes. 

If these were our children, in our safe lands, no one would notice because this happens every day. 

These children would like their lives to be so routine, no one notices their play either, that they just be normal children. If they even know what normal is which is doubtful.

What we do not see are the maimed children.

We do not see the sick children denied medical care.

We do not see one legged and the severely traumatized.

We do not see the children who lost their skin due to chemicals dropped upon their world, whose flesh melted from their bones.

We do not see the children who cannot attend school due to attacks from the vicious Settlers or any of a thousand other problems that plague these young.

We do not see the children held in the cesspools called jails in Israel for daring to be angry enough to throw a stone after the death of a parent or sibling.

This is, bless the hearts of those who have created this programme, just a small beginning, a fact of which I am sure the organizers are painfully aware.

Listening to the stories of children from Gaza is often unbearable, but it’s also sad that I can’t watch this clip without imagining the ways in which Zionists are going to distort it so they can use it as propaganda. 

Like the tired footage of a mall in Gaza (yes, even the world’s poorest countries have malls) that is circulated as evidence that reports from “anti-semitic” institutions such as the UN are false (learn more about UN Watch here), these images of Gazan children playing in a makeshift pool will be used as proof that they are doing just fine.

Images of the overweight trauma psychologist will be passed around as an example of how overfed Gaza’s population is. Pay no attention, the Zionists will insist, to reports from respected humanitarian NGOs showing that 80% of Gaza’s population depends on handouts for basic sustenance. 

Forget that Gaza has almost no economy since Israel has bombed most of its infrastructure and does not allow Gazans to rebuild or trade because of its illegal siege which has strangled the population since 2007 ~ according to UNRWA 42% of Gaza’s workplace is unemployed. 

Ignore the facts, Zionists will demand, that the Gaza Strip is home to more than one million registered refugees and that Gaza’s refugee camps have one of the highest population densities in the world ~ according to UNRWA, “over 82,000 refugees live in Beach camp, whose area is less than one square kilometre.” 

Nope, none of this can matter to those who support Israel’s policies against Gaza. 

There’s a pool in Gaza. Enough said.

 I came across this poem by a girl who would have been perhaps 12 during the Gazan Holocaust December 2008 January 2009. Very moving .... 

Look at me
I would love to write poetry about love,
Paint rainbows and butterflies,
Smell the scent of rose buds,
And dance;
Dance with the melody of birds singing 

I would love to close my eyes and see children smiling
With no guns pointing at their heads
Tell them stories of little fairies in far away lands
Not of bullets shooting, or missile exploding 

But
How can I?
There is a knife in my heart
I am hurting
Hurting
I bleed,
I cringe
I cry 

HUMANITY, WHERE ARE YOU? 

I am being slaughtered
Under your watchful eyes
I am cold… cold…. cold
I cringe
I cry 

Humanity, where are you? 

Why do you turn your face away?
Why do you keep looking the other way?
I am here
Languishing
In Gaza alleyways 

Humanity, where are you? 

Look at me
Look at me
I am here
In Gaza alleyways
I cringe
I cry 

Humanity,
Enough turning the other way

Sometimes my tears drop

But too many and they turn to blood...