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Friday, November 20, 2009 I spent a few hours learning, listening and trying to understand why so many Palestinians are being killed. I did not get a final, good answer; only another piece for the puzzle to our human condition.I was glad to see Mariah and Jack, they are two of the front line people who, worry and fight for justice. They know and understand so much more than I do on this issue. I wondered during the presentation why Israel would take on such a cruel and devastating position, alienating itself from the rest of the world. There must be a better way to resolve the problems in the Middle East than what we and other countries are doing; which is not much.
We torture our prisoners--they torture their prisoners. We now kill our enemies and anyone who gets in the way from a remote place in Nevada. Israel has threatened Iran with war if they continue on the path to nuclear weapons. We are killing people in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
Are all of these things connected somehow, for some reason that makes some sense? I don't mean that war ever makes sense, but there must be a connection.
During the presentation by people who faced Israeli's justice, I cringed at the description of what is called "Administrative Detentions." This is a concept right out of Gitmo, arrest for any reason and hold for undetermined amount of time, no lawyers allowed, no notice to family where or why the person was taken. This system is very dependent on the good will of the Israeli commanders; and there is a great lack of good will in the occupied lands. Children are taken; women are taken in the middle of the night. This operation is separate from the arrest of people who are suspected of fighting against the Israeli army. This has America's stamp all over it. I was not surprised by the revelation, just saddened.
I was glad I went, this is not my major political cause but I do believe it is all connected in many ways. My hope is that we will all stop when we speak with violence against another and think that what we are saying can cause people to be physically hurt and even killed. There is just too much violence, and for me, it has to stop.
When I say stop, I mean in my life also, sometimes it is easy to lash out and scream at someone who says something so off the wall that a reaction is called for, but it does not have to come with such intensity that I become as violent as the person I am reacting to on any particular event.
This has always been my dilemma, how far to go when confronting a jerk? There are times during our demonstrations outside of the 9th Circuit where someone will stop and say something like, "The only mistake we made was not killing all the prisoners." I would like to be gentler with my response, but so far not so good---I just scream, "Are you a lunatic or just stupid?"
Again, thanks to Mariah and Jack for inviting me and I will try to pay more attention to this terrible situation and bring whatever pressure I can to stop this hideous treatment of Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Gaza under occupation
We will not be at the 9th Circuit this coming Thursday because of the Holiday. Enjoy time with your family and friends and hope that next year we all see some light at the end to this terrible tunnel we all find ourselves trapped. I want to stand on one of the bridges with a sign that asks,
PEACE ON EARTH
GOOD WILL TOWARDS ALL
What does that mean?
