Why are we still not outraged?

Posted by Kromey at 9:01pm Mar 21 '08
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We sit here in total compliance with state-sponsored terrorism and damn near approve of what is practically genocide.

Nael was a student by day and he helped at his brother's falafel stall by night, that is before he was diagnosed with cancer.

The treatment Nael needed was not available in Gaza, so he was sent to doctors in Egypt.

He responded well and his tumour went down in size.

But when the Hamas faction seized control of Gaza, Israel's response was to all but seal off the territory.

Nael was trapped inside Gaza and his tumour rapidly started to increase in size again.

Weak and bedridden, he told us he had applied several times to the Israeli authorities to be allowed to leave but had been denied each time.

He and his mother had gone to the border crossing anyway, but they had been turned back.

Less than a week after we spoke to him, Nael died. He was 21.

Yeah, killing Nael and dozens of other innocent civilians like him is doing a lot to suppress the rocket fire coming out of Gaza.

I went to talk about his case with a spokesman for the Israeli government who pointed out that the border closures were for security reasons.

And when we got on to the subject of seriously ill patients being allowed out of Gaza for treatment, he told me that, while some patients had been let out, it was his view that terminally ill ones posed a potential danger to Israel.

They had nothing to live for, he suggested, so they might blow themselves up and become suicide bombers.

Oh yes, we'd better condemn dozens and dozens of people to slow, painful deaths on the off chance that one of them just might turn out to be a terrorist himself. Better to presume guilt and execute them all now - and in the most inhumane way possible!!

Samir had been an employee at Abudan. He said he came by every day just to check if, by some chance, the factory was working again and he could have his job back.

He took us to his home: a small, dark construction of breeze-block and corrugated iron.

His wife held the youngest of their five children as she sat on a thin mattress on the floor. Two other toddlers ran around barefoot as we spoke.

He explained how he managed to make a little money by selling bread from a cart he wheeled through the town. It was not enough, he said, to feed his family.

His eyes welled up as he told us he had not been able to pay his rent for four months but that his landlord had taken pity on him.

Yeah, because heaven forbid that the clothes factory where Samir had worked continue to operate - it supports terrorism! Better that he be out of work and irate at those whose blockade is the cause than earning the means to feed his own family.

There was an alternative, [Samir] said, one which he had refused but which nearly half of his former colleagues had taken up.

It was to join a work-force that was still well paid in spite of the troubles everywhere else: that is, the security forces of Hamas.

The pressure being put on Gaza - not just by Israel but the international community and even the Palestinian government in the West Bank, which is run by the Fatah faction - is seen as a means of weakening Hamas, strengthening the moderates and stopping the rocket fire.

But, in fact, the rockets continue to be launched and mothers like Nael's are calling for revenge while working-age men like Samir are accepting Hamas' offer to pick up arms.

Oh. Oops.

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