I’ve had awful toothache. Phoned the dentist and now I’m on the road to recovery. Out on Tuesday! But it made me think, what If I lived in Gaza? If my family, who are working, playing, going to concerts or meeting friends in the pub, depended on having the tea on the table and their clothes washed and suddenly all that disappeared – quite literally. A frightening thought.
The Palestine Israeli war is something we hear about every day, now Lebanon is included in the news bulletins before the news reader pauses for a split second and goes on to ‘other news’. Have we any idea what it is really like, do you remember in detail what happened on October 7th morning 12 months ago? That anniversary was last Monday and look what has happened since, the thousands killed, the millions displaced and a future of fear. The report on that day states: The Islamic Palestinian militant group Hamas initiated a sudden attack on Isreal from the Gaza Strip. As part of the attack 364 individuals mostly civilians were killed and many more wounded at the Supernova Sukkot Gathering an open air music festival during the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret near kibbutz Re’im. Hamas also took 40 hostages.
I don’t pretend to understand the intricacies of history behind this ever widening war but surely some solution must be found and quickly because men, women and children are suffering unimaginable trauma and torment. In Gaza there is no help for someone with toothache, a woman going into labour, an old man with a crumbling hip joint. Put yourself in that position, the cancer patient with no treatment, those with gun shot wounds but no doctors.
And we complain about the waiting lists for NHS treatment.
A Time Of Fear
And what of the families here in Northern Ireland, they too are suffering,
I talked to people from both sides of the conflict. A member of the Jewish community told me how helpless they find themselves. “My niece is close to the Lebanese border, she was evacuated but went back to tend the crops. Now she’s training to use a gun in self defence, she spends time in the bomb shelter and we can only contact her on the mobile phone on the few occasions there’s a connection. The reservists are being called up and the situation is getting worse all the time however, way from the border, at the moment life goes on. There are innocent people on both sides. Even here with fewer than 60 in our community we are nervous for our own security because of anti-seitism and yes, we demand a ceasefire but that’s only pushing it down the road for a few weeks.”
There are a few hundred Gazans living in Northern Ireland. Again they have little communication with their relatives. Phones can only be charged to use WhatsApp if there is a solar power facility. One man I talked to has 60 family in Gaza and the West Bank except he doesn’t know how many are still alive. “Their property is completely destroyed, they have lost everything and they are living in tents with nothing, in the morning they wake up and say ‘Oh we are still alive’. They have lost weight, have have no medical care, no tablets, no dignity. A voucher every week for flour if they are lucky. Sometimes the Israeli army allows a very small number of ill people to cross to Egypt or Jordan for medical treatment but very few. I would like to say the people in Northern Ireland have been very supportive although some have not.”
What Is The Truth?
“We hold vigils, we try to be active to make our voice heard telling the true story not what the media is telling us.” Another said his family is living in hell. “There are no words to describe what they are going through and one year on no one is able to stop the genocide. We have no communication most of the time, every time there’s a bomb we fear our family will have disappeared, vanished. What can we do? Look at the powers we have, our government should tell the truth, be brave and do what’s right and say enough is enough, please make an action plan to protect our people. My family are trapped in a slaughter house just waiting their turn”.
Some here have shut down their feelings and don’t talk about it, others arrange events to keep together, they fundraise incase they can get money to relatives to buy their way into Egypt but is there hope?
“I will never give up hope,” said my friend from Gaza, “all we want is a peaceful state, next time you see that trail of people walking along dusty roads trying to find safety, remember we are not numbers, we are people with dreams and jobs.”
And it’s getting worse; when I asked what I can do. Both sides of the divide answered, “Pray for us.”
THIS is a great month for sky watching. I spent a lot of time last night dashing in and out to the back garden looking for Tsuchinshan-ATLAS a comet ‘shooting up from the horizon like a search beam’. No joy. Then I read later in the evening that this miracle will be on show until 30th October. Surely some of the nights between will be clear and allow me to witness this comet which will not be on show again for 80,000 years!
October is a great month for the sky at night, apart from this Comet of the Century there is a Super moon, a couple of shooting star events and the end of British Summer Time on 27th just in time for the dark nights of spooky Halloween.
What’s With Strictly
No matter where you look these days there’s something about Strictly Come Dancing. They really do have their eye on publicity of the good kind following all the negative stories. It’s sickening in my opinion, over kill, judges acting like divas, professionals yelling and screaming, celebrities a bit out of their depth. Just get on with the dancing competition and please keep Chris McCausland in the mix, not the best dancer in the world however extraordinary because he can’t see yet manages to train and learn all the moves and best of all, has a superb sense of humour and a gift of the gab!
Thanks. Hendi for sending this gem. Many a true work spoken in jest!
