Palästina-News No. 35

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Credit: IMAD ABU SHTAYYAH, Palestine, We shall return, 2014; Oil on Canvas

Palästina-News Nr. 35, February 2024

What you don't learn in Switzerland

The aim of this newsletter is to improve information about events in Palestine and Israel, with a focus - but not only - on the German-speaking part of Switzerland. For this purpose, articles from Englishlanguage online newspapers, online portals, publications, etc., are quoted in abbreviated form.

References provide a link to the original article and / or publication medium. The edited articles have been shortened and may not fully reflect the opinions of the authors. Martin Luzi Büechi (MLB)

Mail: palnews@bluewin.ch

Website: www.palaestina-news.ch

Women's World Day of Prayer: Censorship of Palestinian women by their sisters in Germany and Austria

World Day of Prayer (WDP)

WDP is a global ecumenical movement led by Christian women, inviting everyone to join in prayer and action for peace and justice on 1 March. This year's WDP country, Palestine, was chosen at the 2017 WDP International Conference in Brazil, where the biblical passage for the prayer text was also chosen: I Beg You… Bear With One Another in Love (Ephesians 4:1-3). The liturgy was prepared by Christian women from six different churches in Palestine. It is based on the desire for peace and reconciliation. Due to the dramatic events in Israel and Palestine since 7 October, the WPD committees in Germany and Austria have decided not only to change the liturgy but also not to use the Poster of Halima Aziz, as it could be interpreted as "Hamas-friendly". The WPD committee in Switzerland uses both the poster and the text of the original liturgy mention of the Nakba. MLB

The poster for WDP 2024 was made by Halima Aziz, born 1999 in Germany. She is a passionate Palestinian visual artist and design student based in Germany and spent her childhood in Palestine. Halima

experienced the war in Gaza in 2008 and survived it. In 2009 she moved back to Germany. The poster represents three Palestinian women praying together in nature. In her work, Halima has different

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motives and symbols that indicate the origin of these women and their cohesion.

Poster: Titelbild WGT 2024 Palästina von Halima Aziz

The women are wearing traditional Palestinian dresses like the tatreez (embroidery) thobe (dress) or the white scarf. And the keys are a symbol of the hope to return back to Palestine in a peaceful place. Olive trees and branches are a sign of everlasting and abundant life because they can live for thousands of years. The golden roots are underlining the fact that the Palestinians will always exist and as they exist, they will always resist for their rights and freedom. Poppy flowers are abundant and meaningfull to Palestinians. They remind Palestinians of loved ones who have given their lives for their country.

Part of a commentary by WPD Switzerland

As in 1994, Christian Palestinians have composed the World Day of Prayer liturgy for the year 2024. They describe their country as a tiny spot in the Middle East that is important for the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The country has a painful history. The current situation is a consequence of the political situation in the Middle East after the First World War and the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, after the Second World War. What was celebrated as a day of rejoice-

cing by Jews persecuted in Europe was a catastrophe for Palestinians who lost their homeland at that time, in Arabic: Nakba

To this day, our perception of Palestine is characterized by news of violent conflicts, terrorist attacks and war. war. Less attention is paid to reports about various organizations and projects that are actively working for reconciliation and peace. Unfortunately, these initiatives are not supported by the policies of those in power on both sides; on the contrary, they are suppressed. In the common longing for peace, is it possible to work together instead of against each other "through the bond of peace"?

Board of the WDP in Germany (excerpts):

Almost two months before the World Day of Prayer (WDP) on 1 March 2024, the WGT board and committee have been working on an updated version of the order of service since 7 October in view of the dramatic events in Israel and Palestine, which will be sent out in the next few days. The poster, postcards and invitation flyer with the motif of a young Palestinian artist have also been changed, as the accusation that she is Hamas-friendly could not be dispelled.

Board of the WDP Austria (excerpts):

The way the situation has developed, we can no longer fully support the cover picture of the liturgy, because it contains elements that can be interpreted in a way that we do not want them to be understood.

Reply of the WDPIC Executive Committee

Our WDPIC office has been approached in the past year, particularly since the Israel Gaza war has brought devastation to the region following the violent attack on October 7, 2023. We have been asked if there will be any changes made to the liturgy in light of the current situation. Our response has been consistent with our practices as a movement for many years. We believe that the liturgy offered each year is a profound gift, and one that we receive in its fullness. We stand with the liturgy offered by our sisters from WDP Palestine, and we encourage all local celebrations around the world to honor those voices as they are offered.

Christ in the Rubble, Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, Photograph by Rev. Munther Isaac

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Israeli commandos: cold blood murder and war crime in the Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin

The Intercept

When Israeli forces invaded a Jenin hospital dressed in medical outfits and killed three Palestinians, they probably violated laws against perfidy and executing protected individuals. Jon Schwarz,

January 31, 2024

Members of the Israeli military, its border police, and its security service Shin Bet staged a raid on the Ibn Sina hospital in the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank. Israeli personnel — all wearing disguises, such as hospital scrubs or a white doctor’s coat, and caught on closed-circuit videoOpens in a new tab — shot and killed three Palestinian men. This likely broke several laws of war, including the prohibition against perfidy and the killing of protected people.

The hospital’s director, Dr. Naji Nazzal, told ReutersOpens in a new tab that the Israelis “executed the three men as they slept in the room. They executed them in cold blood by firing bullets directly into their heads in the room where they were being treated.” However, Nazzal only identified one of the men, Basil Ghazawi, as being treated there — for a spinal cord injury that had paralyzed him in an October battle with Israeli troops.

A bullet hole is pictured on a blood-spattered pillow at the Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin, West Bank, on January 30.; Zain Jaafar/AFP/ Getty Images

Kenneth Roth, the former head of Human Rights Watch contends, the fact “that Israeli forces disguised themselves as medical personnel not only endangers real medical personnel but also suggests the Israelis were guilty of the war crime of perfidy.” Aurel Sari, an associate professor of public international law at the University of Exeter and a fellow at the Supreme Headquarters Allied

Video von The Guardian: https://youtu.be/sHQXj-PYlm4

Mitglieder des israelischen Militärs, der Grenzpolizei und des israelischen Sicherheitsdienstes Shin Bet stürmten das Ibn-Sina-Krankenhaus in der Stadt Jenin im nördlichen Westjordanland. Die israelischen Kommandos, die alle verkleidet waren, z. B. mit Krankenhauskitteln oder einem weissen Arztkittel, und auf Videoaufnahmen zu sehen waren, erschossen drei palästinensische Männer. Damit wurde wahrscheinlich gegen mehrere Kriegsgesetze verstossen, unter anderem gegen das Verbot der Perfidie und der Tötung von geschützten Personen.

Der Direktor des Krankenhauses, Dr. Naji Nazzal, sagte gegenüber der Nachrichtenagentur ReutersÖff-net in einem neuen Beitrag, dass die Israelis "die drei Männer exekutierten, als sie in dem Zimmer schliefen. Sie haben sie kaltblütig hingerichtet, indem sie ihnen in dem Zimmer, in dem sie behandelt wurden, direkt in den Kopf geschossen haben". Nazzal gab jedoch nur an, dass einer der Männer, Basil Ghazawi, dort behan-delt wurde - wegen einer Verletzung des Rücken-marks, die ihn nach einem Gefecht mit israelischen Truppen im Oktober gelähmt hatte.

Kenneth Roth, der frühere Leiter von Human Rights Watch, meint, die Tatsache, "dass sich die israeli-schen Streitkräfte als medizinisches Personal getarnt haben, gefährdet nicht nur das echte medizinische Personal, sondern legt auch nahe, dass sich die Israelis des Kriegsverbrechens der Perfidie schuldig gemacht haben". Aurel Sari, ausserordentlicher Professor für Völkerrecht an der Universität von Exeter und Mitarbeiter des Oberkommandos der Alliierten Streitkräfte in Europa, stimmt dem zu. "Perfidie beinhaltet die Tötung oder Verletzung eines Gegners in einer Art und Weise, die dessen Vertrauen in den

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Powers Europe, agrees. “Perfidy involves the killing or injury of an adversary in a manner that first invites but then betrays their confidence in a protection offered by the law of armed conflict,” says Sari.

Israel is one of the few countries (and the U.S. is another) that has not ratified Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, a 1977 amendment that specifically bans perfidy. However, perfidy is also illegal under customary international law. Sari points out that the Israeli Supreme Court has accepted that Israel is bound by customary international law. Palestine did ratify the Rome Statute. This means the International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction over potential crimes committed by Israelis or Palestinians or anyone on Palestinian soil, such as at the Jenin hospital.

Schutz durch das Recht des bewaffneten Konflikts erst einlädt und dann verrät", sagt Sari.

Israel ist eines der wenigen Länder (neben den USA), die das Zusatzprotokoll I zu den Genfer Konventionen nicht ratifiziert haben, eine Änderung von 1977, die Perfidie ausdrücklich verbietet. Perfidie ist jedoch auch nach dem Völkergewohnheitsrecht illegal. Sari weist darauf hin, dass der israelische Oberste Gerichtshof anerkannt hat, dass Israel an das Völker-gewohnheitsrecht gebunden ist. Palästina hat das Römische Statut ratifiziert. Das bedeutet, dass der Int. Strafgerichtshof (IStGH) für mögliche Verbrechen zu-ständig ist, die von Israelis oder Palästinensern oder von Personen auf palästinensischem Boden begangen werden, wie z. B. im Krankenhaus von Dschenin.

Epidemiological warfare by Israel in Gaza

JewishCurrents

Disease is poised to become an even deadlier second front in Israel’s assault on the besieged Strip. Maya Rosen; January 5, 2024

Central Rafah Credit: Image © Planet Labs PBC

With drinking water scarce, especially after winter rains and floods, there are concerns about water-borne and infectious diseases such as cholera and chronic diarrhoea. Lack of access to safe drinking water is a death sentence for Gazans. Gaza City's main reservoirs, Al-Balad and Al-Rimal, were completely destroyed in an Israeli bulldozing operation. The Al-Balad reservoir, which housed not only a well but also maintenance equipment for the water pipes and administrative offices for the city's water department, and the Al-Rimal reservoir, which housed the offices of the sanitation department and a warehouse for maintenance equipment for the sewage network, were both bulldozed too during the Israeli ground invasion. MLB

Since October 7th, Israel has severely reduced the entry of food, water, and fuel into Gaza, success-fully creating what global health expert Yara Asi* described as “a dire human-made humanitarian catastrophe” characterized by mass hunger, thirst, homelessness, and lack of medical services. As months pass without any meaningful relief, these conditions have produced “the perfect storm for disease,”. But today, amid an ongoing assault that has destroyed 27 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals, as well as

Seit dem 7. Oktober hat Israel die Zufuhr von Lebensmitteln, Wasser und Treibstoff in den Gazastreifen stark eingeschränkt und damit erfolgreich das geschaffen, was die globale Gesundheitsexpertin Yara Asi* als "eine schreckliche, vom Menschen verursachte humanitäre Katastrophe" bezeichnete, die durch Massenhunger, Durst, Obdachlosigkeit und fehlende medizinische Versorgung gekennzeichnet ist. Da Monate ohne nennenswerte Hilfe verstrichen sind, haben diese Bedin-

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the very foundations of the enclave’s public health - in the form of food, water, and shelter - epidemics are likely to mean mass death. “You don’t need overt bloodshed to cause significant violence that ends people’s lives,” Asi told Jewish Currents. “Many people will die unnecessary deaths due to deprivation.”

Palestinians wait to collect food in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 24 December 2023. Bashar Taleb APA images

The current health emergency in Gaza builds on the ruinous effects of years of Israeli restrictions on the Strip’s health system. As Asi told the Foundation for Middle East Peace on November 14th, “we’ve heard increasingly . . . that Gaza’s health system has collapsed. But in reality, Gaza’s health system has been on the verge of collapse essentially for 16 years.” Over that time, Israel has kept Gaza under a tightly controlled blockade, restricting access not only to medical equipment and medications, but also to food and water

Every public health expert with whom I spoke agreed that a ceasefire is the first step towards addressing the health crisis in Gaza, “so that the hospitals will go back to functioning, so that aid - food, water, sanitary items, medicine - can reach everyone,” as Aseel Aburass from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel told Jewish Currents. But, as Asi noted, a ceasefire would only address the most explicit forms of violence, and the indirect toll of the war is likely to keep growing even if the bombs stop falling.

A refugee camp in Gaza City.Credit Dawoud Abo Alkas ANADOLU Anadolu via AFP

gungen "den perfekten Sturm für Krankheiten" geschaffen. Doch heute, inmitten eines anhaltenden Angriffs, der 27 der 36 Spitäler im Gazastreifen sowie die Grundlagen der öffentlichen Gesundheit in Form von Nahrung, Wasser und Unterkünften zerstört hat, bedeuten Epidemien wahrscheinlich ein Massensterben. "Man braucht kein offenes Blutvergiessen, um signifikante Gewalt zu verursachen, die das Leben von Menschen beendet", so Asi gegenüber Jewish Currents. "Viele Menschen werden aufgrund von Entbehrungen einen unnötigen Tod sterben."

Der derzeitige Gesundheitsnotstand im Gazastreifen baut auf den ruinösen Auswirkungen der jahrelangen israelischen Beschränkungen des Gesundheitssys-tems im Gazastreifen auf. Wie Asi am 14. November gegenüber der Stiftung für den Frieden im Nahen Osten erklärte, "hören wir zunehmend, dass das Gesundheitssystem des Gazastreifens zusammengebrochen ist. Aber in Wirklichkeit steht das Gesund-heitssystem des Gazastreifens schon seit 16 Jahren kurz vor dem Zusammenbruch". In dieser Zeit hat Israel den Gazastreifen unter einer streng kontrol-lierten Blockade gehalten, die nicht nur den Zugang zu medizinischer Ausrüstung und Medikamenten, sondern auch zu Lebensmitteln und Wasser einschränkt.

Crowds of displaced Palestinians at a UNRWA-affiliated school in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on December 19th, 2023.

Alle Gesundheitsexperten, mit denen ich gesprochen habe, waren sich einig, dass ein Waffenstillstand der erste Schritt zur Bewältigung der Gesundheitskrise im Gazastreifen ist, "damit die Krankenhäuser wieder funktionieren und die Hilfsgüter - Lebensmittel, Wasser, Hygieneartikel, Medikamente - alle erreichen können", wie Aseel Aburass von Physicians for Human Rights-Israel gegenüber Jewish Currents erklärte. Aber, wie Asi anmerkte, würde ein Waffenstillstand nur die deutlichsten Formen der Gewalt bekämpfen, und die indirekten Kosten des Krieges werden wahrscheinlich weiter steigen, selbst wenn die Bomben nicht mehr fallen.

All dies erfordert jedoch den politischen Willen, Leben in Gaza zu retten - etwas, das Israel und seinen internationalen Verbündeten fehlt. "Wenn die

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But all this requires the political will to save lives in Gaza - something Israel and its international allies sorely lack. “If the world is able to tolerate this amount of Palestinian death by direct bombardment, it will be much more able to tolerate future reports of how many Palestians died from diseases,” Omar told Jewish Currents. “If you can burn people with phosphorus bombs, then of course you can crowd them together and let diseases do the rest. Who will cry now? What is a red line?”

Welt in der Lage ist, dieses Ausmass an palästinensischem Tod durch direkte Bombardierung zu tolerieren, wird sie in Zukunft viel eher in der Lage sein, Berichte darüber zu tolerieren, wie viele Palästinenser und Palästinenserinnen an Krankheiten gestorben sind", sagte Omar gegenüber Jewish Currents. "Wenn man Menschen mit Phosphorbomben verbrennen kann, dann kann man sie natürlich auch zusammenpferchen und Krankheiten den Rest erledigen lassen. Wer wird jetzt weinen? Was ist eine rote Linie?"

* Dr. Yara Asi is Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida, School of Global Health Management and Informatics and a Visiting Scholar at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University

Epistemicide in Gaza: Israel destroys pillars of knowledge

Institute for Palestine Studies

Abdulla Moaswes, February 02, 2024

Epistemicide. can be broadly defined as the destruction of knowledge systems and the knowledge that they generate. It is used within the context of colonization which has brought violence against humans but also involved violence against indigenous knowledge of the natural world. The Latin American sociologist Ramón Grosfoguel explains how epistemicide played a crucial role in Europe's colonization of the rest of the world, including the settler colonization of the Americas. It granted European philosophy an “epistemic privilege,” allowing it to become the “new foundation of knowledge in the modern or colonial world.”.

There have been epistemicides in Palestine since 1948. In 1983, I witnessed the destruction of the Palestine Research Centre (PRC) in Beirut by the Israeli invading army. On Saturday 6 February 1983, at two o'clock in the afternoon, a car bomb destroyed what was left after the previous looting by the Israeli army. The effects of the explosion of 150 kilograms of TNT were enormous. The car bomb destroyed the entire building in which the center was located. There was a terrible bloodbath, more than 120 injured and over 20 dead, including some of my acquaintances from the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees who were having a meeting at the research center. The Israeli Shin Bet claimed that the PLC was an intelligence organization rather than an academic center and that the data could be used to plan terrorist attacks in Israel - false accusations as usual that are still being used today to justify such crimes in the Gaza war.

Alana Lentin auf X

In other words, epistemicide created a world in which only knowledge produced by European colonists and settlers was deemed legitimate, while colonized societies were compelled to construct new systems from scratch - often

Der Epistemizid schuf eine Welt, in der nur das von den europäischen Kolonisten und Sied-lern produzierte Wissen als legitim angesehen wurde, während die kolonisierten Gesellschaften gezwungen waren, neue Systeme von Grund auf zu konstruieren - die oft denen ihrer Kolonisatoren entsprachen, weil ihre eigenen Systeme zerstört worden waren. Die strukturellen Bedingungen der Wissensproduktion, welche die Mechanismen ihrer Kolonialisierung ermöglichten, schränkten somit auch ihre Befreiung ein.

Als Beweis dafür zerstörte ein israelischer Luftangriff am 6. November 2023 die Al-Azhar-Universität in Gaza, eine der grössten Bildungseinrichtungen in den besetzten Gebieten. In einem kurzen Video, das vom palästinensischen Ministerium für Bildung und wissenschaftliche Forschung veröffentlicht wurde, wird darauf hingewiesen, dass insgesamt neun Universitätsgebäude (am 6.

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mirroring those of their colonizers - because their own systems had been destroyed. As a result, the structural conditions of knowledge production that facilitated the mechanisms of their colonialization also imposed constraints on their liberation.

As evidence of this, on Nov. 6, 2023, an Israeli air-strike destroyed Gaza's Al-Azhar University, one of the largest educational institutions in the occupied territory. A short video published by the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Scientific Research pointed out that a total of nine university buildings (at the time of the video's publication on Nov 6, 2023) in Gaza and two in the West Bank had been either “completely or partially damaged.” According to the video, at least 227’335 Palestinian students, including 555 Palestinians in Gaza with scholarships abroad, had faced severe disruptions to their higher education at the time.

With this in mind, the bombing of university buildings in Gaza cannot be simply understood as attacks on bricks and mortar but also as assaults on archives, student and staff records, and the intellectual labor of the university's community. Indeed, the attack upon Al-Israa University also included the demolition of a nearby museum - a clear attempt by the Israeli military to cover up and dispose of the evidence of their looting of the over three thousand rare artifacts that it housed.

November 2023) im Gazastreifen und zwei im Westjordanland entweder "vollständig oder teilweise beschädigt" worden sind. Dem Video zufolge waren mindestens 227'335 palästinensische Studenten, darunter 555 Palästinenser und Palästinenserinnen im Gazastreifen, die ein Auslandsstipendium hatten, zu diesem Zeitpunkt in ihrer Hochschulausbildung stark beeinträchtigt.

Vor diesem Hintergrund kann die Bombardierung von Universitätsgebäuden in Gaza nicht nur als Angriff auf Ziegel und Mörtel verstanden werden, sondern auch als Angriff auf Archive, Studenten- und Mitarbeiterunterlagen und die intellektuelle Arbeit der Universitätsgemeinschaft. Der Angriff auf die Al-Israa-Universität umfasste auch die Zerstörung eines nahegelegenen Museums - ein klarer Versuch des israelischen Militärs, die Beweise für die Plünderung der über dreitausend seltenen Artefakte, die sich darin befanden, zu vertuschen und zu beseitigen.

Katarin Mitchel-Katoub, 2024

Gazans Fled Their Homes and They Have Nowhere to Return to

Haaretz (Video)

The depiction in the video cannot say anything about the suffering, pain or despair of the people in the Gaza Strip. But it can give an idea of the extent of the orgy of destruction by an army running amok with the aim of turning the Gaza Strip into an uninhabitable wasteland. MLB

“It’s Mind-blowing”: 1.7 Million Palestinians Escaped Israel’s Bombardment of Gaza. Most of Their Homes Have Been Damaged or Destroyed. Yarden Michaeli and Avi Scharf; February 9, 2024

One of Israel's most dramatic acts in the war, which erupted following Hamas' terror attack, is the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Gazans from their homes and the destruction of large swaths of the Strip. Residents, military officials and journalists describe scenes of vast devastation. "It's like after an atomic bomb," one of them reported in Haaretz after visiting northern Gaza.

An accurate estimation of the destruction is a challenging task due to the fog of war – and as

Eine der dramatischsten Aktionen Israels in diesem Krieg, der nach einem Terrorangriff der Hamas begann, ist die Vertreibung von Hunderttausenden von Menschen aus ihren Häusern und die Zerstörung grosser Teile des Gazastreifens. Anwohner, Militärs und Journalisten beschrei-ben Szenen ungeheurer Verwüstung. "Es ist wie nach einer Atombombe", berichtete einer von ihnen der Haaretz nach einem Besuch im Norden des Gazastreifens.

Eine genaue Einschätzung der Zerstörungen ist aufgrund der Kriegsverschleierung und der Tatsache, dass die

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the IDF restricts entry by journalists. But it's possible to create a map of the destruction using satellite data, which shows that at least half of all the buildings in the enclave are likely to have been damaged or destroyed, according to American researchers. Most of the destruction is in the north, but bitter fighting is also underway in the south, as is seen in the satellite data. Some 1.7 million Gazans have fled their homes during the war, and most of them are now in the south, the United Nations says. Huge tent cities have been put up along the Egyptian border. A new humanitarian, security and diplomatic reality has emerged, and it will shape the region for years to come.

israelische Armee Journalisten den Zugang verwehrt, schwierig. Es ist jedoch möglich, anhand von Satellitendaten eine Karte der Zerstörungen zu erstellen, aus der hervorgeht, dass nach Angaben amerikanischer Forscher mindestens die Hälfte aller Gebäude in der Enklave beschädigt oder zerstört worden sein muss. Die meisten Zerstörungen gibt es im Norden, aber auch im Süden wird heftig gekämpft, wie Satellitendaten zeigen. Nach Angaben der Vereinten Nationen sind rund 1,7 Millionen Menschen aus dem Gazastreifen während des Krieges aus ihren Häusern geflohen, die meisten von ihnen halten sich nun im Süden auf. Entlang der ägyptischen Grenze sind riesige Zeltstädte entstanden. Eine neue humanitäre, sicherheitspolitische und diplomatische Realität ist entstanden, die die Region in den kommenden Jahren prägen wird.

On Mourning

Mondoweiss

The very world perpetrating genocide asks Palestinians to prove that their children are indeed in pieces under the rubble, and not terrorists in a tunnel. Amid all the proving, there is no time to mourn. Zubayr Alikhan, February 12, 2024

woman cries while carrying the body of her young sister who was killed in an Israeli airstrike. Al-Najjar Hospital, Rafah, Gaza Strip. (Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa via ZUMA Press APAimages)

The world asks a father to put the soul of his soul aside and speak to them. It asks a convulsing mother to pause for a moment and conduct an interview: “What’s your message to the world?”

Die Welt verlangt von einem Vater, dass er seine Seele beiseitelegt und mit ihnen spricht. Sie bittet eine erschütterte Mutter, für einen Moment innezuhalten und ein Interview zu führen: "Was ist deine Botschaft an die Welt?"

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Between bombs, interviews, funerals, and genocide, there is no time to mourn.

Those Palestinians on the outside, in exile, in the diaspora, are subject to the same. Unable to contact their families, unsure of their fate, internally paralyzed and disfigured, they remain busier than the rest. I spoke recently to a friend with family in Gaza and asked how things were. “I can’t contact them,” she said. “I spend every day and night waiting for a sign. If I get a message that means they’re okay. If not, I don’t know if they are alive.” Still, she has to go in for work every day, smiling at customers, and pretending all is well. She dons a silver Palestine map necklace to raise awareness. Confronted with a world busy watching Super Bowls and drinking iced lattes, not oblivious but apathetic, inhuman, and in denial, pausing only to curse and condemn, there is so much to be done.

The very world perpetrating genocide asks the Palestinians to prove that their children are indeed in pieces under the rubble, and not terrorists in a tunnel. It shoves fingers down Palestinian throats to see if they vomit up animal feed, blood, or bullets. It exhumes cemeteries, steals organs, and asks for a receipt of death. It cleanses Palestinian lands, plunders artifacts, levels villages, razes olive trees, and belies indigeneity. It lives inside Palestinian homes, reclines on Palestinian furniture, and asks for evidence of Palestinian presence, for evidence of their theft. In the words of Ghassan Kanafani, “They steal your loaf of bread. Then they give you a crumb. Then they demand you thank them for their generosity. O their audacity!” Amidst all the proving, there is no time to mourn.

Zwischen Bomben, Interviews, Beerdigungen und Völkermord bleibt keine Zeit zum Trauern.

Die Palästinenser und Palästinenserinnen, die im Exil und in der Diaspora leben, sind dem gleichen Schicksal ausgesetzt. Sie können keinen Kontakt zu ihren Familien aufnehmen, wissen nicht, was mit ihnen geschieht, sind innerlich gelähmt und entstellt und haben mehr zu tun als alle anderen. Vor kurzem sprach ich mit einer Freundin, die Familie in Gaza hat, und fragte sie, wie es ihr gehe. "Ich kann sie nicht erreichen", sagte sie. "Ich verbringe jeden Tag und jede Nacht damit, auf ein Zeichen zu warten. Wenn ich eine Nachricht erhalte, bedeutet das, dass es ihnen gut geht. Wenn nicht, weiss ich nicht, ob sie noch am Leben sind». Trotzdem muss sie jeden Tag zur Arbeit gehen, die Kunden anlächeln und so tun, als ob alles in Ordnung wäre. Sie trägt eine silberne Halskette mit der Landkarte Palästinas, um auf die Situation aufmerksam zu machen.

Die Welt, die einen Völkermord begeht, verlangt von den Palästinensern und Palästinenserinnen, den Beweis, dass ihre Kinder tatsächlich unter den Trümmern liegen und nicht Terroristen in einem Tunnel. Sie steckt den ihnen die Finger in die Kehle, um zu sehen, ob sie Tierfutter, Blut oder Kugeln erbrechen. Sie exhumiert Friedhöfe, stiehlt Organe und verlangt eine Todesbescheinigung. Sie säubert palästinensisches Land, plündert Artefakte, macht Dörfer dem Erdboden gleich, reisst Olivenbäume nieder und verleugnet die Indigenität. Sie wohnt in palästinensischen Häusern, legt sich auf palästinensische Möbel und verlangt Beweise für die Anwesenheit von Palästinenser und Palästinenserinnen, Beweise für ihren Diebstahl. In den Worten von Ghassan Kanafani: "Sie stehlen deinen Laib Brot. Dann geben sie dir einen Krümel. Dann verlangen sie, dass du ihnen für ihre Grosszügigkeit dankst. O ihre Dreistigkeit!" Inmitten all dieser Prüfungen bleibt keine Zeit zum Trauern.

References

World Day of Prayer International Committee: www.worlddayofprayer.net; Schweiz: https://wgt.ch/: Deutschland: https://weltgebetstag.de/; Österreich: https://www.weltgebetstag.at/

The Intercept (unabhängige von Lesern und Leserinnen finanzierte online Zeitschrift): https://theintercept.com/

JewishCurrents (eine progressive, säkulare jüdische Zeitschrift und Nachrichtenportal. Widerspiegelt die Politik der jüdischen Linken in den USA, gemeinnützig): epidemiological warfare

Institute for Palestine Studies (1963 in Beirut als unabhängige Forschungseinrichtung; Washington, Ramallah, und Beirut; nonprofit): Gaza

Haaretz (liberale israelische Tageszeitung, hebräisch und englisch): Gaza destruction video

Mondoweiss (a news website devoted to covering American foreign policy in the Middle East, chiefly from a progressive Jewish perspective, USA, nonprofit): On Mourning