Gaza is destroyed. It will not, at least for the Palestinians, be rebuilt. Those who lived there will spend their lives, like survivors of the Armenian genocide, desperately trying to protect memory.
Before, when I would think of Palestine, I saw beautiful stretches of desert, small citrus groves, busy villages. Now I see gray skeletons of high rises, angry people, staring children. I cannot forget these horrifying times.
I wonder how many young Americans will hold the Palestinian people in their hearts, return to the memories of these days when their own country not only stood by, but funded and supported this genocide. Will this, too become part of the shameful history we have absorbed and are now being told to forget?
I’ve paid close attention to the murder of Gaza. I’ve grieved and continue to grieve. I am entirely ashamed of my country. I will not forget the crimes or the criminals.
Please buy Refaat Alareer's book, “If I Must Die.” All proceeds go to his family. Many of us would like to see it reach the bestseller list. OR Books is the publisher. The first week's tally counts sales that go through Saturday, 14 Dec. -- Any order before Sunday makes the chance he makes the list that much higher. It’s one way to get Refaat’s name in the NYT! And let us not stop buying the book if it is past this first week’s date.
I recently read a very poignant statement by Stephen Jay Gould, someone whom I admired very much from the world of natural history. This article made me think of it, “…but when we have lost the living by human malfeasance, what can be more residually noble than faithful preservation and accurate description of often pitiable fragments.” This is what we too, must do. Thank you, Chris for your part in preserving the memory.
As I read this, I became increasingly saddened and sickened. If memory from my studies serves me, the Armenians originally were the Nazarenes, the first Christians.
I am reminded of a passage in the Gospel of Matthew: "Evil lives in the hearts of men." That evil manifests itself in stories such the one here. The "value" of human life is discounted by the powerful. The bodies of those "others" are the detritus to be disposed of unceremoniously. Often, such disgrace is done in the "name of G/god." Whose "G/god' is called into question with the more powerful and louder voices prevailing.
Asadourian's recounting of dumping his mother's body down a well of corpses is gruesome and chilling. I cannot imagine the grotesqueness of that moment. No religious or spiritual ceremony to celebrate the passing over of his mother's soul. No. Simply dumping her body down a well to prevent the jackals from making it their morsel. Gaza has in its own cruel and crude way become a similar dumping ground for the dead. Israel has gotten away with the slaughter of the Palestinians without push back, punishment or reprisal. It is all for the land-grab. The Jews have become the very monster they so loudly decry.
It is tales such as this one that call into question my graduate study at Seminary and my later ordination in the Christian Faith. The sordid reality of human living cannot be escaped; or ignored. I reflect on this current moment as an American. Are we truly prepared for the next, perhaps darkest, chapter in U.S. history? Through the diminishment of the life-value of the "other" have we not abandoned the God & Christ so loudly proclaimed in favor of the evil that lives within us? Have we struck a deal with the devil? Do we understand that the pact with the devil has no end date?
Time to make the Holy Land holy again. The best thing Pope Francis could ever do is to make his stand in Gaza, or Bethlehem. He has an opportunity that is unequalled, to say "no" to genocide. If Gaza is no longer an option, thanks to the total blockade by Israel. He could even go to the West Bank, Beirut, or even Teheran.
May it be his road to Damascus moment, and say, “Not in our name, not on our watch.”
I will sign, but I won't hold my breath. The Catholic Church has not rescinded the Doctrine of Christian Discovery, which drove the genocide of America's (and I mean the continent) indigenous and theft of their land and precious metals, much of the latter going to embellish the kings and the Catholic Church.
“The Tulsa race massacre, also known as the Tulsa race riot or the Black Wall Street massacre, was a two-day-long white supremacist terrorist massacre that took place between May 31 and June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents, some of whom had been appointed as deputies and armed by city government officials, attacked black residents and destroyed homes and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma.”Wikipedia
Why don't you write about the genocide of the Native Americans right here at home?
The Turks admitted that they were using the tactics of the US government in the Trail of Tears. Native tribes have been uprooted again and again. What about the massacre of old men, women and children at Wounded Knee?
It's easy to point fingers at someone else and say, "Look what they did" when we did it first and better. We in the US need to look at ourselves.
It's been done to the Christians in Armenia; to the Jews in Europe; now to the Palestinians. It is not new; it is as old as the old days, as new as today. Yet we never learn. We let it happen over and over and over. Maybe an atomic WWIII would be a mercy on us all. An opportunity for a new beginning.
Barbara Humphrey, Indeed, "We let it happen". One of the truly tragic aspects of this
genocide is that one phone call could have terminated its unfathomable brutality. The one person who could have done so but didn't is a grotesquely ghoulish, evil dotard. His response to innumerable pleas to put an end to the slaughter was/is to mumble his
idiotic mantra that Israel has the right to defend itself(!!!) as he orders billions worth
of bombs and artillery shells airmailed to the eagerly awaiting IDF. And as they bomb
tens of thousands women and children who are attacking them.
Of course it was well known he favoured slaughter in Gaza from the beginning. Read Begin's memoir, where he chastises a young congressman who, in his first term, suggested that the Israelis should obliterate the Palestinians.
Begin explained to him that you cannot do things like that - it was inhuman.
That man was Joe Biden.
Look at Biden's voting history ... filled with death.
Biden and Netanyahu belong in the came category in hell as the Austrian housepainter. We can only hope that the world never forgets the evil of these men and all of those who enabled them.
Resistance types will not like what I have to say here, but there is a reason that Zionists are able to exert power well beyond their numbers: Group solidarity and a willingness to do *whatever* *it* *takes* to advance group goals. This often is violence but not necessarily.
It's the same reason that a few dozen Hells Angels were able to run riot at Altamont while many thousands, many times their number of concertgoers milled around, got beat up, or ran for their lives.
Every Hells Angel knew that his fellow outlaws would support him, whatever the cost, and they were not afraid to hurt or kill anyone who got in their way, nor did they fear or care about any consequences. The hippies, by contrast, were dithering and indecisive, when if they had the Angels' determination and ethos, could have easily disarmed them or worse.
Before, when I would think of Palestine, I saw beautiful stretches of desert, small citrus groves, busy villages. Now I see gray skeletons of high rises, angry people, staring children. I cannot forget these horrifying times.
I wonder how many young Americans will hold the Palestinian people in their hearts, return to the memories of these days when their own country not only stood by, but funded and supported this genocide. Will this, too become part of the shameful history we have absorbed and are now being told to forget?
The US role in Gaza is unspeakably evil. History will be glad to be rid of us.
EXCELLENT AND ACCURATE ASSESSMENT of the current U.S. GLOBAL EMPIRE.
My newest double-sided, ad-hoc, focus-group tested, and highly favorable protest/demonstration signs simply say:
CORPORATE
CAPITALISM IS
SLOW MOTION
KRYSTAL NACHT
(and on the other side)
INEQUALITY
CAUSED BY
BILLIONAIRE
BASTARDS
I’ve paid close attention to the murder of Gaza. I’ve grieved and continue to grieve. I am entirely ashamed of my country. I will not forget the crimes or the criminals.
Happening everywhere:
… And you know the sun's settin' fast,
And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts.
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye,
But hold on to your lover,
'Cause your heart's bound to die.
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town.
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town,
Goodnight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FikZwgj89HI
Please buy Refaat Alareer's book, “If I Must Die.” All proceeds go to his family. Many of us would like to see it reach the bestseller list. OR Books is the publisher. The first week's tally counts sales that go through Saturday, 14 Dec. -- Any order before Sunday makes the chance he makes the list that much higher. It’s one way to get Refaat’s name in the NYT! And let us not stop buying the book if it is past this first week’s date.
I recently read a very poignant statement by Stephen Jay Gould, someone whom I admired very much from the world of natural history. This article made me think of it, “…but when we have lost the living by human malfeasance, what can be more residually noble than faithful preservation and accurate description of often pitiable fragments.” This is what we too, must do. Thank you, Chris for your part in preserving the memory.
The Hind Rajab Foundation has filed a case with the ICC against 1,000 Israeli soldiers for war crimes in Gaza.
https://www.hindrajabfoundation.org/perpetrators/hind-rajab-foundation-files-historic-icc-complaint-against-1000-israeli-soldiers-for-war-crimes-in-gaza
They can use our help. Please read the article and join me in making a contribution. https://buy.stripe.com/cN228hbY5g7jaM84gg
As I read this, I became increasingly saddened and sickened. If memory from my studies serves me, the Armenians originally were the Nazarenes, the first Christians.
I am reminded of a passage in the Gospel of Matthew: "Evil lives in the hearts of men." That evil manifests itself in stories such the one here. The "value" of human life is discounted by the powerful. The bodies of those "others" are the detritus to be disposed of unceremoniously. Often, such disgrace is done in the "name of G/god." Whose "G/god' is called into question with the more powerful and louder voices prevailing.
Asadourian's recounting of dumping his mother's body down a well of corpses is gruesome and chilling. I cannot imagine the grotesqueness of that moment. No religious or spiritual ceremony to celebrate the passing over of his mother's soul. No. Simply dumping her body down a well to prevent the jackals from making it their morsel. Gaza has in its own cruel and crude way become a similar dumping ground for the dead. Israel has gotten away with the slaughter of the Palestinians without push back, punishment or reprisal. It is all for the land-grab. The Jews have become the very monster they so loudly decry.
It is tales such as this one that call into question my graduate study at Seminary and my later ordination in the Christian Faith. The sordid reality of human living cannot be escaped; or ignored. I reflect on this current moment as an American. Are we truly prepared for the next, perhaps darkest, chapter in U.S. history? Through the diminishment of the life-value of the "other" have we not abandoned the God & Christ so loudly proclaimed in favor of the evil that lives within us? Have we struck a deal with the devil? Do we understand that the pact with the devil has no end date?
Time to make the Holy Land holy again. The best thing Pope Francis could ever do is to make his stand in Gaza, or Bethlehem. He has an opportunity that is unequalled, to say "no" to genocide. If Gaza is no longer an option, thanks to the total blockade by Israel. He could even go to the West Bank, Beirut, or even Teheran.
May it be his road to Damascus moment, and say, “Not in our name, not on our watch.”
Please sign the petition and share widely.
https://chng.it/gkvBfY44rq
I will sign, but I won't hold my breath. The Catholic Church has not rescinded the Doctrine of Christian Discovery, which drove the genocide of America's (and I mean the continent) indigenous and theft of their land and precious metals, much of the latter going to embellish the kings and the Catholic Church.
“The Tulsa race massacre, also known as the Tulsa race riot or the Black Wall Street massacre, was a two-day-long white supremacist terrorist massacre that took place between May 31 and June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents, some of whom had been appointed as deputies and armed by city government officials, attacked black residents and destroyed homes and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma.”Wikipedia
Why don't you write about the genocide of the Native Americans right here at home?
The Turks admitted that they were using the tactics of the US government in the Trail of Tears. Native tribes have been uprooted again and again. What about the massacre of old men, women and children at Wounded Knee?
It's easy to point fingers at someone else and say, "Look what they did" when we did it first and better. We in the US need to look at ourselves.
It really is an annhilation. I knew only vaguely of the Armenian genocide.
It's been done to the Christians in Armenia; to the Jews in Europe; now to the Palestinians. It is not new; it is as old as the old days, as new as today. Yet we never learn. We let it happen over and over and over. Maybe an atomic WWIII would be a mercy on us all. An opportunity for a new beginning.
Barbara Humphrey, Indeed, "We let it happen". One of the truly tragic aspects of this
genocide is that one phone call could have terminated its unfathomable brutality. The one person who could have done so but didn't is a grotesquely ghoulish, evil dotard. His response to innumerable pleas to put an end to the slaughter was/is to mumble his
idiotic mantra that Israel has the right to defend itself(!!!) as he orders billions worth
of bombs and artillery shells airmailed to the eagerly awaiting IDF. And as they bomb
tens of thousands women and children who are attacking them.
Of course it was well known he favoured slaughter in Gaza from the beginning. Read Begin's memoir, where he chastises a young congressman who, in his first term, suggested that the Israelis should obliterate the Palestinians.
Begin explained to him that you cannot do things like that - it was inhuman.
That man was Joe Biden.
Look at Biden's voting history ... filled with death.
Biden and Netanyahu belong in the came category in hell as the Austrian housepainter. We can only hope that the world never forgets the evil of these men and all of those who enabled them.
Resistance types will not like what I have to say here, but there is a reason that Zionists are able to exert power well beyond their numbers: Group solidarity and a willingness to do *whatever* *it* *takes* to advance group goals. This often is violence but not necessarily.
It's the same reason that a few dozen Hells Angels were able to run riot at Altamont while many thousands, many times their number of concertgoers milled around, got beat up, or ran for their lives.
Every Hells Angel knew that his fellow outlaws would support him, whatever the cost, and they were not afraid to hurt or kill anyone who got in their way, nor did they fear or care about any consequences. The hippies, by contrast, were dithering and indecisive, when if they had the Angels' determination and ethos, could have easily disarmed them or worse.
You're suggesting that if masses of unarmed Palestinians got together and counterattacked the IDF bombers they could have saved themselves?
No.
We (the human race) create our own problems over and over...fear moves us but we are foolishly missing the lesson that is right in front of us...love.