Palestinian pain, one kid at a time

[Violet_Crumble]

FAREED TAAMALLAH is coordinator of the Palestinian Elections Commission for the Salfit region. He lives in the West Bank village of Qira.

EVERY DAY, world leaders think of new ways to punish the Palestinians for electing Hamas. But the people who suffer most are children like my daughter, Lina.

Lina was less than 1 year old when she caught a virus that gave her a high fever and caused diarrhea and vomiting. We live in a small West Bank village in the occupied territories. In the winter of 2003, when Lina got sick, Qira was under curfew, and we couldn't reach a doctor. We tried to take her to the hospital in the nearby city of Nablus. But Nablus was also under curfew. The Israeli soldiers manning the checkpoint on the outskirts of Nablus refused to let us in.

<snip>

Additionally, the U.S. and Europe have decided not to continue aid to the Palestinian government, which offered Palestinians free healthcare. As the Palestinian Authority grows poorer and poorer, our benefits will almost certainly disappear, and Lina may not be able to get her very expensive medications. Her life might be in serious danger.

Israel claims it needs to restrict Palestinian movement in response to the new Hamas-led government. But the reality is that Israel first established its system of permits and closures in 1991, and we have been living under these difficult conditions ever since.

My wife, daughter and I are active in a nonviolent movement that includes many Israelis, Palestinians and foreigners. Although we received our permits this time, others who need them have not. Denying permits to innocent men, women and children does not make Israelis safer. It destroys the hopes of Palestinians.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-taamallah6may06,0,1764094.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

[scipian]

1. Democracy?

Democracy is generally a very good thing. But in the Palestinian elections, the majority voted to "go to war" with the Israelis by electing a terrorist group to be the head. This leaves the minority who are peaceful in a difficult position but no less than if a nation declared war by popular vote and got defeated. In both situations innocent victims would suffer by the vote of the majority. Democracy is good but in this case it is to blame instead of Israel.

BTW- There have been many cases where Israelis have offered medical assistance to hurt Palestinians but been told to not interveen. The injured parties later died. Just FYI

[Violet_Crumble]

2. Palestinians did not vote for Hamas so they could 'go to war'..

They voted for purely domestic reasons, like being fed up with corruption and wanting their garbage emptied on a regular basis, etc...

Not that any of that had to do with the article I posted, btw...

Violet...

[scipian]

3. Well, maybe not...

Well, actually what I said did (I hope) relate to the article. I was pointing out that although the fact that Palestinian liberties have been restricted is sad, this is caused greatly by the terrorist bombings(no bombings, fewer restrictions). The Palestinian people, although they may have voted for domestic reasons, elected a pro-terrorism government. This is like, say we got fed up with Bush's stupid economic decisions and voted a Democrat to office. Even though that Democrat strongly and openly advocated war with Europe(hypothetical). Sure we didn't vote for war against Europe but we still elected a government we KNEW was going to attack. When we went to war with Europe we would have "voted for war".

In effect, the democracy involved that voted Hamas in has created its own grave and the plight many peaceful Palestinians are in is partly caused by their fellow Paloestinians.

I hope I made sense. I've had pneumonia the past week and been kinda out of it.

[Violet_Crumble]

4. Yeah, you made sense...

I hope yr pneumonia clears up soon, coz I know how nasty it is :)

Where we disagree is that I don't think that the restriction on Palestinian liberties has much to do with terrorist bombings. I think it's got much more to do with making the lives of normal Palestinians so miserable that they'll stop thinking about wanting to have their own state...

Yr hypothetical situation with the US isn't all that far removed from the current situation when it comes to Hamas. I'm not American and I saw Americans vote for a war-mongering, pro-terrorism (as long as that terrorism is carried out by his friends) leader. If it was a fair world, it'd be the US that'd be being forced into the corner while all funding dried up and it became an international pariah. But as with the election of Hamas, I don't support any actions where ordinary civilians end up suffering, even the ones who voted for Bush or Hamas....

Violet...

[Tom Joad]

5. War was decided when Israel chose to keep the occupation of

1967. Occupation means war, it usually means violent resistance. Ask a Marine.
If you don't like resistance, end the occupation.