The Last Choice

A friend told me: I prefer to die, but not live such suffering!

Bahaa is my name, 27. I was born in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. I survived 3 deadly wars. I lived almost 13 years under immortal siege.

Although, I succeeded in my study. I graduated to be shocked that I'm living in the remnants of life. No chances of living, no jobs, no life is what all I found.

Often waited for the moment I graduated thinking about the pink life that awaits me, but I realized that there is no life awaits me, but sorrow and crisis.

I didn’t give up, I tried to steadfast, fight and work to live.


Nothing Worked

My profession is an English Teacher. I began my career in teaching my neighborhood’s students. They were paying me a very small amount every month and it was enough for me. Once, the students couldn’t pay, so I couldn’t pay the rent of the classroom. Unfortunately, it didn’t work.

I tried to travel abroad to find a chance. Both Israel and Egypt blocked me. No clear reason for that, but I have faith that it’s my bad luck in life.

Working as a journalist, I started my work on Twitter, having the attention of 50,000 followers. When I realized that I finally got success, Twitter permanently suspended my account.

Youtuber, I worked in montage a lot of videos and uploaded them to YouTube, but my content seems to be undesirable. Unfortunately, it didn’t work.

Reporting news on my websites is my career right now, I hope to get successful at the end.


Love Despite Pain

It becomes a harsh, unendurable, unlivable life. Gaza becomes like hell for its residents. All people are suffering on daily basis.

I decided to fall in love, maybe I can forget!

I felt in love with the most beautiful woman in the world, her name is Banan, the same birthday as mine. I met her in the Great Return March last August. I decided to marry her ignoring the disastrous conditions I suffer.

Marriage life needs a lot of expenses that I can’t afford. I realized that during the 11 months of engagement. I build a very simple home to live with her in love and peace. But I can’t complete it till this moment. Expenses are more than my energy.


The Last Choice

I knocked all the doors. I asked for help. I appealed to all the people I know. No one answered.

My last choice is telling you my dear reader that I want you to contribute to building a life of a couple in the darkest city in the world, Gaza.

Water, electricity I can’t provide to my home. My wedding party in 11 days, if I can’t pay for them, I will live without water nor electricity. The life that no one can endure or even imagine.

I call the humanity you have to imagine that you live my life and then you have to choose what to do!

This story is not the only mine, but it’s also all the Gazan youths.

When will Dad come home?

Two-year-old Mira al-Sultan keeps asking when her dad will come home. Sadly, the man is dead but Mira’s mother can’t yet find a way of explaining that to her.

Tamer – Mira’s father – left Gaza in April this year. The pharmacist was hoping to build a new life for his family in Europe.

After traveling by land to Turkey, Tamer boarded a crowded ship bound for Greece. Once he arrived in Greece, he embarked on a circuitous journey to avoid being stopped by border police.

From Greece, Tamer made his way through Albania and Serbia, mainly on foot. His plan was to eventually arrive in Belgium, via the former Yugoslavia and then Italy and France.

On 11 August, Tamer phoned his wife Marwa. “He told me that he would enter the woods of Bosnia and Herzegovina and would need six days to reach Croatia,” Marwa said. “That was the last time I heard his voice.”

While walking through Bosnian woodland, Tamer injured his arm. Because the wound was not tended to quickly enough, he became seriously ill.

A few days later Tamer’s family was notified by a Bosnian hospital that he had died from blood poisoning. He was aged 38.

Tamer owned a pharmacy in Gaza. “But he was forced to sell it because the economic situation has deteriorated,” Marwa said. “He decided to emigrate and find a job outside Gaza.”

Also a campaigner, Tamer had taken part in appeals to have debts written off in cases where people could not afford to repay them. In March this year, he was arrested by the Gaza police for taking part in protests against electricity shortages.

Tamer was the father of two boys and one girl. His wife Marwa is pregnant with another boy.

“I will name the child Tamer – after his father, who he will never know,” she said.

Before leaving, Tamer planted a grapevine. He requested that his children protect it until he returned.

“I’ll try to take care of the tree as my father asked,” said his 9-year-old son Wisam. “I’m sure Dad will be happy to know that.”

Mass departure

Soon after Tamer’s death, it was reported that Israel has a deliberate policy of pushing people to leave Gaza en masse. More than 35,000 of Gaza’s residents emigrated during 2018.

The mass departure has been facilitated by the blockade that Israel has imposed on Gaza for the past 12 years.

Opportunities within the territory are extremely limited. Approximately 52 percent of Gaza’s workforce was jobless in 2018.

The rate of unemployment among people aged between 18 and 29 is especially high. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, it climbed from 53 percent to 69 percent between 2008 and last year.

I conducted a straw poll of 20 young people, mostly university graduates. Eighteen of the 20 replied that they were planning to leave Gaza in the near future.

The respondents were angry when they learned that Israel is pushing Gaza residents to emigrate as a matter of policy.

Despite feeling that they had to leave, they did not wish to be seen as pleasing Israel in any way. As a symbolic gesture, many vowed not to fly from Tel Aviv.

Ahmad al-Hindi, an unemployed musician who graduated from Gaza’s al-Azhar University in 2016, is among those preparing to leave. “But I would prefer to die than emigrate through an Israeli airport,” he said.

“Big prison”

My brother-in-law Muhammad Abu al-Tarabeesh emigrated from Gaza during September 2018.

Muhammad had been studying accountancy at Gaza’s University of Palestine but had to withdraw from his course because his family could not afford its fees.

Now aged 26, Muhammad left for Europe to seek better opportunities there. He traveled through Turkey for one month and then undertook a sea voyage to Greece, which he described as “terrifying.”

For most of the past year, Muhammad has been stuck in a caravan on the Greek island of Leros. He lives in a camp run by UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency.

The camp has been celebrated as a “model” by the agency itself.

Muhammad has a different perspective. “It’s like a big prison with two gates, one for entry and another for exit,” he said. “There’s high security all the time. There are specific times for eating and sleeping and they deal with us as if we are just numbers.”

Each caravan is 3 meters wide and 6 meters long and hosts an average of 12 people, according to Muhammad.

He has to wait in Leros until his application for asylum is processed. He has not yet been told whether any progress has been made in dealing with his file.

Our family is worried about Muhammad. But we can take some comfort in knowing he is alive and – at least for the time being – safe.

Drowned

The same cannot be said for many emigrants.

Saleh Hamad – aged 22 – left Gaza with his family in early June this year. They headed for Turkey and, later in the month, sailed to Greece.

In August, Hamad set out on a journey with his friend Moataz Abu Obeid. Their plan was to travel toward Belgium.

The two friends tried to enter Albania on foot repeatedly.

On six of their attempts, they were caught by the Albanian police, who brought them back to that country’s border with Greece. On the seventh attempt, according to Abu Obeid, they made it into Albania undetected and started walking in the direction of Serbia.

After making it into Serbia, the men were taken into custody by the police, yet released after seven hours. They made their way across Serbia on foot and following a couple of days decided to try and cross the Drina river into Bosnia.

It was dark when they approached the river, so they agreed to wait until the next morning. That evening, they were attacked by wild animals, yet managed to run away.

The following morning, the two men were on the banks of the river when Hamad lost balance. He fell into the river – which had a strong current – and began to drown.

Meanwhile, Abu Obeid fainted after banging into a tree. When he regained consciousness, he found himself surrounded by Serbian police.

The police were unhelpful. According to Abu Obeid, they refused to arrange a search for Hamad, telling him that many others had drowned while trying to cross the river.

“The police would only take some information about Salah and the clothes he was wearing,” said Abu Obeid.

Hamad’s body was eventually found in September – a few weeks after he had gone missing.

He was not the first person from Gaza to die while seeking a better life abroad. And he is unlikely to be the last.

Sarah Algherbawi is a freelance writer and translator from Gaza.

THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA

Despite killing, Palestinians will continue their struggle

It amazing when you have the resilience to continue your struggle despite all obstacles you’re still facing. It deserves respect when it’s relating to a nation who sacrifices all it has for the sake of freedom and dignity. It’s incredible when you see how people are killed on a daily basis and despite that, they never give up. Maybe, when you are reading this article, you will guess that it’s a fiction story or a story of a legend nation who lived and died in the past. But the fact is that it’s not fiction, it’s— real. Yes, it’s something to be proud of when you are writing about such a nation, such heroes who won’t ever be forgotten in history— they are the Palestinian nation.

This story of struggle and steadfastness began in 1948 when an occupier came from an unknown place to expel, dispossess and displace the indigenous people from their own land and homes and then claimed that it’s his own land. With help from Britain, heavily armed gangs occupied the land, killed thousands of Palestinians, expelled others to create the Palestinian refugee crisis.


 

“After we had tried to fight using stones and sticks, we couldn’t be steadfast in front of those gangs’ troops,” a Palestinian grandfather refugee said. 

Some of the Palestinians were forced to leave their lands to Gaza and West Bank, others to the other countries, facing untold sufferings. The grandfather continued: “We couldn’t find shelters to live in for days, neither food nor water, walked for days trying to survive. Yet, despite the excruciating pain, we’d never gave up and we struggled until we reached the Gaza Strip where our brothers hosted us, and then, the UNRWA came and gave us tents to live in., I can’t deny that we suffered the windy, rainy days, and suffered severe illnesses, but our steadfastness was stronger than the worst circumstances.” 

“We suffered from that day and we are still suffering till this day.” 

Dear reader, don’t be surprised. This is the truth about the Palestinian people who continue to write their heroic stories in history. 

In 1969, the Israeli occupation forces launched another aggression against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They killed thousands and expelled others without any justification, claiming that they are the real owners of the land in an atmosphere of total silence by the Security Council and the International community. 



Since that time until 1987, Israel continued to pursue their criminal and terrorist activities against Palestinian civilians. On 9 December 1987, in the Jabalia refugee camp, north of the Gaza Strip, after an Israeli occupation forces' truck collided with a civilian car, killing four Palestinians, something momentous was to happen.    In the wake of the criminal incident, a Palestinian uprising “The First Intifada” broke out. It was a protest against Israeli repression including "beatings, shootings, killings, house demolitions, uprooting of trees, deportations, extended imprisonments, and detentions without trial. Israel, deploying some 80,000 soldiers and initially firing live rounds, killed a large number of Palestinians. In the first 13 months, 332 Palestinians and 12 Israelis were killed. Given the high proportion of children, youths and civilians killed, it then adopted a policy of 'might, power, and beatings,' namely "breaking Palestinians' bones". The global diffusion of images of soldiers beating adolescents with clubs then led to the adoption of firing semi-lethal plastic bullets. In the intifada's first year, Israeli security forces killed 311 Palestinians, of which 53 were under the age of 17. Over the first two years, according to Save the Children, an estimated 7% of all Palestinians under 18 years of age suffered injuries from shootings, beatings, or tear gas. Over six years the IDF killed an estimated 1,162–1,204 Palestinians. Between 23,600–29,900 Palestinian children required medical treatment from IDF beatings in the first 2 years.. Palestinians resisted and fought with primitive means and killed 160 Israeli occupation soldiers. The uprising lasted from December 1987 until the Madrid Conference in 1991, though some date its conclusion to 1993, with the signing of the Oslo Accords.

The Oslo Accords marked the start of the Oslo process, a peace process aimed at achieving a peace treaty based on United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, and at fulfilling the "right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. Most of the Palestinians didn’t accept that accord and considered it as high treason and up to this day because it didn’t achieve any peace process, it just paved the way for the occupation process to commit more crimes against the Palestinians. The most valid proof of that was when the Ariel Sharon staged a provocative visit to Al-Aqsa Mosque in 2000, which led to new Palestinian uprising “The Second Intifada”.

In the Second Intifada, Israel killed 3000 of Palestinians by tank and gunfire and air attacks, and assassinations. Once again, Palestinians struggled, fought and killed about 1,000 of Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. It lasted until the Israeli withdrawal and disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005 due to the Palestinians’ struggle and resistance. This is the story of my heroic and persistent people. The Palestinian resistance struggled until it finally succeeded in forcing the Israeli occupation to leave the Gaza Strip For good. 

Then a sequence of events took place until the date when Israel and its allies decided to impose a siege on Gaza in 2006 after Hamas won the legislative elections. As a result of the Gaza siege, civilians suffered everything in life, the shortage of electricity, medicines, food, money and all spheres of life. The thing was even more far-reaching was the 3 deadly aggressions that Israel launched against Gaza. 

The Three Israeli deadly aggressions against Gaza Strip



On 27 December 2008, Israel launched a massive military offensive against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The Strip had been placed under an Israeli-led siege a year earlier, subjecting the 360 square-kilometer-enclave to a land, air and sea blockade. Codenamed Operation Cast Lead, this offensive began at 11am on a Saturday morning, with Israeli Air Force jets firing on targets across the territory. Ynet   reported at the time that “80 jets, warplanes, and helicopters dropped over 100 bombs on dozens of targets [during] the initial strike.” Among the targets were the small fishing port and the main police compound in Gaza City. According to figures from Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, 1,390 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip during Operation Cast Lead. Among those killed were 344 minors and 110 women. B’Tselem estimates that 759 of those killed in Gaza were Palestinians who did not take part in hostilities, and yet were still killed by Israeli forces. 

On 14 November 2012, Israel launched “Operation Pillar of Defense” against the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip. Over the eight days, almost 175 Palestinians were killed and more than 1,000 were injured.

On 8 July 2014, Israel launched one of its deadliest military offensives against the Gaza Strip in recent history. The conflict left 2,251 people dead, with more than 11,000 wounded, according to Palestinian and UN sources. Four years on, Gaza is still subject to intense attacks by Israel as well as the ongoing blockade which has been enforced for more than 11 years.

After those 3 deadly aggressions, Gaza continues to bathe beacon of the steadfastness as manifested by of people. Despite the worst circumstances due to the immoral and illegal siege, and after more than 12 years of it, Gazans had no choice but to protest near the Israeli separating fence to pressure the Israeli occupation to break the brutal siege, to call for the right of return to their occupied lands  which there were evicted from the Israeli militia gangs in 1948. The people of Gaza are practicing their right to peaceful assembly as enshrined in international law, and to send a message to the International community that they need their help to put an end to these crises which affected and deteriorated all aspects of life in the Gaza Strip. 

Great March of Return



The Great March of Return protests started on March 30, the commemoration of Land Day, which marks the events of March 30, 1976, when Israeli police shot and killed six Palestinian citizens of Israel as they protested against the Israeli government's expropriation of land.

The protestors have fair demands. They call for the right of return of the Palestinian refugees by forcing Israel to apply UN resolution 194 and an end of the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip by Israel for over a decade, which has caused deplorable suffering to the Palestinians. 

Around two-thirds of the Palestinians living in the Strip are refugees, more than 80 percent of the population relies on humanitarian aid.

Since the beginning of the Great March of Return, Israeli occupation forces have used excessive force against the peaceful Palestinian protesters, killing more than 260, and injured more than 28,000.
On the first day of the Great March of Return, Israel killed 15 and nearly 1500 injured, according to the Ministry of Health.

Following the establishment of Israel, Prime Minister David Ben Gurion ordered the army to shoot and kill any Palestinian who dared to cross the new borders to return to their land, Edo Konard, the deputy editor & writer at Israeli 972mag in a tweet said that 70 years later, the IDF is implementing the exact same policy at the Gaza's 'Great Return March.'

Meanwhile, Israeli deliberately targeted journalists, medics, civilians, and children claiming that they were members of Hamas movement, while they were simply unarmed protestors who posed no threat to Israeli occupation soldiers.
During the protests, Israel committed massacres against civilians in Gaza, most notably the May 14, 2018 massacre. Israeli forces massacred almost 60 Palestinian protesters who were marching along the boundaries of the besieged Gaza Strip, 2,800 injured, half were shot with live ammunition.

Fishing in stagnant water

Israel justified its crimes to the International community that it maintains the right to defend itself.  Thus, Israeli authorities gave the green light to its military troops to kill and target civilians who posed no imminent danger to them. 

A report issued by the United Nations Humans Rights Council concluded that Israel’s killing of Palestinians at the Great Return March may amount to war crimes.

The 1st anniversary of the Great March of Return



The High National Commission for Return and Breaking the Siege in Gaza called for unprecedented mass participation on Saturday, coinciding with the first anniversary the return marches.

In a press conference held on Monday, the commission said that it would not step back from land and sea marches until it achieves its goals, stressing that the return marches are a peaceful movement rightfully practiced the Palestinian people to restore their rights.

The first anniversary of the return marches will take place on 30th of March marking the annual anniversary of Palestinian Land Day.

The commission member, Ahmed Al-Mudalal, called on Palestinians to join in the mass "rally of Land Day."

"The protest will witness Palestinian masses that will restore glory to our cause and strength to our people," he said, calling on the national community to mobilize and participate in it.

He stressed that the March of Return and breaking the siege with all its tools will continue, explaining that “it emphasizes the unity of our people and the vitality of its cause, and will never stop until the achievement of its objectives in full.”

Since 30 March, Palestinian citizens have been holding peaceful demonstrations in the return camps in the eastern Gaza Strip's five governorates, calling for the right of return and the breaking of the 13-year-old blockade.

What’s next?

Palestinians in Gaza will participate the first anniversary of the Great March of Return. They will adopt all peaceful means of protest. Yet, no one knows his destiny, maybe he will be killed, injured, and despite that, they assert to win the basic rights that Israel stole from them and to break the brutal siege impost against them.

“I’m going to participate in the million-people protest on Saturday. Don’t be sad if I getkilled. It’s my duty to go and participate,” a Palestinian youth told his mother. 

Nelson Mandela said that overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity— It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life, and this exactly what Palestinians are aiming at— it’s the dignity of life.

To be or not to be



Palestinians won’t give up and will continue their protests against the Israeli occupation until breaking the siege and their return to their occupied lands.

Unknown fate awaits the Palestinians on Saturday, and despite that, they are going to participate in the marches fearlessly and without giving up.

In Gaza: I escape by sleeping

A disappointed Palestinian youth losing hope of life in Gaza [Photos File]

By: Bahaa Shammala

Ali Ahmad had a big dream. But waking up to the harsh reality has made him seek refuge in sleep.

After five and a half years of studying computer engineering, Ahmed graduated full of hope. But the happiness was soon erased as he was shocked by a painful reality. The well-qualified man applied for many jobs, but the result was always negative. He suffers the pain of disappointment. Ali reacted to this anticlimax by disappearing. The young man just gave up and escaped from the dreadful reality to sleep.

Since Ali finished his high school with high grades, his father had worked relentlessly and more to provide him with the necessary needs and university fees.

Ali’s poor family has a limited income. His father receives his salary from the Gaza government— the besieged government by the Israeli occupation for more than 12 years. for the past four years,  he’s been receiving only less than half of his salary because of the difficult economic conditions experienced by Gaza and its government in the past 12 years till this day as a result of the Israeli suffocating siege.

Ali’s father favored his son study over providing for his family. He often deprived his family of a lot of things to pay his son’s university fees and other requirements of studying, as he dreamed of seeing his son a great engineer in the future.

Ali challenged many obstacles which stood in his way to completing his university studies. His family’s destitute life put him in a very hard position where he was unable to buy some of his most basic needs for university or provide transportation money.  The electricity shortages and the way they affected his study schedule and the overall environment shadowed by the siege all stood like pillars in Ali’s way. Despite all that, Ali persevered and continued in the hope of saving his family from the grinding poverty and achieving his father’s dream  

“I haven’t seen Ali for two months, he suddenly disappeared.” A friend of Ali said to his father, “What’s wrong with him?  Is he alright?!”, Ali’s father didn’t answer and remained silent unwilling to tell anyone about his son’s pain.

Ali’s New Life

“After I graduated, I used to develop myself by taking additional courses in Computer Engineering in order to enhance my skills for the labor market”, Ali said. 

Lately, the circumstances in Gaza have become worse than ever. A lot of companies were liquidated and many people lost their jobs due to the accumulation of debt.

  

Ali realized that he will not work in his major, so he decided to work in another field. He got a driving license and started working as a taxi driver for two months, but he couldn’t continue for long. majority of young people work as taxi drivers and all of them facing the shortage of work.

He kept searching and laboring to find any other job, k until he realized that he would not able to work in a field other than the field he loves and which he had been studying for more than five years.

Ali became frustrated and desperate!

“I was dreaming to be, but I realized that I was born in a country where I can’t survive. I have no choices, but to seek refuge in sleeping,. I will run away to my bed and try to sleep my worries away. .”

“My dream now is to be dead”, Ali said tearfully.

Ali is now 35-year-old, he couldn’t achieve his dreams, has no basic requirements of living, unmarried, disappointed, and carries one wish in his heart to die.

Life of Gazans become too hard due to unemployment [Photos File]

Gaza Unemployment

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of statistics for 2018, the unemployment rate in Gaza Strip is 49,1% Making it the highest in the world. Among young people alone, unemployment exceeds 55%. With no prospects in the horizon, the youth of Gaza are left to suffer psychologically and have lost the sense of direction. Any way they turn, they find the doors of the blockade slammed shut in the faces. Like Ali, thousands have suffered when the dreams they had envisaged were killed.

Israel continues to hold a tight grip on the Gaza Strip to suffocate its people and destroy their hopes of a better future.  The young people are the most traumatized by this ongoing deprivation and suffering. Many have sought ways out of the enclave to search for a better future, while others wait for a political breakthrough that will save them from a slow death.

Despite the circumstances, Palestinians have endured over 70 years of Israeli occupation war crimes and have stood high. They’ve fought with tooth and nail to hold on to their land, to regain their basic human rights in the hope that coming generations would reap the fruit of their long and unwavering struggle.


If you want to help by donating Ali you can use Youth From Palestine donate button, or contact us.

At UN office: Hopeful and Hopeless

At UN office: Hopeful and Hopeless

By: Bahaa N. Abu Shammala

Gaza has been tremendously suffering for more than 12 years from the Israeli-led blockade, which causes the denial of basic needs, goods, food, medicines, infrastructure materials, and access to education. The Israeli occupation has imposed a suffocating siege on the Gaza Strip since 2006.

During the past decade, the people of Gaza have been experiencing dire humanitarian conditions that have been deteriorating considerably during 2017 and 2018.

The current state of the Strip.

The current state of the Gaza Strip is as follows: the unemployment rate in Gaza has now hit 42.7%, making it the highest worldwide. Israel’is cut off forced Gazans to adapt with just 4 to 6 hours of power per day; 90% of the water is undrinkable, and 29.2% of the Gazans live below the poverty line. 8500 children suffer from psychological trauma and require specialized support. Gaza’s hospitals suffer from a severe shortage of medicine and lack of fuel for emergency power generators. The Israeli occupation denies patients with chronic and serious diseases to have access to treatment out of the Gaza Strip.

[ A picture of the tent where we launched our campaign, taken by AbdelKarim AlKahlout. ]

All of this had encouraged us, the Palestinian activists, to launch the “#GazaToUN” campaign to highlight the plight and suffering of the Palestinians to the UN General Assembly and the world. Therefore, we decided to set up a tent, in which we launched our campaign on Monday, September 9th, 2018 in front of the UNSCO headquarters in Gaza. Many Palestinian activists participated, with local press agencies also present.

[ A picture of our visit with Gernot Sauer, taken by Reem Al-Hadad ]

After the campaign activities had finished, we, four activists and I, accompanied the moderator of the campaign, Mr. Mohamad Redwan, to visit the Head of UNESCO Gaza, Mr. Gernot Sauer, to ask him to deliver our message to the UN General Assembly.

As one of the members of this delegation who visited Mr. Gernot Sauer, I felt both hopeful and hopeless at the same time as we asked him to pass on our message.

Hopeful.

Hopeful, because Mr. Sauer was kind and hosted us with a kind smile; shook our hands, listened to us carefully, wrote down our concerns and promised to deliver our message to the headquarters of the UN, saying he would do his best to pass it to the UN General Assembly. Honestly, I thought people like Mr. Sauer wouldn’t smile, but his humbleness was enough to change my mind.

“We are working day and night to find solutions for the Gaza crisis, including the deteriorating political, economic and social situation,” he said. Mr. Sauer has already given me a hope that has made me look forward to a bright future for Gaza and its people.

Hopeless.

Hopeless, because according to the information that was sent to NSC by the Communist Worker and Peasants Party of Pakistan, taken from the UN Council meetings and resolutions passed, there have been 61 resolutions that condemn Israel but have been vetoed by the United States, so far. The United States of America, which is a charter member of the United Nations and one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council, has a full complicity with the Israeli policies in occupying Palestine throughout the history. So, I supposed that our complaints have already been reached the UN General Assembly, and after searching, they affirmed that Gaza has been under an Israeli-led suffocating siege for the past 12 years. Then recognized that every member has a responsibility to do his part to save Gaza, and provide a future more than survival. Then America came and vetoed. So now, I’m hopeless.

Mixed feelings that I have, one tells that your dreams of freedom, breaking the siege, ending the occupation could be achieved, and others tell that you would never survive this plight and suffering caused mainly by Israel’s siege.

So, should I become hopeful or hopeless whilst America completely cut its aids to UNRWA that serves more 5.4 million Palestinian refugees in Palestine, including 1.4 million live in Gaza Strip?

Israel tries to fool the world with its Global Language

The Israel Project’s 2009 “Global Language Dictionary”.

By: Bahaa N. Abu Shammala

The Israeli project’s 2009 “Global Language Dictionary” is a real project to fool the whole world.

In this article, I will handle the first chapter which is titled “25 Rules for Effective Communication” and just 2 of these rules, to prove that Israel tries to fool the world by this project.

Information about the Israeli project “Global Language Dictionary”.

The author of this dictionary is the American political consultant Dr. Frank Luntz, he wrote the first edition in 2003, and its last one was in 2009.

This Israeli project was written to be offered as a guide to the visionary leaders who are defending the first line on the media war for Israel. So Israel intended to use this dictionary to defend their selves in front of the International community and the world when crimes are committed by them against the Palestinian people.

Jennifer Mizrahi the founder and president of the Israeli project said in a message he sent to those who will use this global dictionary of Israel: “May your words help bring peace and security to Israel and the Jewish people!”, in his message, he specified the process of peace and security just for Israel and the Jewish people and this is the first proof that Israel tries to fool the whole world through this project.

This project contains 24 chapters and 112 pages. Every chapter has a specific idea to talk about.

Finally, in every page of this dictionary, you will notice this statement is written at the end of every page, which is “Property of the Israel Project. Not for distribution or publication, 2009.”, and this is the second proof that Israel tries to fool the world with this project.

Chapter 1: 25 Rules For Effective Communication.

Israeli global dictionary started by this chapter, because as I think these 25 rules are the basis of the whole dictionary due to guide the specialists in their work of defending Israel in its media war.

Here we are. I will handle just 2 of these rules to prove to the world that Israel fools it by this project.

The first rule which is number one in the book is titled by “Persuadables won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Show Empathy for BOTH sides!”
The author here wants to show that persuadables don’t care about facts, but they care about what Israel calls for, and also he wants the visionary leaders who are defending the first line on the media war for Israel to show empathy for both sides, he means both the pro-Israelis who already love Israel and believe its decisions, and those who Israel can win their hearts and minds. And the author here mentioned the heart before minds, because naturally and scientifically if you win hearts, then you will control the minds.

An example of the messages of Israel which is used the empathy to win new hearts for love Israel.

“Israel is committed to a better future for everyone – Israelis and Palestinians alike. Israel wants the pain and suffering to end and is committed to working with the Palestinians toward a peaceful, diplomatic solution where both sides can have a better future. Let this be a time of hope and opportunity for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people.”

If any pro-Israeli read this, he will believe in that immediately, also persuadables can believe this message if they read it without investigation, and the one who doesn’t know about The Palestinian-Israeli conflict, he will ask: “Should I believe in this?”

Then the true answers that you shouldn’t believe in that because of the Israeli-Zionist regime are based on racial discrimination, and the best proof of this is the apartheid wall separating Palestinians from Israelis in the occupied territories.

I will merely respond to this Israeli rule “propaganda” by this answer and this photo, and let you world judge if this Israeli project fools you or not?!

The second rule which is number three in the book is titled by “Clearly differentiate between the Palestinian people and Hamas.”

Divide and rule is the goal of the Israeli project in this global dictionary. Israel wants to show the world and the Palestinian themselves that Hamas is a terrorist group like ISIS.

First, this Israeli global dictionary fools the world and especially the American people by mentioned that “Right now, many Americans sympathize with the plight of the Palestinians, and that sympathy will increase if you fail to differentiate the people from their leaders.” So it’s clearly called for publishing the propaganda about Palestine and Palestinian leaders, and if those who defend Israeli in the media war failed in differentiating the people from their leaders in front of the International community and the world, so they will lose the public support.

Second Hamas is a resistance movement which is founded in 1984 by the disabled Shiek Ahmad Yassen, to defend the Palestinian rights and to resist the Israeli occupation and its crimes against the Palestinian residents in Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

So Hamas was never a terrorist organization. Hamas is contained from Palestinians who are fighting for defending their homeland and their people.

Along the history, Hamas proves to the world that they are just a resistance movement. To prove that I made a search for some statistics of killing women and children on both sides, the Israeli occupation and the Hamas resistance movement which shows that Israel kills thousands of Palestinian unarmed women and children, but I found no information about if Hamas killed any Israeli women or children, so which of them is the terrorist organization?!
Third that my final proof that Israel fools the world is this picture which shows how the Palestinian people, especially children love Hamas.

So Israel seeks to publish its propaganda in the world, to show that they are the victims and the Palestinian people are the aggressors. But all the world knows that Israel occupied Palestine 70 years ago. So I ask the world to investigate anything before believing it, especially if it was from Israel.

Please, don’t be foolish and believe Israeli propaganda.