From Gaza, with Love

Saturday, March 08, 2008

Women International Day -Gaza style

With all my love and respect to all the women of the world , i send my special messege from Gaza ,
In few hours at 11am local time , many palestinian women and children of Gaza will gather at the annomynous soldier square (Jundi Majhoul), to commemerate this special day ,
and to ask the international community and specialy the women of the world on this special day , not to be silent while real crimes are daily committed towards the children and women of Palestine ,we want to tell the whole world : ,it is not the seige or the wall , it is not the continous military brutalities against us , that will bring security to Israel , what will bring security to all is PEACE BASED ON JUSTICE ,and justice means palestinian people right to live in degnity and eqaulity , based on acheiving our national analeinable goals .
from Gaza , i call upon you all to show your soliderity and support for us . call upon your goverments to stop the seige against Gaza NOW ,
in Gaza we have so beatifull flowers to send you ,but the borders are closed so we cannot export our flowers to you !!!!!!!!!!!!in the meantime people have become so sad and frustrated and most important very impoverished , to think of roumantic flowers
but candles are so popular in Gaza , because we donot have power supply and our children lack clean drinking water ,as well as many food important items to grow up healthier and stronger .

with all my love and happy women day

posted by Mona_Elfarra at 9:14 AM

24 Comments:

  • A good morning to you and to every woman in Gaza. Stand up and fight for justice, peace, your children and your lifes. Love from Thessaloniki, Greece.

    By Blogger sombraluz, at 3/08/2008 12:24 PM  

  • this post is translated in hindi... this is an indian language... http://mohalla.blogspot.com/2008/03/blog-post_5360.html

    By Blogger Avinash Das, at 3/08/2008 4:22 PM  

  • Dear Mona,
    I know posting commments can't save the life of innocent gazans, but at least
    shows that you are not alone.
    Your Brother Mohamad, From Iran.
    Palestinian women are so strong that they have beared death of their
    beloved children.
    For non-muslims:A part of Quran saying:
    ""Success is from god & victory is just close.""
    ""نصر من الله و فتح قریب""

    By Blogger مهرداد, at 3/08/2008 9:48 PM  

  • It's very funny that whole world and media are deeply silent about Gaza.
    It's the reality of so called western democracy, when they intendedly ignore the ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

    That's funny. Today i said to an american that 123 Gazans were killed till now. He says he is not sure about the authenticity of your source, bcs it has never mentioned in American media.

    I didnt know to laugh or cry. Even if i don't blame him for his ignorance. It's what media of his country feeds him.

    But God is well aware. He knows hears and deads. Nobody can escape from Him..

    From Iran with LoVe..

    By Blogger Shahrazad, at 3/09/2008 12:06 AM  

  • Peace through justice? Amen. 8 innocent teenagers were murdered in a yeshiva in Jerusalem the other day by an East Jerusalem Arab. Their only crime was that they were Jews. In reaction to this barbaric crime, Arabs in Gaza danced and sang, and gave out treats in the mosques. Those who celebrate the slaughter of boys are evil, barbaric animals who deserve the same fate as the terrorist. Evil cannot be negotiated with or tolerated. It can only be destroyed. True justice will be when those who rejoice at our death are brought to trial and any enemy opposing us is expelled from our land. May that happen speedily in our days. May the day come when the Jewish nation will walk proudly in the entire Land of Israel in peace, security and sovereingty.

    By Blogger Avi, at 3/09/2008 6:13 AM  

  • Hi Mona Jan,

    My friends sent me your blog and I was very happy to read your comments. I was in Gaza City and Khan Younis last year in August and have kept myself in contact with the many friends I made during my time there.

    Just a little about me: I was born in Iran, raised in Sweden and currently live in Canada with my family. We all try to be active in raising awareness about the injustices in Gaza, the West Bank and indeed in Israel too against the Palestinian-Arab population. But of course, we can do more.

    Please keep up your comments.

    Thank you,

    Shourideh Molavi

    By Blogger Unknown, at 3/09/2008 6:19 AM  

  • I hope your Women's Day commemoration was an inspirational event for the women and children of Gaza who attended the gathering. I very much respect your words: justice, dignity, and equality. These should be the rights of all men and women in every part of the world. I hope these words will have real meaning some day for the people of Gaza.

    I would like to share the following article that summarizes a study (linked to in the article) of the conditions that people in Gaza currently face. I was astonished by the facts presented in the study! Here is the article:

    UK aid agencies say Gaza humanitarian situation dire

    By Blogger David, at 3/09/2008 9:11 AM  

  • Dear Dr. Mona,

    I am writing to ask your help to bring medicines from Egypt to the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme. I met you (and also your daughter) when you visited California last summer. I am the director of the Rebuilding Alliance, an American nonprofit working to rebuild communities in conflict zones and make them safe. We're the ones who helped rebuild a home for the Gaza family whom Rachel Corrie sought to protect.

    When the border btw. Rafah and Egypt fell in January, we raised funds to purchase psychotropic drugs requested by our partner, Gaza Community Health Programme -- but the shipment was stopped when the border closed. Now the Egyptian Red Crescent is approving some medical aid for shipment.

    Can you connect with the Gaza Red Crescent on our behalf to move these packages of medicines on to their priority list? If we can get this shipment through, I think many Americans and Egyptians will help send more.

    Sincerely,
    Donna Baranski-Walker
    Executive Director of the Rebuilding Alliance
    contact @ RebuildingAlliance . org

    By Blogger DBaranskiW, at 3/09/2008 6:38 PM  

  • please know that palestinian women in the US stand with you: you are in our hearts and minds. we will continue to work for justice not just in gaza but in all of palestine. you truly are an example for women everywhere.

    By Blogger الفلسطينية, at 3/09/2008 7:05 PM  

  • Dearest Mona,

    I admire your graciousness and integrity when it comes to posting comments such as that left by bar kochba. I'm not sure I wouldn't have just simply deleted it after having checked out the writer's profile and such. You are indeed a woman of high class and I'm proud to be of the same gender as the likes of you.

    By Blogger fjb, at 3/09/2008 8:16 PM  

  • i hope next year the celebrations can take place in a happier context.. wishing us all peace..

    By Blogger Lirun, at 3/10/2008 11:02 PM  

  • "Bar Kochba" is the only one on your blog who raised the question of the 8 students who were murdered in Jerusalem, altbough I see that others have implied the obvious, that Israel would not be attacking Gaza absent the rocket attacks and vows by Hamas to destroy Israel.

    That you disregard the obvious arises, I suspect, because your premise is that while the Palastinian people deserve a state, the Jewish people do not, and that while it is fair and right to murder Yehsiva students at school, any defense by Israel to rocket fire is wrong.

    I'd like to see a two state solution where people lead decent lives in peace and prosperity, but I'm left wondering who is laughing at that idea more, you or "Bar Kochba".

    By Blogger Unknown, at 3/12/2008 2:27 AM  

  • hi mona

    is it possible to send you some questions on what you are experiencing in gaza. this is for an article in our newspapers regarding your experiences

    By Blogger Il-Folja, at 3/12/2008 1:35 PM  

  • Dear Mona,
    I am a Spanish journalist (www.adn.es). I visit every day your blog to try to know better the real life of the Gaza's people. I would like to encourage you to keep writing and to keep showing to the world your suffering. All the best for you and for you people

    By Blogger @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@, at 3/14/2008 9:55 PM  

  • keep up the good work mona.

    we in israel support your affort after all.

    By Blogger alon 101, at 3/14/2008 10:45 PM  

  • Anyone who supports the "two state" (Final) solution essentially supports the destruction of Israel. Israel could not survive such a severe amputation and the installation of an Arab terror state at its heart. This state would bring rockets within the rocket range of PA kassams and katyushas.Every plane that takes off or lands could be targeted. If just one plane carrying residents and tourists were to explode, it would be the end of tourism and air travel for Israelis. Import and export business could come to an end, contracts canceled, when products ordered do not arrive in Europe, or when Israelis could not get insurance to cover their products because of the terror threat. Economically Israel could fall, not to mention the human life lost that could go into the mega-count. Israel would be unable to defend itself, its new tiny borders and it's population.

    Israel is but 1% of the land of the Middle-East. The Arabs have 22 states while the Jews only one. End the Arab occupation of Jewish land!

    By Blogger Avi, at 3/17/2008 2:00 AM  

  • Dear Mona,

    The women of Gaza are so brave and strong and you keep hope and love alive and I admire you for who you are and what you represent and for standing up for freedom and justice for the future of your children. I especially admire acts of nonviolent resistance, which have a strength and power all of their own. You are in my prayers and I take all opportunities I find to share with others here the injustices you live under and the substantial responsibility the US has in present events there, such as the siege, which is itself a war crime. My husband was born in Iran and was raised as a Muslim. I am an American and am a Christian.

    In 2006, when I started closely following the war in Lebanon and the Israeli Palestinian conflict, I started writing songs, which are really prayers with melodies, gifts from God, prayers rising like incense up to God which come back to me as songs. I want to share with you my prayer and my song for all of you in Gaza and others in the world suffering under injustice and wars.

    It's all about you, God
    You take me places, all over this world
    Where people are hurting
    Suffering from injustice and wars
    You look down on them, Christ
    And your heart is breaking
    And I share in your sorrow
    And I feel your love and compassion for them
    And there's no place in this world
    That I'd rather be, than right there where you are, Christ
    Sharing in your pain and feeling
    Your endless, limitless, incredible love
    For those who are hurting Suffering from injustice and so many horrible wars
    So many people, struggling just to keep hope alive
    So many people, struggling just to live day to day
    And I get down on my knees and I cry out to God
    God give them justice, if that be your will
    God, lead them to choose peace and not war
    God, protect all of the children, show everyone your love
    May they seek your face, Christ, and turn to you
    May they be your people and you be their God
    In Jesus name, I pray,
    It's all about you, God
    It's all about you

    In the palm of God's hands
    That's where I want to be
    Following wherever Christ leads me
    There will be sunshine and there will be rain
    Wherever I am in my life, I turn to Christ
    He's always there, beside me and inside my heart
    His presence fills me with joy and love and faith and hope
    He is the light of my life
    What makes life worth living
    And I know , he will see me through
    Any journey he takes me on
    Until, one day, he delivers me
    Into his arms, where I will
    For eternity, rest in the palm of God's hands
    It's all about you, God
    It's all about you

    My prayers are with you always,

    With love,

    Sherri Munnerlyn

    By Blogger sherri, at 3/18/2008 7:21 AM  

  • Hello Dr. Mona,
    I'm good reader for your blog! It's really fabuolas one. I hope you report more on Gaza's Siege.

    I know with an Int Ngo in Gaza "Relif sector" and i'm in charge of Popular Committee Against Siege "PCAS"

    Plz, fell free to use the news i make always on:

    www.freegaza.ps


    yours,
    Sameh Habeeb
    PCAS' Manager

    By Blogger Popular Committee Against Siege, at 3/18/2008 11:26 PM  

  • Mona, where are you? Are you ok?
    Please post soon! I'm worried about you.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 3/20/2008 2:33 PM  

  • people from all over world are with you.
    Vandana from India
    vandana.raviwar@gmail.com
    www.raviwar.com

    By Blogger raviwar, at 3/21/2008 8:46 AM  

  • Salaams Dr Mona,

    I hope you are ok, and get the opportunity to give us an update on the situations from there in Gaza. We are pledging all we can for food and medicines to Human Appeal international to help the plight in Gaza. Please be strong, and inshallah you will pull through!

    Our thoughts and prayers are always with everyone in the conflict region.

    Tauqeer

    By Blogger Tauqeer Jamadar, at 3/22/2008 10:56 PM  

  • "Bar Kochba" fears are not to be dismissed since they are at the heart of his claim of Israeli sovreignty over Gaza and the West Bank. He has the Jewish people either confidently asserting the maximalist authority or being destroyed in puny, malformed state with indefensible borders and impossible insurance rates. These deepest fears and maximalist goals are two sides of the emotional same coin.

    I wish "Bar Kochba" would take the historical long view. Israel survived with its 1948-1967 borders. The borders required vigilence, but few thought at the time that Israel was doomed to a final solution because of those borders. If "Bar Kochba" looked at historical maps from 1200 BCE to 150 CE, he would note that the borders were constantly shifting throughout the centuries. Whether Moab, Edom or Philistia were or were not part of the Jewish state, or whether there were, in fact, zero, one or two Jewish states, depended upon what decade of what century you looked at.

    "Bar Kochba" should bear in mind that theories and realities of what land you need for defense and how you conduct defense change over time. Imperial Germany thought seizing Alsac-Lorainne imperative for defending Germany against some new Napoleonic France, but the vaunted milatary theories of the 1870's were meaningless by 1914. That annexation made Germany less, not more, secure. The tigers of France returned the compliment in 1918 by detaching the Saar, demilatarizing the Rhineland and limiting the German army to 100,000 soldiers, and these measures were equally ineffective in declawing Germany. Of course resorts to arms and controlling territory make a difference, but only in the short run because for better (and often for worse), things change.

    Hamas spreads terror with its rockets today, but tomorrow Operation Iron Dome may render its rockets meaningless, and its fanatical extremists will have to find some other way of glorying in death and misery rather than getting real jobs. I'm sure they'll come up with something. Whatever it is they come up with, Israelis will respond. In northern Israel, start up high tech companies managed to get their products out uninterrupted while the rockets were raining down during the 2006 Lebanon war. You'll also note that despite terrorist attacks on tourists in Egypt, tourists still go and insurance is not unobtainable.

    I wish "Bar Kochba" could take a serious look at what works in the long run, and that is political and ecomonic structures that allow people able to lead decent and secure lives with real expectations of creating things they're justly proud of. The Europeon Union is the best example of that over the last 50 years, and what a success it has been. Just compare that to the handiwork of the German "realists" of 1871 or the French "realists" of 1918, and just look at the intense hatreds and rivalries of the 19th and early 20th century that it supplanted.

    Shimon Peres had a vision of a common market including Israel, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza. We can dismiss that as fanciful and far fetched under current realities, but we shouldn't ignore the fact that the "realists" have a lousy track record.

    I think we need to understand at the depths of our being that through an accident of historical geography, Palastinians and Jews have been joined at the hip. We are their brothers and sisters, and they are ours, and that is true whether anyone likes it or not. We hold their fates in our hands as they hold ours. We can recognize the historical narrative of the Palastinian people is as important to them as our historical narrative is to us. As peoples, we can treat each other with generosity and compassion, or we can hold each other in a death grip.

    Jews need to be as generous in spirit to Palastinians whose lives we have impacted so severely, whether intentionally or not, as they should be to us in respect for our urgent need for a Jewish state. We need to fight for a Palastinian homeland of decent people trying to make something out of their lives as they should be fighting for a Jewish homeland where decent people are trying to do the same. If Palastinians need to really understand that there are posters all over the third largest city in Russia right now that accuse Jews of using Christian blood to make passover matzos, Jews need to understand that there are Palastinians in Lebanon who are caught in noncitizen, nonincome earning limbo, and they have now been there for several generations. It won't do for Jews to say, "Not my problem" any more than it will do for Palastinians to say of Jewish history, "Not my problem."

    Palastinians need to ask themselves how fair it was to cause the British to issue the White Paper of 1939 that barred Jewish immigration into mandatory Palastine and condemned so many Europeon Jews to death. Jews need to ask themselves why getting a better deal for Palastinians in Lebanon wasn't even considered as a condition for Barak's withdrawl from the area south of the Litani River in Lebanon.

    People are great time travelers. They live out their lives in real time, but to a greater or lesser degree, they dwell in their minds in the world as it was years ago and as it may be years from now. In real time, Jews know threat and anxiety, and Palastinains know loss and rage. Our web host's lack of electrical power, material goods, security, and palatable options is real. It engenders bitterness that will take generations to overcome. We need to respond to that in real time, and human beings being what they are, we cannot expect either thanks or good wishes. What we should be doing, as good time travelers, is saying what kind of world must exist in our minds now in order for that world to be a reality in 2050.

    "Bar Kochba" extrapolates to that world of 2050 from a fevered extreme which limits that world to either Jewish sovreignty over additional real estate or utter destruction. The fanatics of Hamas extrapolate to 2050 from even more fevered extremes to an Islamic state over mandatory Palastine in which the remaining Jews that they haven't killed or expelled subsist as dhimmis. Amazing how these "realists" overlook the obvious: there are lots of Jews and lots of Palastinains inside and outside of mandatory Palastine, and the attempt to eliminate either would be shameful, and its chance of success would be small.

    The world of 2050 will have lots of Jews and Palastinains in mandatory Palastine no matter how much they demonize the "Other". A recent poll by a reputable Palastinain pollster, 2/3 of Palastinains would support a two state solution. When Barak was elected, 57% of Israelis said the same thing by electing him. There is a two state solution to be had.

    There is a world of 2050 in war in the Middle East is as unthinkable as it is in Western Europe, in which people grouse about the ordinary details of their lives, not extraordinary pain they endure or wish to inflict on others, and in which those who want to be heros channel their energies into businesses or into scientific, artistic or spiritual discovery because if they try to become heros by using guns and inflicting pain, they will be put in jail.

    This is the world we should live in in our minds now, not the emotional worlds where unachievable and shameful triumph lies on one side of the coin and unwarranted despair lies on the other. I think if we do, then getting there by 2050 is more than doable.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 3/23/2008 11:19 PM  

  • Hi - I'm an assistant editor on the Guardian Weekly, a weekly digest of news from the Guardian newspaper. We'd love to feature you on our website, guardianweekly.co.uk but the email address I have is not working - could you get in touch? I'm on charlotte.baxter@guardian.co.uk. I'd love to hear from you.
    Yours
    Charlotte Baxter

    By Blogger Charlotte, at 3/26/2008 7:41 PM  

  • Thank you Charles for your comment.

    By Blogger Jessica Ponders, at 8/03/2008 9:25 PM  

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