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IC NEWSLETTER -
SPRING 2009
14
OnDecember 27
th
, Israeli jets flewover
Gaza and began an aggressive assault
on the strip. For the next three weeks,
over 1,300 Palestinians, a third of
them children, were killed. Thousands
of others were injured. Homes,
hospitals and vital infrastructure were
destroyed.
Trapped with no one where to go,
Palestinians could do little but appeal
in vain for help.
IC students, faculty and staff
watched, stunned at the tragedy
unfolding not too far away. Many
vividly remembered Israel’s attack on
Lebanon in July 2006. Feeling helpless
to the pleas of the neighbors, students
organized a sit-in, fundraising drives,
and donations. Teachers across the
campus alerted their students to the
woes of the Palestinians and held
class discussions. Almost all joined
in: The Ciné Club offered CDs about
the history background of Al Nakba
to the middle school, movies dealing
with Palestinians were shown during
lunch breaks, various classes obtained
photographs of Gaza children and
displayed them, students in art classes
were asked to reflect their feelings
about the attacks in their drawings,
other students monitored the news
as homework, bulletin boards in the
middle school displayed student work
aboutGaza,upperclassesincorporated
texts about Gaza in their syllabus, a
special booklet written by students
(about Gaza) was published and sold
as part of the fundraising efforts. And
perhaps the most poignant moment
was when secondary students held
a sit-in in front of Rockefeller Hall in
solidarity with the Palestinians.
Gaza – a Flashback from July 2006? –
a student’s perspective
The sound and news of bombs
exploding
in
our
region
is
unfortunately an all too common
incident. The sounds of explosions,
sirens of ambulances, the disturbing
Israeli phone calls to our homes, and
waking up in the middle of the night
from the sound of bombs exploding
from the sky, are still etched in our
memories of the horrors of war.
The Israeli offensive in Gaza is a
disturbing flashback of Lebanon’s July
2006 war with Israel. The air, the sea
and the earth in Gaza City are now
occupied by the Israeli military. They
are also responsible for over 1,300
deaths and counting – a frightening
image of Lebanon’s 1,287 civilian
deaths. The reality is that Gaza’s war
with Israel is similar to Lebanon’s July
2006 war in more ways than one. The
ubiquitous Israeli “self-defense” excuse
for their offenses and the painstakingly
slow international response are a
painful memory of the events of the
2006war. The international community
continues its deafening silence, while
the death toll rises and the children of
Gaza starve to death. Unlike Lebanon,
Gaza is in a desperate humanitarian
situation. The children of Gaza are
slowly dying with no water, no food,
no medicine, and in an increasingly
number of cases, no home. With the
cut of humanitarian aid, the humble
tunnels between Rafah and Egypt
are the only lifeline for the 1.5 million
Palestinian people. However, the
Israeli military has made sure to do its
utmost to destroy the tunnels that go
from Rafah into Egypt, further choking
the Palestinians. The heartbreaking
stories are endless from a 16-year-old
girl, suffering from injuries, lost three
brothers, watched her mom dying in
the intensive care unit to the infants
found in a bombed house playing with
theirmother’s deadbody, one question
lingers in everyone’s conscience: What
is the international community waiting
for? What is happening is against
humanity; the carnage must stop and
Gaza must live.
By Ziad Sahli, reprinted from the
Makhloutah, February, 2009
the attacks!