by Samia Khoury

We publish with permission Samia Khoury’s message to Western friends under the title of Gaza Surprise

It has been a long time since I last shared one of my reflections with you.  After all the tragic events of the last week, my daughter asked me if I had written anything.   Actually, I had not.  And despite the many thoughts that crossed my mind,   it seemed futile to make a difference to people who are still not aware of the reality of our situation. But I thought I might as well remind you all of some facts that will help you share with those who are still wondering “why?”

Neither  Israel nor the International community should have been surprised at the recent events that hurt not only the Israelis but also the Palestinians who are under Israeli siege in the Gaza Strip.   It has been  75 years of dispossession for the Palestinians, and 56 years of military occupation, 16 of them in an open-air prison for the people of Gaza,  and two Palestinian uprisings.  Over and above a failed peace process, called the Oslo Accords which Israel not only flouted but abused,  to create more realities on the ground and more settlements  causing further dispossession of  the Palestinians in whatever land was left for them on what is known as “the Palestinian Territories.”  

The daily incursions by the settlers to the Mosque in Jerusalem under Israeli protection, as well as the continuous killings of young Palestinians in different parts of the West Bank, and the ongoing deprivation of the Palestinians of their farms,  and their olive groves further exasperated the situation. Huwara and  Jenin were only recent events not forgotten by the Palestinians. Furthermore, the number of Palestinian prisoners is continuously on the rise and some of them are without charge or trial.  Even a number of them who were supposed to be released with the signing of the Oslo Accords are still languishing in Israeli jails.  

Those 2.2 million oppressed people under siege are not “human animals” as they were called by Israel.   They are actually humans who have  been dehumanized,  as if they were  children of a ‘lesser God’   They have reached a tipping point and cannot take the oppression  and the deprivation of freedom

anymore.  

We just heard that Israel bombed Gaza’s Ahli hospital, run by the Anglican church.  We know many of you have been praying, but we need action.  According to St. James, prayer without action is futile

Had the USA, and the European countries implemented the United Nations Resolutions and stood up against all the violations of  Israel ever since its creation in 1948,  things would not have deteriorated to that extent. They watched them kill Palestinian children, raid homes in the middle of the night,  demolish homes, and evacuate complete Palestinian areas for the establishment of Israeli settlements, with the maximum comment that those actions were not conducive to peace.  But nobody had the guts to take action, not even when Israel demolished a school funded by the European Union.  When the Israeli  Prime Minister showed a map recently at the United Nations that had no Palestine in it, nobody even protested.  

But now when the surprise news hit the world that Israelis were attacked and hurt, the US and the European countries who have been at the root cause of the Palestinian dispossession in the first place, came rushing to the region in support of Israel, an occupying force in the region.   Ironically, they are the same countries who rushed to salvage Ukraine from the Russian occupation.  Is one occupation permissible, while another is not?  Enough is enough of double standards.  And please do salvage the trapped Palestinians of Gaza who have been ordered by Israel to move out.  Out to where?  When all the borders are closed.  The hospitals are not even safe.  We just heard that Israel bombed the Ahli hospital, run by the Anglican church.  We know many of you have been praying, but we need action.  According to St. James, prayer without action is futile.