a letter to my Palestinian brothers in gaza and everywhere
Dear Palestinian brothers,
It is with a heavy heart I write to you today. Gaza is burning. The border with Israel is under fire. Children on both sides of the fence are terrified, traumatized for life, wounded in body and soul. Life!! Life is lost. Blood flows! Pain and tears and anguish abound.
How familiar it all is, my brothers? How well we know these images, this fear clutching our throats, hope slipping away from our hearts?
A new year has begun. I am sitting here near my computer in the dark night, in my home by the sea. This sea that is ours, our Mediterranean sea, our culture, we the people of wandering, we the homeless, the homesick, we the fighters ,the builders, the survivors, our dreams like waves and tide, pulled by the moon and stars to eternity.
Since that fateful day in 1994 when Rabin was murdered a few feet from me, since that awful moment, I have dedicated much of my public life to singing and speaking for peace.
I have seen the peace process rise and fall and rise like the breast of a woman breathing in the night. I have seen opportunities missed, so many missed, so many chances, so much ignorance and stubbornness and bullheadedness, so much beauty trampled under the heavy boot of pride. I have sung and I have spoken, I have argued and I have embraced, I have been moved to tears so many times, I have made the most unlikely friends….friends I would give my right arm for, friends I would run across the border under fire to protect.
And today, today I say this; we have one joint enemy, one awful joint enemy and we must all work together to eradicate it!
That enemy is fanaticism my friends. That enemy is extremism in all its ugly reincarnations and manifestations.
That enemy is all men who put “god” above life, who claim “god” as their sword and shield, who claim “god” is on THEIR side. Jews, Muslims, Christians, all share this black streak. All have fallen to this destructive, horrible fanaticism at some point in their histories and the results have been devastating.
I have often spoken out against fanaticism in my country, for I find it repulsive and unbearable. In government, in settlements, in synagogues, I am passionately against it. I have risked my career and my wellbeing for this belief.
Now I see the ugly head of fanaticism, I see it large and horrid, I see it’s black eyes and spine-chilling smile, I see blood on its hands and I know one of its many names: Hamas.
You know this too, my brothers. You know this ugly monster. You know it is raping your women and raping the minds of your children. You know it is educating to hatred and death. You know it is chauvinistic and violent, greedy and selfish, it feeds on your blood and screams out Allah’s name on vain, it hides like a thief, uses the innocent as human shields, uses your mosques as arsenals, lies and cheats, uses YOU, tortures you, holds you hostage!!
I know this is true my brothers!! I know YOU know the truth!!And I know you cannot say it for fear of life so I will say it for you!! I fear nothing!!
I am privileged to live in a democracy where women are not objects but presidents, where a singer can say and do as she pleases! I know you do not have this privilege (yet…but you will, inshallah, you will…)
I know you are SICK of being held hostage by this demon, this ugly beast, not in Gaza, not in Iran or Iraq or Afghanistan, not anywhere!!! You are a people destined to flourish in peace! Your majestic history is overflowing with creativity, literature science and music, endless contributions to humanity, not crippling, torturing fanaticism, yelling Jihad and Shahid! I see you sometimes, out in the streets, demonstrating with the monsters, yelling ‘death to the Jews, death to Israel!! but I don’t believe you! I know where your heart is! It is just where mine is, with my children, with the earth, with the heavens, with music, with HOPE!! You want nothing of this but you have no choice! I see through your veil of fear my brothers, through your burka! I embrace your hopes for they are mine!
My country has made many many mistakes over the years, I have watched it miss so many opportunities, and as a citizen of this country I am the first to admit it and criticize its foolery. I demonstrate, I vote, I speak out, I sing loud and clear.
But, now, today, I know that deep in your hearts YOU WISH for the demise of this beast called Hamas who has terrorized and murdered you, who has turned Gaza into a trash heap of poverty, disease and misery. Who in the name of “allah” has sacrificed you on the bloody alter of pride and greed.
My brothers, I cry for you. I cry for us too, yes, I cry for my fellow countrymen suffering the bombs in the south and north and everywhere, I cry for the kidnapped soldiers and the murdered ones, for their bereft families, for the innocence lost forever, but I cry especially painfully for you for I know your suffering, I feel you, I feel you!!
I can only wish for you that Israel will do the job we all know needs to be done, and finally RID YOU of this cancer, this virus, this monster called fantacism, today, called Hamas. And that these killers will find what little compassion may still exist in their hearts and STOP using you and your children as human shields for their cowardice and crimes.
And then… then , maybe, Inshallah, we will again have an opportunity..we will again pick up our broken bodies and souls and walk slowly towards each other, reach out a tired hand, look into eyes filled with tears and with a choked voice say: “Shalom. Salam. Enough. Enough my brother ….
you want some coffee? Here, sit for a while…lets talk….we know the words, we know the songs, we know the road….
Shalom……
Salam……
With a broken heart still yearning to love,
Your friend,
Noa
Jan 5th, 2009
It is with a heavy heart I write to you today. Gaza is burning. The border with Israel is under fire. Children on both sides of the fence are terrified, traumatized for life, wounded in body and soul. Life!! Life is lost. Blood flows! Pain and tears and anguish abound.
How familiar it all is, my brothers? How well we know these images, this fear clutching our throats, hope slipping away from our hearts?
A new year has begun. I am sitting here near my computer in the dark night, in my home by the sea. This sea that is ours, our Mediterranean sea, our culture, we the people of wandering, we the homeless, the homesick, we the fighters ,the builders, the survivors, our dreams like waves and tide, pulled by the moon and stars to eternity.
Since that fateful day in 1994 when Rabin was murdered a few feet from me, since that awful moment, I have dedicated much of my public life to singing and speaking for peace.
I have seen the peace process rise and fall and rise like the breast of a woman breathing in the night. I have seen opportunities missed, so many missed, so many chances, so much ignorance and stubbornness and bullheadedness, so much beauty trampled under the heavy boot of pride. I have sung and I have spoken, I have argued and I have embraced, I have been moved to tears so many times, I have made the most unlikely friends….friends I would give my right arm for, friends I would run across the border under fire to protect.
And today, today I say this; we have one joint enemy, one awful joint enemy and we must all work together to eradicate it!
That enemy is fanaticism my friends. That enemy is extremism in all its ugly reincarnations and manifestations.
That enemy is all men who put “god” above life, who claim “god” as their sword and shield, who claim “god” is on THEIR side. Jews, Muslims, Christians, all share this black streak. All have fallen to this destructive, horrible fanaticism at some point in their histories and the results have been devastating.
I have often spoken out against fanaticism in my country, for I find it repulsive and unbearable. In government, in settlements, in synagogues, I am passionately against it. I have risked my career and my wellbeing for this belief.
Now I see the ugly head of fanaticism, I see it large and horrid, I see it’s black eyes and spine-chilling smile, I see blood on its hands and I know one of its many names: Hamas.
You know this too, my brothers. You know this ugly monster. You know it is raping your women and raping the minds of your children. You know it is educating to hatred and death. You know it is chauvinistic and violent, greedy and selfish, it feeds on your blood and screams out Allah’s name on vain, it hides like a thief, uses the innocent as human shields, uses your mosques as arsenals, lies and cheats, uses YOU, tortures you, holds you hostage!!
I know this is true my brothers!! I know YOU know the truth!!And I know you cannot say it for fear of life so I will say it for you!! I fear nothing!!
I am privileged to live in a democracy where women are not objects but presidents, where a singer can say and do as she pleases! I know you do not have this privilege (yet…but you will, inshallah, you will…)
I know you are SICK of being held hostage by this demon, this ugly beast, not in Gaza, not in Iran or Iraq or Afghanistan, not anywhere!!! You are a people destined to flourish in peace! Your majestic history is overflowing with creativity, literature science and music, endless contributions to humanity, not crippling, torturing fanaticism, yelling Jihad and Shahid! I see you sometimes, out in the streets, demonstrating with the monsters, yelling ‘death to the Jews, death to Israel!! but I don’t believe you! I know where your heart is! It is just where mine is, with my children, with the earth, with the heavens, with music, with HOPE!! You want nothing of this but you have no choice! I see through your veil of fear my brothers, through your burka! I embrace your hopes for they are mine!
My country has made many many mistakes over the years, I have watched it miss so many opportunities, and as a citizen of this country I am the first to admit it and criticize its foolery. I demonstrate, I vote, I speak out, I sing loud and clear.
But, now, today, I know that deep in your hearts YOU WISH for the demise of this beast called Hamas who has terrorized and murdered you, who has turned Gaza into a trash heap of poverty, disease and misery. Who in the name of “allah” has sacrificed you on the bloody alter of pride and greed.
My brothers, I cry for you. I cry for us too, yes, I cry for my fellow countrymen suffering the bombs in the south and north and everywhere, I cry for the kidnapped soldiers and the murdered ones, for their bereft families, for the innocence lost forever, but I cry especially painfully for you for I know your suffering, I feel you, I feel you!!
I can only wish for you that Israel will do the job we all know needs to be done, and finally RID YOU of this cancer, this virus, this monster called fantacism, today, called Hamas. And that these killers will find what little compassion may still exist in their hearts and STOP using you and your children as human shields for their cowardice and crimes.
And then… then , maybe, Inshallah, we will again have an opportunity..we will again pick up our broken bodies and souls and walk slowly towards each other, reach out a tired hand, look into eyes filled with tears and with a choked voice say: “Shalom. Salam. Enough. Enough my brother ….
you want some coffee? Here, sit for a while…lets talk….we know the words, we know the songs, we know the road….
Shalom……
Salam……
With a broken heart still yearning to love,
Your friend,
Noa
Jan 5th, 2009
Comment
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Comment by Victor Lopez Rossi on January 7, 2009 at 7:34pm
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Other 'Peace Activists' choose to say:
"This is not real... if we focus in that, we just will reinforce it..."
Negation disguised as "inner peace", or 'spirituality'...
But somebody said some time ago:
"See truth and truth will set you fre..."
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If you talk about the fanaticism and about "Hamas as monsters", "ugly beasts", but not call the same, or worst, of ZIONISM, and the Terrorist actions of Tel Aviv Government, and call them mistakes; if you call "mistake" to bomb by air, sea, and land, without mercy, the most densely populated place in the world, populated by CIVILLIANS, if you call "mistakes" to bomb with forbidden weapons hospitals, mosques, schools, even ONU ones, and not CRIMES against Humanity, if you don't call that terrorism, if you equalize not David to Goliat, but David to 100 Goliats, the most heavily armed nation in the region against a disarmed civillian population... if you call that 'justice', or 'just retaliation', or don't denounce it with the same passion you denounce Hamas, to whom say so... you are part of the problem...
In the name of 'Peace', and 'compassion' you are just justificating, diminishing, manipulating, evading, and disguising the New Holocaust against Palestine, Gaza, and Humanity...
You are justificating the "eye for an eye"...
But that's not the case...
It is not "an eye for an eye", but the most horrific fact of AN EYE FOR HUNDREDS EYES...
Only comparing house rockets with thousands of the most sofisticated weapons in the earth -planes, guided, 'intelligent' missiles, helicopters, ships, a conventional army totally equiped, and only naming and blaming just those rockets it's monstruous...
Numbers is not the point, of course, but comparing and making equal 10 israel deaths -including soldiers-, with more than 600 palestinian deaths, most of them children, women, civillians, , and more than 2000 wounded, and a city made a GHETTO, without water, electricity, and not permitting humanitarian help, is horrifly monstruous...
I'm sorry to hear that from a 'peace activist'...
I know that you do all you can, I don't blame you, but I then understand why so much of Peace efforts, are filled with so much hipocrisy, if minds and hearts are brain-soul-washed to this level...
But in no way it is possible to justify to act against terror, with more terrorism, but let's be clear, a terrorism thousands of times worst.
Israel -Tel-Aviv- is destroying an entire building with all his people in 100 appartments, saying that this is because in two of them are rats, serpents and plagues -placed or permitted in the first place by them- terrifying and attaking the neighbors...
And many 'Peace Activists', are just saying: "damn you, evil rats and serpents, let people alone, don't menace Peace...!!!"
And not say nothing to who is blowing the entire building... Or saying it's a "mistake"...
Blessings for all
Shalom, As Salaam Alaikum, Pax Vobis
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Comment by Paul Chi on January 7, 2009 at 4:48pm
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forget all the names and all the history. a community or men women and children are being systematically and horrifically slaughtered and no-one can gain from this catastrophic devaluation of human life. you and i are becoming worthless. your only reason for breathing must be to STOP THIS.
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Comment by Jill Bennett on January 7, 2009 at 3:43pm
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This does not sound like a very peaceful attitude. The Hamas were elected democratically by the
Palistinian people, who have been besieged and living in inhuman conditions. Pacifism means
laying down your arms and seeking a solution through dialogue. George W. showed us how
"effective" war can be when he sent troops into Afghanistan to "smoke Al Quaeda out of their
foxholes". Did the Americans ask themselves why the terrorists attacked? How would you react
if your people were besieged? Some people are patient and wait it out, others fight back.
so
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Comment by Mark on January 7, 2009 at 12:37pm
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Peace is achieved through love, forgiveness and understanding. Hatred and a desire to kill, to stamp out and to eradicate will only perpetuate war. Never forget that "The Earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the Earth"
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Comment by Moustafa Ghaddar on January 7, 2009 at 8:41am
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Actually, the name is the israeli terrorist forces, not Hamas. The same terrorist forces that occupied Lebanon, massacred people and tortured people here and then withdrew under the fire of the resistance. The name with the blood on their hands are the israeli government and it is terrorist military.
Salam,(Peace)
M.G.
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Comment by Ana Paula Maielo on January 7, 2009 at 8:26am
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Noa,
I do respect, admire, and appreciate your work and the passion through which you do it.
But I could not agree more with what what Farahnaz has just said before, and I just would like to add something to it:
All the disaster that has been created through what you believe that is a legitimate (and effective) war, is burying the already tiny possibilities for the reconciliation between both people. And I believe that reconciliation is one of the most important ingredients for a lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis.
I will always believe in the PEACE BY PEACEFUL MEANS…
God bless you, Israel and the Palestinians.
Ana Paula
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Comment by Vítor Gomes on January 7, 2009 at 5:08am
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Kathleen
I agree with you. Flowery phrases and good intentions is not enough.
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I realy cannot feel in the some way the horreres the Palestinian people feel. I live in a peacefull country, poor but in friendshepp and in Peace. I don't want be egoist but I'm lucky to leave in Portugal.
I please to Stop that "barbarian" war.
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Comment by Bronwyn MacRitchie on January 7, 2009 at 4:27am
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I found this very painful to read... that anyone can even think that the killing of so many civilians, of the women and children, so many children, mothers losing 4 daughters in a second, losing three sons as they played football outside their homes, is something positive, something that can help a people sickens me. Whether Israel is successful in iradicating hamas or not, their methods are criminal, they have blood on their hands already and now they are drenched in the blood of the many innocent people in gaza, who have suffered without supplies for 18 months, with the bare minimum of food and fuel that israel allows them, and are then condemned for needing the world to hear their voice? That israel need to destroy their infrastructure to the point where it is going to take YEARS to rebuild because fo the firing of some homemade rockets... no, I don't condone Hamas, but I do understand their frustration, at the land that was once theirs being taken from them, at their dignity and pride being stolen by another country dictating how much they may eat, when they may use their cars, when their electricity will be cut off...
Yes the region needs a solution, no, extremism is not the answer, but I ask myself if it had been my country taken from me, if it had been my freedom to choose whether to leave or stay dictated by the closing of a border that was out of my hands how would i react... I hope in peaceful negotiation, but I cannot know.
No matter whether hamas has been firing rockets or not, perhaps the world would do well to listen to them, these are the actions of a people desperate for a voice, a people silenced and ignored by the media, desperate for someone to hear them and wake up to the dehumanising way in which they have been treated for so long... they are not simply a terrorist faction, they are a voice for the frustrations of many people of gaza, for the millions of palestinians forced out of their home so long ago... for my collegues who come to work every day with deathly pale faces now unable to call their families in gaza because there is no longer electricity....
With every mosque israel targets, every ambulance it destroys every hospital it bombs, the hate goes deeper, I can feel it all around me... no 'war on terror' can ever hope to bring peace. When we answer killing with killing we simply breed that hatred that began the killing.
I am not a muslim, or a christian or a jew. I have to alligance to any of these religions, but what I am seeing in gaza breaks my heart. It leaves me feeling sick to my stomach that the world can sit back and allow a nation to march in and murder without being held accountable... every child that dies breaks my heart.
Anyone who wishes for peace should condemn this war from the very core of their being, no matter what the objectives of the killing are, whether hamas is good or bad, this is still WAR... and war is never the answer.
Bronwyn
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