Activism

Those killed in Gaza have a name, and each has a family that grieves for them

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Mourners under the martyr poster of Adel Alessy  photo: Barber

I have read several accounts over the last few days of how life in Southern Israel has become unbearable for the people living there. In retaliation for the latest provocation by Israel over 200 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel. 11 people were injured, one seriously. Most were suffering from “shock”. Two were injured when they tripped on the way to secure areas.

Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe Yaalon on Thursday said, “Anyone threatening us is risking his life. We will retaliate until they beg us to stop.”

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said Israel makes its “best effort to target terrorists and not the civilian population,” but added: “We will not accept the constant disruption of life in the south of Israel, and I advise all heads of terror to think well about their actions.”

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland condemned “in the strongest terms” the rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel. “We call on those responsible to take immediate action to stop these cowardly acts,” she said in a statement Saturday.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the rocket fire from Gaza into Israel. Meeting with opposition leader Tzipi Livni in New York, Clinton said Israel has the right to defend itself.

Why is it that the Palestinians have no right to respond to Israeli aggression? If rocket fire into Israel is a “cowardly” act, what exactly is bombing with F-16’s and drones? Why does Israel have a right to defend itself, but no such rights extend to the Palestinian people?

With the exception of the two men Israel assassinated on Friday, Zuhair al-Qaisy, secretary-general of the Popular Resistance Committees, and Mahmoud Ahmad Al-Hanini, a Hamas military leader, the Palestinians killed remained nameless in all mainstream media accounts.

But I assure you, those killed have a name, and each has a family that grieves for them.

Adel Alessy, sixty-one-years-old, was working as a watchman on a piece of farmland. Saleh, his son, said people came to his house to tell him his father had been killed in an air strike on Sunday morning. “My father was known by all the people in this area and everyone liked him,” said Saleh, “He was working hard, trying to feed his family.” He added, “There were no rockets shot from the farm that day. The Israeli’s know that, but they wanted to do this crime to prevent our farmers from working on their land.”

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Adel Alessy’s sons Saleh and Mohammed at home photo: Barber

Adel’s brother Mohammed added, “He worked hard his entire life, and he never refused to help anyone who asked for help.” Adel Alessy is survived by his wife and seven children.

On Tuesday morning Muhammed Mostafa El-Hasami, seventy-two-years-old, and his daughter Fayza, thirty-five-years-old, went to spend the day planting at their small farm. Dr Abed Allalah, his son, explains, “My father was a teacher as well as a farmer for the past 40 years.” Two rockets were fired from the adjoining property. One rocket failed and crashed into a greenhouse, starting a fire. Abed says, “My father and sister went to put out the fire when an Israeli drone targeted them. When we heard the bombing, we went to see what happened and found both my father and sister on the ground in pieces. Fayza’s mother heard her last words, “I am dying.” Her husband died within minutes of arriving at the hospital.

Abed told me, “Israel must be pressured to stop targeting innocent civilians. They must stop killing women, children, and old men. I believe Israel knows they are killing innocent people but they don’t care, because no one in the world is confronting them.” A wife, three sons and four daughters remain to grieve the loss of a beloved father and sister.

Um Mohammed, the mother of twelve-year-old Ayoub Asalya told me how her son was afraid when the air strikes began, and how he slept restlessly by her side the night before his death. Before he left for school he bargained with his mother. She would buy new sandals for him and he’d buy her a gift on mother’s day. A few minutes after he left the house his mother heard an explosion.

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Ayoub Asalya’s Martyr poster  photo: Johnny Barber

She found Ayoub’s cousin, Wafi, face down in the street. Ayoub’s body was found less than fifty yards from the house in the orchard, under a lemon tree. One of the neighbors said he couldn’t recognize Ayoub. Um Mohammed said, “I can’t imagine my son, who I was just talking with, lying in pieces.” Both legs were severed. One leg was not recovered.

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Ayoub’s mother in the lemon grove where he was killed photo: Barber

A breeze rustles through the lemon trees. Um Mohammed picks a lemon from a tree that is splattered with Ayoub’s blood. Shreds of his clothing lie scattered on the ground. “The Israeli’s claimed they targeted fighters,” she said, “Do they think Ayoub was shooting rockets? Where are the human rights of the Palestinian people?” Ayoub was the third child of Um Mohammed killed by the Israelis. “Now who will bring me a gift on Mothers day?” she asks.

The injured also have names, dreams, and memory. I was unable to lift my camera to record their injuries, but stood alongside them, silent. A friend did document the injured. You can view photographs of them here. No one was crying. Their injuries were severe. Moath Abo al-Eash, twenty-years-old, suffered burns to his face and hands, smoke inhalation, and shrapnel wounds to his chest, torso, hands and face. When asked what message he would like to send to the world, he said, “My picture is enough to tell the world.”

But I am afraid it is not enough. The Clintons, Nulands, Yalons, and Libermans of the world are not so easily swayed. The human misery they inflict on Palestine and the rest of the world does not influence their political calculations. They have the power, the money, the sophisticated weapons, and a complicit media. But I can also tell you this; the Palestinian people bear their burden with dignity. Like the people of Libya, the people of Egypt, the people of Bahrain, the people of Syria, and people around the world, they demand their freedom. They will never beg.

(Crossposted at Johnny Barber’s blog oneBrightpearl  and oneBrightpearl Photography)

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it’s strange just the other day posting about shayna wanting to see a photo of Ayoub Asalya alive…and here is his martyrs photo.

it’s crushing. these are all very powerful images.

>> “Anyone threatening us is risking his life. We will retaliate until they beg us to stop.”

The Jewish state may threaten and may retaliate against threats, but Palestinians are entitled to do neither of the two.

>> “We will not accept the constant disruption of life … and I advise all heads of terror to think well about their actions.”

1. Why should Palestinians accept the constant disruption of life by the Jewish state?
2. Terror has heads?

>> “We call on those responsible to take immediate action to stop these cowardly acts”

The call goes out to both the Palestinians and the Jewish state…yes?

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton said, in reference to the killings in Toulouse, “all should remember the young people who have been killed in all sorts of terrible circumstances – the Belgian children having lost their lives in a terrible tragedy and when we think of what happened in Toulouse today, when we remember what happened in Norway a year ago, when we know what is happening in Syria, when we see what is happening in Gaza and in different parts of the world – we remember young people and children who lose their lives.”

Avigdor Lieberman’s response:

Earlier Tuesday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman critisized the EU FM’s comments, saying they were “inappropriate and I hope that Ashton reexamines and retracts them.”

Israel is the most moral country in the world, despite having to fight terrorists operating from within a civilian population. The IDF is doing everything it can to not hurt that population even though it is defending terrorists,” Lieberman said.

The FM added that the “children Ashton needs to focus on are the children of south Israel, who live in constant fear of Gaza rocket attacks.”

Johnny such an important post. Outrageous double standards. No names no faces. Same is happenning for the 9 children and 7adults allegedly killed by American soldier Robert Bales in Afghanistan. All through the MSM people like Joe Scarborough, Mika etc all begin their responses to this massacre by saying “there is no excuse” then they spend the next five minutes going over multiple deployments etc etc. Issues many of us have begged the MSM to focus on 7, 8 years ago. Begging them to cover the Winter Soldier hearings where soldiers who had served in Afghanistan and Iraq testified about horrific crimes committed by some of them and horrific crimes by other American soldiers that they had witnessed. Many of us begged the MSM to interview returning soldiers years ago who some of us were talking to about what they were experiencing. They ignored the Winter Soldiers hearings. And when another horrific massacre takes place they put their spotlight on the stress our soldiers are under but do not have Winter soldiers on their programs. Then they help set the stage for Robert Bales insanity case which will more than likely allow him to go unpunished for these horrific crimes “no excuses” And on top of that Joe, Mika, Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow, Diane Rehm do not give the adults and children massacred in Afghanistan names, faces, families. No they ignore them further dehuminizing these people. Shameful Shameful Shameful

Thank you for your reporting on the living humanity of these innocent lives ended forever. It touches the heart with sadness. And it is the heart that connects all people that is the only way to peace. That they were alive, loved and loving, are facts the most jaded hasbarist cannot refute.

It’s frustrating to see the media being used to make excuses for Sgt. Bales mass murder in Afghanistan, while ignoring the victims. Last night the news showed a picture of an adolescent Bales as the all-american kid in a baseball uniform. I’m sure it is his lawyer seeking public sympathy. But it comes across as racial and cultural arrogance in the absence of sympathy for the victims. All my sympathy goes to the Afghani victims, like the six year-old girl he shot between the eyes.

There are some who say being anti-Bales is anti-American. Strange. When did being American become synonymous with the mass murder of innocent victims. That shows how far America has traveled since its founding (Jefferson wanted it written into the Constitution that we would not have a standing army during peace time) to become a culture of war. The reason the US keeps fighting unnecessary wars is because we have this huge military our Commander-and-Chief usually finds too convenient a tool to “rid the world of evil.” Clinton said that every great President is a War President, and what striving ego can resist inflating to the point of bursting. So go great nations too. Some here are trying to stop America and Israel from pursueing greatness through military actions before our beloved countries burst. And I commend thee.